TY - JOUR
T1 - Delineating the Changing Frontstage and Backstage Segregation in High-End and Luxury Hotels
AU - Efthymiou, Leonidas
AU - Orphanidou, Yianna
AU - Panayiotou, George
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Intellect Ltd Article
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - A common characteristic in George Orwell's, William Foote Whyte's and Erving Goffman's classic works, as well as in the literature that followed their legacy, is the tendency of authors to refer to a front-of-house (FoH) and back-of-house (BoH) segregation, especially in terms of workers' skills, gender, aesthetic, emotional and ethnic characteristics. The mark between the two areas is also treated as a variable, based on the degree of interaction between employees and guests. Departing from Goffman's so-called sore spot areas, we seek to understand how the line of visibility changes in the light of societal and cultural shifts. Drawing on 25 interviews with general and human resource managers, we report an alteration of the typical FoH/ BoH distinction with serious implications for practice. A hotel's workplace layout, aesthetic, hiring and product processes are redesigned to encompass a new organizational identity and offer embodied experiences.
AB - A common characteristic in George Orwell's, William Foote Whyte's and Erving Goffman's classic works, as well as in the literature that followed their legacy, is the tendency of authors to refer to a front-of-house (FoH) and back-of-house (BoH) segregation, especially in terms of workers' skills, gender, aesthetic, emotional and ethnic characteristics. The mark between the two areas is also treated as a variable, based on the degree of interaction between employees and guests. Departing from Goffman's so-called sore spot areas, we seek to understand how the line of visibility changes in the light of societal and cultural shifts. Drawing on 25 interviews with general and human resource managers, we report an alteration of the typical FoH/ BoH distinction with serious implications for practice. A hotel's workplace layout, aesthetic, hiring and product processes are redesigned to encompass a new organizational identity and offer embodied experiences.
KW - aesthetic labour
KW - backstage/frontstage
KW - emotional labour
KW - front/back-of-house
KW - luxury hotels
KW - social change
KW - staged authenticity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100163535&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1386/hosp_00025_1
DO - 10.1386/hosp_00025_1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100163535
SN - 2042-7913
VL - 10
SP - 287
EP - 312
JO - Hospitality and Society
JF - Hospitality and Society
IS - 3
ER -