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1 – 10 of over 3000This paper introduces the concept of transracial aesthetic labour to understand why and how an international teaching assistant (ITA) vocally changes meanings of his racial…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces the concept of transracial aesthetic labour to understand why and how an international teaching assistant (ITA) vocally changes meanings of his racial identity.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a narrative analysis to detail instances of transracial aesthetic labour.
Findings
For the ITA, this labour involved orally distancing from or aligning with particular Indian stereotypes for specific contexts.
Research limitations/implications
Transracial aesthetic labour may occur in other industries that deem race an integral part of sounding right or looking good for the job.
Practical implications
The findings highlight the need for ITAs and universities to rethink the meaning of transracial to combat racist perceptions of ITAs' speech.
Originality/value
The paper advances the aesthetic labour literature by exploring how race is vocally performed for this labour and introducing ITAs as aesthetic labourers.
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Volkan Genc and Meryem Akoglan Kozak
The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance regarding the satisfaction of customer needs in the competitive restaurant industry. Restaurants have seen a transformation in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance regarding the satisfaction of customer needs in the competitive restaurant industry. Restaurants have seen a transformation in employees’ labor, changing from primarily physical and mental to emotional and aesthetic dimensions. In this study, the effect of managers’ emotional and social competence (ESC) on the aesthetic labor of service and kitchen employees has been investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data was collected from employees and managers of a restaurant chain. Structural equation modeling was the main analytical tool used to assess the results.
Findings
The findings indicated that managers’ ESC affected the aesthetic labor of their service (aesthetic traits (AT), aesthetic requirements and service encounters) and kitchen (AT, aesthetic creativity and aesthetic harmony ) employees. Achievement orientation and adaptability were among the dimensions of emotional competence that contributed the most to aesthetic labor. The most significant elements of social competence were inspiring leadership and conflict management.
Practical implications
The study suggests that managers can improve the aesthetic performance of their employees by using their ESC.
Originality/value
This is the first study of this kind to include kitchen employees while considering the effects of restaurant managers’ ESC on aesthetic labor. The findings indicate the importance of the ESC of managers in improving the aesthetic labor of employees.
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Drawing upon the existing theoretical and empirical sourced knowledge of aesthetic labour and gender, this paper aims to explore the exploitation of women’s aesthetic labour in…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon the existing theoretical and empirical sourced knowledge of aesthetic labour and gender, this paper aims to explore the exploitation of women’s aesthetic labour in the Chinese airline industry and the underlying causes from a contextual point of view.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study has emerged from a broader research project which aimed to explore women’s experiences of work-family conflict and their career aspirations in the Chinese airline industry in which aesthetic labour was prevalent as a significant issue during semi-structured interviews with female employees and HR/line management. Thus, the study draws upon interview data focusing on recruitment and selection of flight attendants in three Chinese airlines. This is complemented by secondary sources of data from Chinese television programmes and job advertisements.
Findings
This study reveals that aesthetics is both gendered and context-bound. It exposes that aesthetic labour in Chinese airlines is demanded from women but not men. It highlights that gendered aesthetic labour is continuously shaped by four influential contextual issues – legislation, labour market practices, national culture and airline management practices.
Originality/value
By uncovering the dynamic interconnectedness of gender and aesthetics and illustrating the exploitation of women’s aesthetic labour for commercial gains in Chinese airlines, this paper contributes to the understanding of the gendered aesthetics in the airline industry. It also offers new insights into the theory of aesthetic labour by locating it in a context that differs significantly from other socio-cultural contexts.
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Leonidas Efthymiou, Yianna Orphanidou and Achilleas Karayiannis
What is the impact of workers' tattoos and piercings on hospitality work? While body-art is prohibited in some hotels, it is encouraged in others. Also, an even more ambiguous…
Abstract
What is the impact of workers' tattoos and piercings on hospitality work? While body-art is prohibited in some hotels, it is encouraged in others. Also, an even more ambiguous situation arises when body-art is neither accepted nor prohibited, depending on labour market conditions and managers' individualistic preferences. In this chapter, we explore how this ambiguity imposes challenges on employment and career planning. We first seek to understand how managers' perceptions and decisions concerning worker body-art change in different hotel categories. To do so, we draw on interviews with 25 General and Human Resource Managers in 18 upper market hotels, three lifestyle boutique-hotels and four luxury hotels. Then, we offer pragmatic suggestions on career planning.
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Dennis Nickson, Chris Warhurst and Eli Dutton
For service organisations the interaction between front‐line personnel and the customer is crucial as they aim to create high quality service encounters. Much research has focused…
Abstract
Purpose
For service organisations the interaction between front‐line personnel and the customer is crucial as they aim to create high quality service encounters. Much research has focused on attempts by organisations to inculcate the “right” kind of attitude in their front‐line employees. This paper seeks to extend this analysis by pointing to the increasing importance not just of having employees with the “right” attitudes, but also possessing aesthetic skills. The emergence of aesthetic skills reflects the growing importance of aesthetic labour in interactive services. That is, employers' increasingly desire that employees should have the “right” appearance in that they “look good” and “sound right” in the service encounter in retail and hospitality.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper mainly utilises responses to a structured questionnaire from employers in the retail and hospitality industries in Glasgow, although reference is also made to a similar employees' questionnaire.
Findings
The evidence from the questionnaires suggests that employers in the retail and hospitality industries are not generally looking for “hard” technical skills in their front‐line personnel, but rather “soft” skills. Such “soft” skills encompass attitude and, importantly, appearance – what we term “aesthetic skills” – and the latter is often underappreciated in academic and policy‐making debates.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of the survey suggest that academics and policy‐makers need to expand the way they think about “soft” skills. Specifically, they need to be aware of the extent of employers’ needs for both social and aesthetic skills.
Originality/value
The findings of the survey have implications from a policy perspective and policy‐makers may need to think about if and how these needs can be incorporated into education and training provision.
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Valerie Caven, Scott Lawley and Jocelyn Baker
Organisations seek to manage and control the dress, appearance and behaviour of their employees for strategic corporate advantage but what are the far‐reaching implications of…
Abstract
Purpose
Organisations seek to manage and control the dress, appearance and behaviour of their employees for strategic corporate advantage but what are the far‐reaching implications of this for employers and employees? This paper aims to identify the explicit and implicit codes for appearance and behaviour imposed by management and co‐workers.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a case study approach using ethnographic methods, this research, conducted in a recruitment agency specialising in placing construction industry personnel, draws on data obtained from four in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with senior managers, a focus group with female employees and participant observation methods, and provides an intriguing insight into the grooming and packaging of female employees. Findings – Findings show this aesthetic and behavioural “packaging” of the female employees comes with consequences for client, employer and employee. The females cannot escape the aesthetic and sexualised image imposed upon them as management strategy and often have no choice but to “perform” for clients to manipulate situations for their own advantage.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the research approach adopted and the relatively small sample size, generalizability is limited. It would be helpful to replicate the study in other settings.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the existence of official and unofficial controls over dress, appearance and behaviour and the pressure exerted on women in the workplace.
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Marjut Jyrkinen, Mira Karjalainen and Linda McKie
This chapter draws from research on aesthetic labour, gender, management and organisation studies and research on women's careers. We base our analysis on two empirical data sets…
Abstract
This chapter draws from research on aesthetic labour, gender, management and organisation studies and research on women's careers. We base our analysis on two empirical data sets, namely interviews with women mid-managers in Finland and Scotland, and interviews with highly positioned expert women in Finland in knowledge work. Women in different phases of their careers and life experience manifold pressures on appearances, and are increasingly aware of the demands to ‘look good and sound right’. We address how these pressures impact on women managers' and experts' well-being and career plans.
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To ascertain if the use of attractive staff is common practice within the hospitality industry in Edinburgh.
Abstract
Purpose
To ascertain if the use of attractive staff is common practice within the hospitality industry in Edinburgh.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach by a series of semi‐structured interviews. The researcher took an instinctive humanist approach to this study. A sample of 3, 4 and 5 star hotels, bars and restaurants were included. The focus of the research developed from ascertaining if attractive staff were common place into one that, some organisations use more sophisticated techniques to have customers literally buy‐in to the goods and services on offer.
Findings
Open admission from respondents, that they use attractive staff. However, aesthetic labor is strongly supported by the use of emotional labor as the worker needs to have a certain empathy with the customer. Furthermore, the aesthetic worker is supported by the uniform, the environment in which the service encounter takes place and provides a performance in which the customer actively participates. The highly developed manner that the organisation induces the customer to perceive when in this environment lead the researcher to propose a 007 Dynamic that happens, as the customer takes on an almost “James Bond” like persona.
Research limitations/implications
A relatively small sample but is perhaps indicative of contemporary hospitality industry common practices.
Practical implications
Hospitality management are using less highly “hard” skilled employees and focusing more on the “soft” skills of new workers.
Originality/value
Customers are susceptible to subliminal messaging from staff appearance, their empathy and environment.
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