ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the hotel industry can best be understood in terms of the constraints affecting the behaviour of their staff and customers — and of how they perceive the world. In the traditional small independently run hotel, because management-staff relations are based on a high degree of individual contract-making, there is considerable scope for individual autonomy - and those employed in such hotels tend to have an entrepreneurial attitude towards work. With the entry of conglomerate and brewing companies into the industry, many hotels have developed a more centralised and bureaucratic management structure, resulting in a reduction of the autonomy of both the unit manager and the rank and file worker. Indeed there are a large number of small owner-managed hotels in which individual autonomy and job discretion are rated highly, but where group influences and group commitments are also found.
