Doctoral Dissertation: "More Than Service with a Smile: Routinization and Recognition in the Hotel Industry"

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract SES 000026 PI: Michael Burawoy, Rachel Sherman This project compares work environment and culture in two hotels, one offering luxury accommodations and the other offering a more standard environment. PI's will interview about 100 managers, employees, and guests at the two hotels, and will develop ethnographic descriptions of them as well. The project uses ideas from the social organization of work, research into controlled emotion production, and analyses of the prestige or status value of objects and activities. Outcomes of the work will be to test hypotheses related to producing status value, and a better understanding of how the organizational structure produces either standard or luxurious surroundings.