Human Resource Management Practices and the Importance of Managers' Perceptions

We argue that managers likely differ in the degree to which they accurately perceive the business environment, and that these differences should ultimately be reflected in business outcomes. In 2002, we used industry experts to generate a consensus view concerning the likely impact of the Internet on the international tourism industry. Their perspective was then compared to that of chief executives of small and medium sized hotels. The magnitude of the difference between the consensus view and that of the chief executives was then examined for its association to the strategies used at the hotels, and to various measures of enterprise performance. Among other findings, top managers with the most accurate perceptions tended to adopt strategy that was most strongly related to firm performance. Copyright (C) 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.