Human Resources practices and inclusion of people with disabilities in the hotel industry of Belém, Brazil: a multiple case study

Abstract

The hospitality market has as a main goal to show a place that is perfect and beautiful. In order to serve the needs of guests, hotels depend on professionals that have much, few, or almost no contact with the guests. For these professionals, things such as good appearance, good diction, perfect hair and nails are required in order to meet the hotel market standards. Based on this, this work sought to figure out how these organizations react to the insertion of disabled professional in the working place, through the analysis of the Human Resource practices of three hotels Belém, Pará, northern Brazil. This research follows a qualitative approach. Data collection was made through interviews and non-participant observations. Data analysis was made through Content Analysis. The results identified the Human Resource practices set on the insertion of people with disabilities, compared them, and found that only one hotel works with all HR practices studied. In all studied hotels, it was noticed that during the selection the main focus was on the type and severity of the disability, excluding the most severe ones. The absolute criteria is the search for a lighter disability and not the search for the specific skills needed to fulfill a position. This led to the belief that the mere insertion of people living with disabilities in a company does not necessarily means that they are really being included, this information should serve as a reflection for companies and future studies on the topic.