Abstract
In an era of talent shortages in the hospitality and tourism sector, the increasing use of technology adoption, including the metaverse, is critical for providing organizations with a competitive advantage. While metaverse adoption is becoming increasingly important for enabling customer experience in tourism, there is a surprising dearth of research on applications in the learning and development of the workforce engaged in this sector. The paper examines how hospitality and tourism HRM practices leveraging the metaverse can meaningfully increase learning engagement with the distributed workforce. Using a qualitative case study research design, we draw on practice theory and attempt to address the changing structures, practices, norms, and interpretive schemes while using the metaverse for learning and development within organizations. The study finds that the metaverse serves as augmenting technology or assistive technology, and its use with partial or wholly immersive environments enables asynchronous and synchronous learning. The implications of the study are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data supporting this study's findings are available from the corresponding author upon request.
References
Aitken-Fox E, Coffey J, Dayaram K, Fitzgerald S, McKenna S, Tian AW (2022) Making sense of a mess: “doing” resilience in the vortex of a crisis. Pers Rev. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-12-2021-0869
Bamber GJ, Bartram T, Stanton P (2017) HRM and workplace innovations: formulating research questions. Pers Rev 46(7):1216–1227
Benbasat I, Goldstein DK, Mead M (1987) The case research strategy in studies of information systems. MIS Quart 2:369–386
Budhwar P, Malik A, De Silva MT, Thevisuthan P (2022) Artificial intelligence-challenges and opportunities for international HRM: a review and research agenda. Int J Hum Resour Manag 33(6):1065–1097, https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2022.2035161.
Burke CM, Morley MJ (2022) Toward a non-organizational theory of human resource management? A complex adaptive systems perspective on the human resource management ecosystem in (con)temporary organization. Hum Resour Manag 2:1–23
Dittrich K, Seidl D (2018) Emerging intentionality in routine dynamics: a pragmatist view. Acad Manag J 61(1):111–138
Dwivedi YK, Hughes L, Baabdullah AM, Ribeiro-Navarrete S, Giannakis M, Al-Debei MM, Wamba SF (2022) Metaverse beyond the hype: Multi-disciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy. Int J Inf Manag 66:1–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102542
Emirbayer M, Mische A (1998) What is agency? Am J Sociol 103(4):962–1023
Flyvbjerg B (2006) Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qual Inq 12(2):219–245
Gërxhani K, Koster F (2015) Making the right move. Investigating employers’ recruitment strategies. Pers Rev 44(5):781–800
Ghaffari M, Hackley C, Lee Z (2019) Control, knowledge, and persuasive power in advertising creativity: an ethnographic practice theory approach. J Advert 48(2):242–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2019.1598310
Giddens A (1984) The constitution of society: outline of the theory of structuration. University of California Press, Berkeley
Gioia DA, Corley KG, Hamilton AL (2012) Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: notes on the gioia methodology. Organ Res Methods 16(1):15–31
Granqvist N, Gustafsson R (2016) Temporal institutional work. Acad Manag J 59(3):1009–1035
Gretzel U, Fuchs M, Baggio R, Hoepken W, Law R, Neidhardt J, Xiang Z (2020) e-Tourism beyond COVID-19: a call for transformative research. Inf Technol Tour 22:187–203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-020-00181-3
Hauff S (2019) Analytical strategies in HRM systems research: a comparative analysis and some recommendations. Int J Hum Resour Manag. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1547779
Hennig-Thurau T, Aliman DN, Hertig AM, Cziehso GP, Linder M, Kübler RV (2022) Social interactions in the metaverse: framework, initial evidence, and research roadmap. J Acad Market Sci 2:1–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-022-00908-0
Ivanov S (2020) The impact of automation on tourism and hospitality jobs. Inf Technol Tour 22:205–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-020-00175-1
Jarzabkowski P, Balogun J, Seidl D (2007) Strategizing: the challenges of a practice perspective. Hum Relat 60(1):5–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267070757030
Leung XY, Sun J, Zhang H, Ding Y (2021) How the hotel industry attracts generation Z employees: an application of social capital theory. J Hosp Tour Manag 49:262–269
Lo WH, Cheng KB (2020) Does virtual reality attract visitors? The mediating effect of presence of consumer response in virtual reality tourism advertising. Inf Technol Tour 22:537–562. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-020-00190-2
Lyons N (2022) Talent acquisition and management, immersive work environments, and machine vision algorithms in the virtual economy of the metaverse. Psychosociol Issues Hum Resour Manag 10(1):121–134
Malik A, Budhwar P, Patel C, Srikanth NR (2020) May the bots be with you! Delivering HR cost-effectiveness and individualised employee experiences in an MNE. Int J Hum Resour Manag. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2020.1859582
Malik A, Budhwar P, Mohan H, Srikanth NR (2023) Employee experience-the missing link for engaging employees: insights from an MNE’s AI-based HR ecosystem. Hum Resour Manag 62:97–115
Michalikova KF, Suler P, Robinson R (2022) Virtual hiring and training processes in the metaverse: remote work apps, sensory algorithmic devices, and decision intelligence and modeling. Psychosoiol Issues Hum Resour Manag 10(1):50–63
Mierlo JV, Bondarouk T, Sanders K (2018) The dynamic nature of HRM implementation: a structuration perspective. Int J Hum Resour Manag 29(22):3026–3045. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1443957
Mourtzis D, Panopoulos N, Angelopoulos J, Wang B (2022) Human centric platforms for personalized value creation in metaverse. J Manuf Syst 65:653–659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2022.11.004
Murray A, Rhymer J, Simon DG (2021) Humans and technology: forms of conjoined agency in organizations. Acad Manag Rev. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0186
Mystakidis S (2022) Metaverse. Encyclopedia 2:486–497
Orlikowski WJ (2000) Using technology and constitution structures: a practice lens for studying technology in organizations. Organ Sci 11(4):404–428. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.4.404.14600
Orlikowski WJ, Scott SV (2008) Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. Acad Manag Ann 2(1):433–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520802211644
Pratisto EH, Thompson N, Potdar V (2022) Immersive technologies for tourism: a systematic review. Inf Technol Tour 24:181–219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-022-00228-7
Raub SP (2018) Perceived insider status and job design predict job attitudes and work performance of restaurant employees. J Hosp Tour Res 42(6):880–903
Scott SV, Orlikowski WJ (2014) Entanglement in practice. MIS Q 38(3):873–894
Stumpf TS, Califf CB, Frye JJ (2020) Technological metaworlds in travel. Inf Technol Tour 22:273–296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-020-00166-2
Van Wijk J, Zietsma C, Dorado S, De Bakker FG, Martí I (2019) Social innovation: integrating micro, meso, and macro level insights from institutional theory. Bus Soc 58(5):887–918
Yalenios J, d’Armagnac S (2022) Work transformation and the HR ecosystem dynamics: a longitudinal case study of HRM disruption in the era of the 4th industrial revolution. Human Resour Manag 2:1–23
Yi S, Knudsen T, Becker MC (2016) Inertia in routines: a hidden source of organizational variation. Organ Sci 27(3):782–800
Yin RK (1994) The case study research: design and methods (Applied Social Research Series 5, 2nd Ef). Sage, Thousand Oaks
Yin JY, Ni Y (2022) The impact of COVID-19 on turnover intention among hotel employees: a moderated mediation model. J Hosp Tour Manag 51:539–549
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
No financial or non-financial interests are related to the work submitted for publication. The authors have obtained consent from the firm to cite its name and use the images and other data provided for academic purposes.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Dutta, D., Srivastava, Y. & Singh, E. Metaverse in the tourism sector for talent management: a technology in practice lens. Inf Technol Tourism 25, 331–365 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-023-00258-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-023-00258-9