Deviant behaviour in the hospitality industry: A problem of space and time

Abstract

The high levels of deviant behaviour within the hospitality sector have been an ongoing concern for many mangers and academics, with a clear recognition of the reputational, human and organizational costs of such behaviour. The traditional approach adopted by organizations and Human Resource Managers to counter deviant behaviour in the hospitality industry has focused around unsuccessful education programmes, while other authors offer alternate assessments of the industry's response to deviant behaviour. This conceptual article proposes that both the management and the study of deviant behaviour within the hospitality industry need to be contextualized within a temporal and spatial analysis of an employee's workaday lived experience. Through adopting Durkheim's discussions around time and space it is possible to identify four distinct temporal and spatial categories (the sacred, the mundane, the liminal and the profane); each of these categories can be seen to influence the behaviour of employees in different ways, even though they are part of the same time-space continuum. Thus, this article argues, from a theoretical framework, that to understand and manage deviant behaviour within the hospitality industry it is important to recognize that each category of time and space needs to be understood both in isolation and as part of a time-space continuum that surrounds the hospitality experience.

Deviance, deviant behaviour and hospitality management: Sources, forms and drivers

“…The temporal-spatial organisation of workplaces may also influence the likelihood and eventual manifestations of deviance (Tresidder & Martin, 2018). Hidden back-spaces, away from organisational surveillance enable staff to subvert or break organisational conventions, including theft, unhygienic behaviour, time wasting and property damage (cf.…”

“…Hospitality is often associated with the notion of deviance and deviants: venues and resorts are frequently seen as sites for hedonistic, transgressive and criminal behaviour (Andrews, 2009;Botterill & Jones, 2010;Botterill, Pointing, Hayes-Jonkers, Clough, Jones, & Rodriguez, 2013;Botterill, Seixas, & Hoeffel, 2014;Chapman & Light, 2016); employers and operators in the sector are regularly portrayed as engaging in unethical practices (Baum, 2015;Harris, 2012;Terry, 2009); hospitality organisations and occupations are characterised as spaces of violence, harassment and bullying (Ariza-Montes, Arjona-Fuentes, Law, & Han, 2017;Meloury & Signal, 2014;Ram, 2018); and the sector itself is often treated as a marginalised profession attracting deviants and misfits (Baum, Kralj, Robinson, & Solnet, 2016;Orwell, 1989;Robinson, 2008;Wood, 1997). The topic of deviance continues to emerge in research on hospitality management (Pizam, 2012(Pizam, , 2015(Pizam, , 2016aTorres, van Niekerk, & Orlowski, 2017;Tresidder, & Martin, 2018) and in cognate fields of tourism (Li, & Chen, 2017;Tham & Wang, 2017) and services management (Bedi & Schat, 2017;Boukis, 2016). However, existing work concerned with deviance and hospitality tends to be discrete empirical studies focusing on specific issues such as consequences and coping behaviours (cf.…”

Unraveling the complex nexus of punitive supervision and deviant work behaviors: findings and implications from hospitality employees in Pakistan

“…Research also relates hospitality to many "deviant concepts" (Botterill et al, 2014;Chapman and Light, 2017), such as reported employees' unethical practices (Baum, 2015). Deviance has also become a topic attracting increased research interest not only in hospitality (Torres et al, 2017;Tresidder and Martin, 2018) but also in the services management literature as Complex nexus of punitive supervision well (Bedi and Schat, 2017). However, research so far has mainly focused on studying the consequences of deviance (Kim et al, 2014) and paid less attention in examining (Lugosi, 2019): how deviant behaviors are embedded within employees' behaviors; and the factors causing and driving such employee deviant behaviors.…”

Mujeres migrantes traficadas a California para el comercio sexual

“…La globalización ha acarreado una contracción de la esfera productiva, que contrasta con un crecimiento de los servicios, en concreto del denominado sector del ocio y la hospitalidad. Una porción creciente de este sector es la industria del sexo (Wijesinghe, 2017;Tresidder y Martin, 2018). La expansión del sector del ocio y la hospitalidad ha sido asociada al declive del sector manufacturero y al surgimiento de una economía globalizada que explota tanto las desigualdades dentro de un mismo país, como las existentes entre naciones ricas y desfavorecidas (Brents et al, 2009: 22;Hubbard et al, 2008: 369;Agustín, 2007: 24).…”