ABSTRACT
Work in personal services such as hospitality is widely described as ‘low skills’ in both the academic literature (Shaw and Williams, 1994; Westwood, 2002; Wood, 1997) and the popular press. This stereotype is challenged in the context of hospitality in the work of a number of writers (Baum, 1996, 2002; Burns, 1997; Nickson et al., 2003) on the basis that this represents a Western-centric and product-focused perception of work and skills. The study reported in this paper seeks to contribute empirically to this debate by reporting preliminary findings from a trans-cultural, international comparison of work, training and skills application in one area of hospitality operations — that of the hotel front office.
