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This paper aims to examine employee responses to sexual behaviour in hospitality workplaces, to determine their roles and responsibilities in harassment prevention.

Female workers in restaurants and bars were recruited using the snowball technique, and data collected through 18 interviews. An interpretivist approach was used to guide the data collection and analysis.

The study found that harassment coping strategies developed with age and experience rather than through training, and those who dressed and behaved provocatively attracted more unwanted sexual attention.

Recommendations focus on the role of managers in moderating employee behaviour and providing training in assertiveness.

Industry norms and perceptions about managers’ expectations are considered strong influences on employee behaviour, and therefore, in attracting harassment.

Although this study locates the responsibility for stopping harassment with management, it takes an unusual and potentially unpalatable approach by acknowledging the role of victims in stopping unwanted sexual advances, providing new approaches to reducing harassment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivational factors behind the transition of successful hospitality entrepreneurs in New Zealand, back into paid employment.

In all, 16 interviewees were recruited using the snowball technique and their stories examined using a narrative analysis technique.

Motivational factors were categorised into seven themes of family, work–life balance, health and stress, age, planned exit, stagnation and intuition. Poor work–life balance was identified as a consistent factor in decisions to sell hospitality businesses. Although lifestyles were self-imposed, they were exacerbated by the conflicting needs of family, customers and the owners themselves, several of whom worked to exhaustion.

Implications for prospective entrepreneurs include considerations of work–life balance and the true costs of hospitality business ownership.

This is the first study of motivations for leaving a successful hospitality business and moving into paid employment. As research is sparse on reasons for this transition, this study provides an understanding of this phenomenon and insights into the extraordinary challenges of hospitality entrepreneurship in New Zealand.

This paper seeks to report on research investigating students' and industry's expectations and assumptions of the desired attributes of hospitality employees.

Views on a range of questions about the value of a hospitality degree are analysed, based on a survey of 74 hospitality managers and 137 students.

The divergence in views between students and industry was significant. Students thought knowledge and skills were important for new employees, but industry was far more interested in personality. To get promoted, students thought they would have to become good communicators, but industry was more interested in initiative. Industry's views suggest that managers value attitudinal attributes over skills, and are therefore prepared to help employees gain the skills needed for their roles.

There were limited responses from hotel general managers (GMs). Their views on what graduates need to accomplish to reach the position of GM would have added value to this study, so further research focusing on GMs' views is recommended.

This paper analyses the beliefs of hospitality students and industry regarding the desired attributes of hospitality employees. Their expectations and assumptions are significantly different, and the gap is a cause for concern for educators and industry to address.

This paper seeks to examine common hospitality problems with the aim of identifying relationships between them, and the central issue.

Self‐completed questionnaires were used to collect data from hospitality students and employees, and analyses of variance used to identify relationships between the problems, and isolate the central issue.

The paper finds that poor training is associated with workplace problems, and improving training is likely to reduce problems such as under‐staffing and theft.

The collection of data on exact lengths of employment would have facilitated a more rigorous analysis of the causes and effects of staff turnover and is recommended for future studies of training and turnover.

Investment in training is recommended even when turnover is high, as training reduces workplace problems.

This study focuses on the relationships between problems, rather than investigating them in isolation, facilitating an holistic approach to solving staff turnover.

The purpose of this research paper is to identify the perceptions and stereotypical views of hotel managers to older employees in the British hotel industry, with a focus on the north of England, and to determine the equal opportunities policies and practices of hotels in relation to older workers and the types of jobs deemed suitable or not suitable for older employees.

The method used in this exploratory study was a survey incorporating a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to 144 hotel managers in hotels with a minimum of 20 bedrooms in the north of England. In all, 36 completed questionnaires were returned. Data were analysed using Predictive Analytics Software (PASW).

The results of the survey clearly point to hotel managers having overwhelmingly positive views of older workers (confirming the findings of Magd's, 2003 survey), although some managers did age-stereotype certain jobs as being not suitable or suitable for older hotel workers.

The principal limitations concern the use of a questionnaire to measure the attitudes of hotel managers, the use of a non-probability sampling technique and the relatively small sample size.

Given the UK's ageing population and labour shortages in the hotel industry, it is important that hotel managers address negative stereotypical views of older workers and the jobs deemed suitable for these workers.

As the hotel industry is a major contributor to employment in the UK, a lack of empirical data on managers’ perceptions of older hotel workers is a significant omission that this paper seeks to redress.

This exploratory study aims to determine whether a relationship is likely to exist between good feng shui and success.

The feng shui of eight hotel foyers and entrances were evaluated against 20 criteria, and managers asked to comment on the success of their hotels. Results were examined for possible relationships between feng shui and their descriptions of success.

Similarities between the reported success of hotel and feng shui evaluations were found in six out of the eight hotels in the study.

Responses on success were subjective and based on five criteria, which were insufficient to determine the existence of a firm relationship between actual success and feng shui. However, this was an exploratory study, and the relationships were sufficiently strong to warrant further research.

Findings suggest that feng shui offers useful design principles, and hotels with good feng shui are described as being more successful than those with poor feng shui. Good feng shui appears to have a positive effect on feelings of success.

This is the first study that attempts to test the relationship between good feng shui and success.