Performing: A Grounded Theory of Employment Experiences of Room Attendants at Five Star Hotels on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia

Abstract

My research makes visible the ‘employment experiences’ of female hotel room attendants working in 5 star hotels on the Gold Coast region of South East Queensland, Australia. I adopt a socialist feminist critical theory epistemological perspective predicated on removing invisibility of hotel room attendants. I perceive invisibility as non-recognition or non-acknowledgement of room attendants by hotel management and some hotel guests, despite room attendants’ conspicuous presence. Although a number of studies comment on the invisibility of hotel room attendants (Lars Onsøyen, Reidar Mykeltun & Trygve Steiro, 2009; Rachel Silvey, 2004; Kathi Weeks, 2004), the authors do not present room attendants’ experiences holistically from their perspectives. I aimed to fill this void in hospitality knowledge by investigating employment experiences of hotel room attendants from their perspectives. To investigate hotel room attendants’ perceived empirical invisibility and guided by my epistemological philosophy, I adopted a qualitative social constructionist grounded theory methodology. In following the original Glaserian tenets, my research was grounded in room attendants’ employment experiences without limitations imposed by assuming any a priori theory. Emerging from my study was the theory of Performing.