Defining the boundaries of hospitality research is also problematic. If one limits
oneself simply to that research which is published in specialist hospitality journals,
one ignores the work of those researchers not based in hospitality departments who
publish in mainstream management and work sociology journals as well as the work
of those researchers based in hospitality departments who increasingly also look
beyond the specialist journals. The dearth of research on the hospitality industry is
often commented upon and it is true that traditionally organizational theorists and
work sociologists have been overfocused on male white production workers (Crompton,
1989 quoted in Wood, 1992) and ignored service workers. Even now that
mainstream researchers have woken up to the service industry, studies in banking,
retail and airlines are much more common than those on hotels and restaurants.
However, there is a long history of writing about work in the hospitality industry
which goes back to the classic work of Whyte in the late 1940s and which this paper
will draw on.