Working for the Mouse: A Survey of Disneyland Resort Employees

‘He is the customer, I will say yes’: Notions of power, precarity and consent to sexual harassment by customers in the gay tourism industry

“…Indeed, as evident in our findings, customers, as the powerful actor, sexually harass workers, the vulnerable actor, who are then expected by both customers and management to accept and coercively consent to it due to the imbalance of power within the institutional dynamics and the triadic service relationship. Moreover, mirroring Burawoy's (1979) idea of employees consenting to organizational norms, even when they may have a deleterious outcome for them, the consent of employees in our research was driven by the precarious nature of hospitality work (Dreier and Flaming, 2018; Knox, 2016), leaving them vulnerable to both the exercise of managerial prerogative and to customer assaults. Reflecting Afloarei and Martínez (2019) point about the context within which sexual harassment may occur, the coming together of the structural features of the hospitality industry, including precarity and the nature of service delivery create the conditions in which employees may, to a large extent, coercively consent (Panichas, 2001) to their harassment.…”

“…In seeking to understand the endemic nature of sexual harassment in hospitality work, Dawson et al (2021), Minnotte and Legerski's (2019), Poulston (2008) and Yagil et al (2008) highlight the structural features of the industry which serve to create an environment which encourages and tolerates sexual harassment and, arguably, makes such behavior inevitable. Furthermore, hospitality work is widely recognised to be precarious and is challenging in both workplace and wider lifestyle terms (Dreier et al, 2018;Knox, 2016). It is generally low paid (Lacher & Oh, 2012) and low skilled (Riley et al, 2002).…”

Socioeconomic diversity in the hospitality industry: the relationship between social class background, family expectations and career outcomes

“…Additionally, occupational prestige is a measure of social power, which refers to the amount of social and financial resources a job can access and control (Ibarra and Andrews, 1993). Hospitality jobs are perceived as low in social impact, wages and salaries and job security and career prospects (Dreier et al , 2018), which results in low social power and occupational prestige.…”

Does the hospitality industry need or deserve talent?

“…Precariousness can also be seen in the intersection of gender, ethnicity, disability and age in the labour market, particularly in hospitality (Alberti, 2016; Lewis et al , 2015; McDowell, 2018) where women, minorities, those with disability and young people are disproportionately likely to be employed in short-term, insecure positions than other workers, primarily men. Specifically, hospitality can be exploitative of its frontline employees (McDowell et al , 2007; Berg and Farbenblum, 2017); poorly paid and lacking in social respect and value (De Beer et al , 2014; Dreier and Fleming, 2018); hostile to workplace organisation (Bergene et al , 2015); exploitative of youth (Dagsland et al , 2015; Mooney, 2016); frequently condoning of employer practice that represents questionable legal and ethical standards and expectations (Poulston, 2008); and tolerating of unacceptable customer behaviour that undermines self-worth and self-respect among employees (Gaucher and Chebat, 2019). Recently, Winchenbach et al (2019) have added issues of dignity with respect to employment in this sector to the discussion, linking dignity to ILO and UN sustainability indicators.…”