The big bang: the birth of human resource management in New Zealand hotel sector David Dunlop Williamson School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand, and Erling Rasmussen Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a narrative history of the birth of human resource management in the New Zealand hotel sector. This historical development is analysed through the influence of changes in the national economic and employment relations context, the demise of national corporatist structures and individual and enterprise level agency. Thereby, the paper provides a new explanatory framework for the origins of human resource management in hotels and also presents this unique birth of human resource management as a microcosm of the wider social, political and economic “big bang” that fundamentally changed the course of employment relations in New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s. Design/methodology/approach – The data for this paper were gathered as part of a larger historical study of employment relations in the New Zealand hotel sector from 1955 to 2000. The sources for the study included semi-structured interviews and archival research, which were interpreted using manual thematic analysis. Findings – The paper presents an original explanation of the birth of human resource management in New Zealand hotels by drawing on historical changes in national frameworks, corporatist approaches and individual agency, and thereby, it illustrates the uniqueness and intensity associated with the implementation of human resource management in New Zealand hotels. Originality/value – This paper makes a significant contribution to the scant literature on the historical origins of human resource management. It also explains the historical and contextual embeddedness of various employment relations approaches in New Zealand hotels. Keywords New Zealand, Employment relations, History, Human resource management, Corporatism, Hotels Paper type Research paper Introduction The New Zealand hotel and tourism sector is currently booming, having become the largest export revenue earning industry in the country (McCrone, 2016). It is well placed to exceed the Tourism Industry Association’s goal of $41bn in revenue by 2025 (Tourism Industry Association New Zealand, 2015, 2014). The hotel sector has always been, and remains, a crucial part of the New Zealand tourism industry. Yet, despite its importance to the economy, the New Zealand hotel sector demonstrates many of the poor employment conditions also seen in the international hospitality sector: low pay, low productivity, low yields, high labour turnover and poor career pathways (Lincoln University, 2007; New Zealand hotel sector Received 14 April 2019 Revised 9 June 2019 Accepted 9 June 2019 Journal of Management History © Emerald Publishing Limited 1751-1348 DOI 10.1108/JMH-04-2019-0028 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1751-1348.htm