Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through metaphor analysis, the complex nature of the work undertaken by waiters and pursers on-board cruise ships. This is an under-researched field and empirical research has produced some interesting perceptions that these groups of workers have of themselves, of others, and of the world in which they work and live.

A total of 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted over the telephone from a sample of international participants. The data were analysed using a metaphor analysis.

There were three clusters of metaphorical illustration found: metaphors of the ship, metaphors of the environment, and metaphors of their occupation. The metaphors of the environment were split into two sub-clusters. One explored how participants understood the ship's space or work setting, and the second identified the strategies used as participants negotiated their way through their working and social lives. The stories collected from the workers have produced a very different but realistic perspective of the working lives of waiters and pursers.

Metaphors can only offer a partial view of a social phenomenon, rather than an all-encompassing view, which are furthermore specific to the research setting. Notably, for half of all participants English was not their first language, and consequently this may have had an impact upon their use of metaphors.

This research highlights the socio-employment relationship and complexities of working on cruise ships. In particular, it recognises behavioural learning practices and organisational bureaucratic utilities, which the industry relies upon for managing employees.

This study contributes new knowledge in an under-researched context exploring the sociological lives of hospitality cruise ship workers. The use of metaphor analysis has provided an interesting and useful route to extend understanding of cruise ship work.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model in which work engagement (WE) mediates the influence of work social support on job satisfaction (JS), in-role performance (IRP), creative performance (CP) and extra-role performance (ERP).

Data were collected from cabin attendants via three surveys two weeks apart and their pursers. The aforesaid relationships were assessed through structural equation modeling.

In general, there is support for the preponderance of hypotheses. Specifically, WE completely mediates the impact of coworker support on JS and IRP, while the impact of supervisor support on CP is completely mediated by WE. WE partly mediates the effect of coworker support on CP and ERP. Furthermore, the effect of supervisor support on JS, IRP and ERP is partly mediated by WE.

Management should make sure that the work environment consists of supportive supervisors and coworkers who are trained on how they can enhance the cooperation and collaboration among employees. Management should also create an employee platform where cabin attendants can contribute to service delivery process by sharing their experiences arising from passenger requests and problems.

The study extends and contributes to the current service research by assessing the impact of WE simultaneously on three performance outcomes. The study adds to current knowledge by investigating the mediating mechanism linking work social support to the attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The study also controls the threat of common method variance with at least two procedural remedies, which have been rarely used in the current service research.

Applying social exchange and job demands resources theories, this study aims to proposes a research model in which work engagement (WE) mediates the influence of work social support on job satisfaction (JS), in-role performance (IRP) and creative performance (CP).

Data were collected from cabin attendants via three surveys two weeks apart and their pursers. The aforesaid relationships were assessed through structural equation modeling.

In general, there is support for the preponderance of hypotheses. Specifically, WE completely mediate the impact of coworker support on JS and IRP, whereas the impact of supervisor support on CP is completely mediated by WE. WE partly mediate the effect of coworker support on CP. Further, the effect of supervisor support on JS and IRP is partly mediated by WE.

The study extends and contributes to the current service research by assessing the impact of WE simultaneously on three performance outcomes. And it adds to current knowledge by investigating the mediating mechanism linking work social support to the attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. It also controls the threat of common method variance with at least two procedural remedies, which have been rarely used in the current service research.

This paper aims to examine the parallel and serial multiple mediating effects of job insecurity (JIS) and occupational self-efficacy (OSE) in the association between servant leadership and work engagement (WENG).

Data collected from 296 flight attendants in Korea were tapped to assess the study hypotheses. The linkages were tested via structural equation modeling. The phantom variable was used to estimate the parallel and serial indirect impacts of JIS and OSE.

Servant leadership fosters OSE and WENG, while it alleviates JIS. Both JIS and OSE parallelly mediate the effect of servant leadership on WENG. Contrary to what has been hypothesized, the findings lend no credence to the serial multiple mediating impact.

Management should pay utmost attention to the promotion of employees to supervisory positions based on “stringent selection and hiring of people.” Flight attendants high on WENG should have job security. This is important because such employees exhibit good performance at work. Management should also organize training programs that would enhance flight attendants’ OSE.

This paper contributes to the relevant knowledge base by relating servant leadership to flight attendants’ WENG through JIS and OSE. Because of the number of rising disengaged service workers across the globe, this study also gauges the factors influencing flight attendants’ WENG and reports whether servant leadership, JIS and OSE influence their WENG at the same time. Unlike the preponderance of the empirical pieces, this study contributes to the literature by assessing the indirect effect of servant leadership on WENG via JIS and OSE as the parallel and serial multiple mediators using the phantom variable.

This chapter compares and contrasts organizing and advocacy among US domestic workers and day laborers. These two occupations share many features: both are ill-suited to conventional unionism; immigrants, many of them unauthorized, have long dominated the workforce in both; both are entry-level jobs at the bottom of the labor market (although both are also internally stratified); and both have been the focus of advocacy and organizing at both the local and national level in recent decades. Yet, there are also significant contrasts between the two. First and foremost, women are the vast majority of domestic workers while men predominate among day laborers. Another striking difference is that while domestic labor is hidden from public view inside private households, day laborers are regularly on display on street corners and other public spaces. This chapter explores the effects of such similarities and differences on the collective action repertoires of day laborers and domestic workers. In both cases, many workers have individualistic, entrepreneurial ambitions, a formidable organizing challenge; yet, orientation does not necessarily impede and sometimes even facilitates collective action. Day laborers’ demands are largely economic, and these (predominantly male) workers often hope to return to their countries of origin; domestic workers (overwhelmingly female) are more interested in improved opportunities within the US. Although women are overrepresented in the leadership of both domestic workers’ and day laborers’ organizations, male day laborers and female domestic workers have distinct experiences and aspirations, and put forward different types of demands, generating gendered collective action repertoires.

The aim of this paper is to explore the evolving nature of the work of cabin crew in a Scandinavian carrier in three eras, drawing on theories of gender and emotional labour.

The paper draws on ethnographic data from fieldwork, interviews and documents.

From being a feminized and temporary occupation for young, upper- and middle-class women in the 1970s, the occupation became a full-time job and with greater diversity of cabin crew. Today there are signs of the job becoming a precarious and temporary one of demanding and devalorized work in a polarized and class-divided labour market. Changing circumstances impact on the emotional labour requirement and terms and conditions at work.

A limitation is that the research design was not initially longitudinal in the sense that the author does not have exactly the same kind of data from each era. The author has, however, been involved in this field for two decades, used multiple methods and interacted with different stakeholders and drew on a unique data material.

The development in aviation is contributing to new discriminatory practices, driving employee conditions downwards and changing the job demands. This development will have practical consequences for the lives and families of cabin crew.

The analysis illustrates how work ‘constructs' workers and contributes in creating jobs that are not sustainable for the employees. Intensification of work, insecurity and tougher working conditions also challenge key features in the Nordic model such as proper pay, decent work and a life-long employment. Much indicates that the profession is again becoming a temporary one of demanding work with poor working conditions in a polarized and class-divided labour market.

The research contributes to the literature on emotional labour, gender and the evolving nature of the work of cabin crew. The unique data material, the longitudinal aspect of the research and the focus on a single network carrier are good in charting changes over time.

In 2010, the author published a practical critique of some of Karl Weick's writings, to which Weick offered a rejoinder. The purpose of this paper is to use his response as an occasion to reflect on the rhetorical conditions of critique in the sensemaking tradition.

This paper provides a rhetorical analysis of Weick's response to the author's critique, showing that it is directed at the ethos of the critic. For the purpose of the analysis, ethos is conventionally defined as the character, competence and goodwill of the speaker.

The analysis shows that Weick's dismissal of the author's critique suggests the lack of a “dwelling place” (the primordial sense of “ethos” in pre‐Socratic Greek) for critical scholarship in sensemaking research.

All scholarly communities need a space for the critical evaluation of the claims their members make. In an attempt to establish such a place, the author counters the standard disciplinary pedagogy of sensemaking, which is inspired by Lave and Wenger's “legitimate peripheral participation”, with a call for legitimate peripheral irritation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the lessee eviction process in Zimbabwe in order to suggest possible ways of improving this process that has become a rutted road characterised by a litany of hiccups.

The study is guided by the qualitative methodology. Data were mainly collected from property managers operating in the real property market in Harare using in-depth interviews. Analysis of data was done through content analysis.

It emerged from the study that the eviction process in Zimbabwe is fraught with impediments and expenses that are sometimes exasperating to property owners and investors. The current eviction regulations favour the lessees at the expense of lessors thus niggling lessees have aggravated the already protracted process by unnecessary appeals.

The paper only focuses on residential property management and eviction of legal lessees due to non-payment of rentals.

The rent regulations should be reviewed in order to create a fair legal system that protects the rights of both the lessors and lessees in Zimbabwe.

The perpetual decline of the economy in Zimbabwe has crippled lessees’ ability to pay rentals. Yet, it has also become intricate to evict defaulting lessees thereby causing loss of income to rental housing investors. Thus, the paper challenges the protracted eviction processes in the real property industry that have prejudiced property owners and scared away potential rental housing investors that are greatly needed to boost the rental market.

This chapter presents some basic concepts on time studies and discusses what a temporal approach can offer for higher education research. Being an invariable constituent of life, time structures and organizes activities and processes in higher education, covering all of its levels and functions. Furthermore, the current policy agenda that emphasizes the need for higher education to accelerate innovation flows, and to speed up the production of new knowledge and workers, accentuates the importance of the temporal perspective. The chapter examines the dominant, taken-for-granted conception of time – clock time – which involves a linear, quantitative, cumulative, homogenized, abstract and decontextualized conception of time. The core features of clock time are described by the four Cs put forward by Barbara Adam: creation, commodification, colonization and control of time. It is argued that, in the current digital, post-modern era, social acceleration reshapes and transforms the nature of clock time, which results in compression of time, shrinking future and extended present, all manifest in the overall speeding-up of life. In addition, a temporal lens for analysing higher education is presented, with examples from empirical studies on time and temporalities in academic work and identity building.