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- Title
Working for the family.
- Authors
MacDonald, Sandy; Liff, Sonia
- Abstract
Recent writing about the ‘service encounter’ suggests that high-quality service requires employee commitment and this will involve a more developed and sophisticated approach to HRM than has traditionally characterised the sector. Through an in-depth study of a sample of high service level hotels in the US and UK this paper argues, in contrast, that commitment can be created through a workplace culture that draws on family discourses and practices. It explores the ways in which this culture is developed and endorsed by both management and employees. This approach to generating commitment has costs in terms of the time and priority employees can give to their ‘real’ friends and family. By drawing on the highly gendered and hierarchical organisation of the family, it is argued that culture also contributes to gender stereotyping and hierarchies within and outside the workplace in ways that limit women's career opportunities.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; UNITED States; SERVICE industries; HOSPITALITY industry research; HOTEL employees; GENDER stereotypes; OCCUPATIONAL segregation; HOTEL personnel management; WORK environment; CORPORATE culture
- Publication
Human Resource Management Journal, 2007, Vol 17, Issue 2, p118
- ISSN
0954-5395
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1748-8583.2007.00032.x