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Using Expressive Text in Research to Interpret and Portray Lived Experience:

Lived Experience in Hospitality Receptionist Work
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DOI: 10.1108/S1871-3173(2012)0000006009
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© Hyde, Kenneth F.; Ryan, Chris; Woodside, Arch G., Jul 10, 2012, Field Guide to Case Study Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure
Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bradford , ISBN: 9781780527437
RESEARCH IN TOURISM,
HOSPITALITY AND LEISURE
FIELD GUIDE TO CASE STUDY
ADVANCES IN CULTURE,
TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
RESEARCH
Series Editor: Arch G. Woodside
Recent Volumes:
Volumes 1–2: Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality

Research – Edited by Arch G. Woodside
Volume 3: Perspectives on Cross-Cultural, Ethnographic,
Brand Image, Storytelling, Unconscious
Needs, and Hospitality Guest Research –
Edited by Arch G. Woodside, Carol M.
Megehee and Alfred Ogle
Volume 4: Tourism-Marketing Performance Metrics and

Usefulness Auditing of Destination Websites –
Edited by Arch G. Woodside
Volume 5: Tourism Sensemaking: Strategies to Give
Meaning to Experience – Edited by Arch G.
Woodside
ADVANCES IN CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

RESEARCH VOLUME 6
FIELD GUIDE TO CASE

STUDY RESEARCH IN
TOURISM, HOSPITALITY
AND LEISURE
EDITED BY
KENNETH F. HYDE
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
CHRIS RYAN
University of Waikato, New Zealand
ARCH G. WOODSIDE
Boston College, USA
United Kingdom – North America – Japan

India – Malaysia – China
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expressed in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Editor or the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78052-742-0
ISSN: 1871-3173 (Series)
CONTENTS
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS xi
WHY CASE STUDY RESEARCH? INTRODUCTION

TO THE FIELD GUIDE TO CASE STUDY
RESEARCH IN TOURISM, HOSPITALITY,
AND LEISURE
Kenneth F. Hyde, Chris Ryan and Arch G. Woodside 1
PART ONE: ANALYSIS OF TEXTS

ANALYSIS OF TEXTS – INTRODUCTION

Kenneth F. Hyde 13
IMMERSED IN GREEN? RECONFIGURING

THE ITALIAN COUNTRYSIDE THROUGH
RURAL TOURISM PROMOTIONAL
MATERIALS
Elisabete Figueiredo and Antonio Raschi 17
EVOKED EMOTIONS: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS WITHIN

THE CONTEXT OF PILGRIMAGE TOURISM TO
GALLIPOLI
Anne-Marie Hede and John Hall 45
USING CONCEPT MAPPING AND STAKEHOLDER

FOCUS GROUPS IN A MUSEUM MANAGEMENT
CASE STUDY
Jane Legget 61
v
vi CONTENTS
ASSESSING THE GROUNDED THEORY OF PACKING

FOR AIR TRAVEL USING A VIDEO-ETHNOGRAPHIC
CASE STUDY
Karin Olesen and Kenneth F. Hyde 89
USING EXPRESSIVE TEXT IN RESEARCH TO

INTERPRET AND PORTRAY LIVED EXPERIENCE:
LIVED EXPERIENCE IN HOSPITALITY
RECEPTIONIST WORK
Gayathri Wijesinghe 109
PART TWO: EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWS
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWS – INTRODUCTION

Kenneth F. Hyde 173
SINGLE CASE STUDY RESEARCH: THE

DEVELOPMENT OF WWW.PURENZ.COM
Sushma Seth Bhat 177
FASHIONS IN TOURISM: THE VIEWS OF RUSSIAN

TOURISTS AND EXPERTS
Olga Lysikova 195
CASE STUDIES IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS

IN ASIA
Cindia Ching-Chi Lam and Clara Weng-Si Lei 205
PART THREE: FIELD RESEARCH
FIELD RESEARCH – INTRODUCTION

Arch G. Woodside 221
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR CONDUCTING RESEARCH

ABROAD
Jan Louise Jones 227
Contents vii
KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS AND

ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES: THE CASE
OF SANNIO FILMFEST
Mirella Migliaccio and Francesca Rivetti 241
EPIPHANY TRAVEL AND ASSISTED-SUBJECTIVE

PERSONAL INTROSPECTION
Chad Muller and Arch G. Woodside 259
FUNCTIONS AND BEHAVIORS OF TOURISTS IN

EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT PROCESS: CASE OF
THREE INDEPENDENT BUSINESS TOURISTS
Solmaz Filiz Karabag 275
CASE STUDIES OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS’

IN-DESTINATION DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES
IN NEW ZEALAND
Clive Smallman, Kevin Moore, Jude Wilson and 297
David Simmons
PART FOUR: STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATORY

RESEARCH
STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATORY
RESEARCH – INTRODUCTION
Kenneth F. Hyde 319
PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH FOR

STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION: LESSONS
FROM A RURAL AREA IN PIEDMONT, ITALY
Antonella Capriello 323
PROTECTING SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

IN SUSTAINABLE TOURISM: THE CASE OF
GÖKC- EADA, TURKEY
Erol Duran 345
viii CONTENTS
ACCESSIBILITY AS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

OF A TOURISM DESTINATION: THE CASE OF
LOUSÃ
Elisabeth Kastenholz, Celeste Euse´bio, Elisabete 369
Figueiredo and Joana Lima
DIT-ACHIEV MODEL FOR SUSTAINABLE

TOURISM MANAGEMENT: LESSONS
LEARNED FROM IMPLEMENTING A HOLISTIC
MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
INDICATORS
Jane Fitzgerald, Sheila Flanagan, Kevin Griffin, 387
Maeve Morrissey and Elizabeth Kennedy-Burke
PART FIVE: RESEARCHING INDIGENOUS

AND MARGINAL PEOPLES
RESEARCHING INDIGENOUS AND MARGINAL

PEOPLES – INTRODUCTION
Chris Ryan 411
FIELDWORK IN REMOTE COMMUNITIES: AN

ETHNOGRAPHIC CASE STUDY OF PITCAIRN
ISLAND
Maria Amoamo 417
STAKEHOLDERS, HIGH STAKES AND HIGH TIDES:

QUALITY OF LIFE IN A SMALL ISLAND
FESTIVAL CONTEXT
Carina Ren and Janne J. Liburd 439
USE OF MIXED-METHODS CASE STUDY

TO RESEARCH SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH PACIFIC SIDS
Evangeline Singh, Simon Milne and 457
John Hull
Contents ix
CULTURALLY SUSTAINABLE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CASE STUDY
FOR HOPI TOURISM
Kristen K. Swanson and Constance DeVereaux 479
PART SIX: CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS
CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS – INTRODUCTION

Chris Ryan 497
DESIGNING A QUALITATIVE MULTI-CASE

RESEARCH STUDY TO EXAMINE
PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY TOURISM
PLANNING PRACTICES
Oksana Grybovych 501
INDEPENDENT INSTRUMENTAL CASE STUDIES:

ALLOWING FOR THE AUTONOMY OF
CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND BUSINESS

NETWORKS IN TANZANIA
Susan L. Slocum, Kenneth F. Backman and 521
Elisabeth Baldwin
CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS
Chris Ryan 543
ABOUT THE AUTHORS 559

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Maria Amoamo Te Temu, Department of Māori Studies,

University of Otago, New Zealand
Kenneth F. Backman Department of Parks, Recreation and
Tourism Management, Clemson University,
SC, USA
Elisabeth Baldwin Department of Parks, Recreation and
Tourism Management, Clemson University,
SC, USA
Sushma Seth Bhat Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland
University of Technology, New Zealand
Antonella Capriello Department of Economic and Business

Studies, University of Piemonte Orientale,
Novara, Italy
Constance Comparative Cultural Studies, Northern
DeVereaux Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
Erol Duran School of Tourism and Hotel Management,
- anakkale Onsekiz Mart University,
C
- anakkale, Turkey
C
Celeste Euse´bio Department of Economics, Management and
Industrial Engineering, University of Aveiro,
Aveiro, Portugal
Elisabete Figueiredo Department of Social, Political and Territorial
Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro,
Portugal
Jane Fitzgerald School of Hospitality Management &
Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology,
Ireland
xi
xii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Sheila Flanagan School of Hospitality Management &

Ireland
Kevin Griffin School of Hospitality Management &
Ireland
Oksana Grybovych Division of Leisure, Youth and Human
Services, School of Health, Physical
Education and Leisure Services, University of
Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA
John Hall Deakin Graduate School of Business,
Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
Anne-Marie Hede Faculty of Business and Law, Victoria
University, Melbourne, Australia
John Hull School of Tourism, Thompson Rivers
University in British Columbia, Canada

Kenneth F. Hyde Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland
Jan Louise Jones Department of Recreation and Leisure
Studies, School of Health and Human
Services, Southern Connecticut State
University, New Haven, CT, USA
Solmaz Filiz School of Business Studies, Södertörns
Karabag University, Stockholm, Sweden
Elisabeth Kastenholz Department of Economics, Management and
Aveiro, Portugal
Elizabeth Kennedy- School of Hospitality Management &
Burke Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology,
Ireland
Cindia Ching-Chi Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), Macau
Lam
List of Contributors xiii
Jane Legget School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland

Clara Weng-Si Lei Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), Macau
Janne J. Liburd Centre for Tourism, Innovation and Culture
at the University of Southern Denmark,
Denmark
Joana Lima Department of Economics, Management and
Aveiro, Portugal
Olga Lysikova Department of Tourism Management,
Saratov State Technical University named
after Yu. A. Gagarin, Russia
Mirella Migliaccio Department of SEGIS, University of Sannio,
Benevento, Italy
Simon Milne Faculty of Culture and Society, Auckland

Kevin Moore Faculty of Environment, Society and Design,
Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
Maeve Morrissey School of Hospitality Management &
Ireland
Chad Muller School of Management, Boston College,
Boston, MA, USA
Karin Olesen Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland
Antonio Raschi IBIMET National Research Council (CNR)
Florence, Italy
Carina Ren Department of Culture and Global Studies,
University of Aalborg, Denmark
Francesca Rivetti Department of Strategy and Quantitative
Methods, Second University of Naples,
Naples, Italy
xiv LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Ryan School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland

David Simmons Social Science, Parks, Recreation and
Tourism Group, Lincoln University,
Lincoln, New Zealand
Evangeline Singh Faulty of Culture and Society, Auckland
Susan L. Slocum Tourism, Leisure and Sport Management,
University of Bedfordshire, UK
Clive Smallman College of Business and Law, University of
Western Sydney, Australia
Kristen K. Swanson School of Communication, Northern Arizona
University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
Gayathri Wijesinghe School of Management, University of South
Australia, Australia
Jude Wilson Faculty of Environment, Society and Design,

Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
Arch G. Woodside Carroll School of Management,
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
USING EXPRESSIVE TEXT IN

RESEARCH TO INTERPRET AND
PORTRAY LIVED EXPERIENCE:
LIVED EXPERIENCE IN
HOSPITALITY RECEPTIONIST
WORK
Gayathri Wijesinghe
ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how hospitality and tourism researchers can use
‘expressive text’ (or writing) to express the lived quality of an experience
in order to ‘show what an experience is really like’ rather than ‘tell what it
is like’. Expressive text refers to written language forms such as
narrative, poetry and metaphor that can be used as tools in research to
vividly represent the meaning and feeling conveyed in an experience. The
expressive text-based approach to researching lived experience provides
a textual link between experience and its expression. For this reason,
it is especially useful when working with lived experience accounts of
phenomenological and hermeneutic research.
Field Guide to Case Study Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure

Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Volume 6, 109–169
Copyright r 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1871-3173/doi:10.1108/S1871-3173(2012)0000006009
109
110 GAYATHRI WIJESINGHE
The expressive text-based approach suggested here is still a relatively

under explored arena within hospitality and tourism research. As a
relatively under explored arena, the rich insightful knowledge that can be
gained from understanding practitioner experience is rarely a central
focus of scholarly writings about the workplace in hospitality and tourism
contexts. However, in order to be fully appreciated as a discipline in
its own right and to advance knowledge of the field, understanding the
typical and significant attributes of hospitality and tourism work will be
decidedly helpful.
One of the difficulties of working with lived experience accounts is finding
a suitable research approach that helps to both retain the lived elements
of the experience and ensure the rigour of the inquiry. An expressive text-
based methodological framework that has a phenomenological and
hermeneutic philosophical underpinning is argued to be suitable for this
purpose. Therefore, the focus of this study is to discuss such a
methodology and explain the reasons for its content, style and structure
in researching lived experience. The approach that is proposed here
consists of a five-tiered textually expressive methodology that is

employed to contextualise, portray and interpret the lived experience
meanings in order to understand the significance of the experience
in relation to relevant discourses in hospitality and tourism studies,
and to consider implications for policy and professional practice. The
guiding questions of the five-tiered framework cover the following
issues: (1) What is the context of the lived experience? (2) What is
the lived experience of this practice like? (3) What is the meaning of this
experience for the practitioner? (4) What is the significance of the
experience in contributing to the advancement of knowledge within the
field? (5) What are the implications for practice and professional
development?
To illustrate uses of this methodology in research, the study here includes
an example showing portrayals and interpretations of the typical and
significant lived nature of hospitality reception work. This shows and
communicates the full meaning of the episode, circumstances or situation.
The chapter then concludes with some reflections on benefits as well as
tensions in working within an expressive text-based phenomenological and
hermeneutic framework.
Keywords: Phenomenology; hermeneutics; hospitality and tourism;

narrative; lived experience; metaphors
Lived Experience in Hospitality Receptionist Work 111
INTRODUCTION
Descriptions of practitioner experiences are often isolated from existential

contexts in most hospitality and tourism research and they tend to be devoid
of the emotions and meanings that made up the lived experience. These
kinds of accounts are not useful in understanding what an experience was
really like. In order to understand what an experience represents (to the
person who experienced it), it is necessary to understand the world view
from which a particular experience arose. As a former hospitality worker,
the author felt compelled to find a methodological framework that showed
what the experience was really like to both students entering the practice
first time and scholars who did not have a practical background.
This chapter discusses the suitability of a qualitative methodological
framework drawn from the philosophy of phenomenology and hermeneu-
tics for researching real-life lived experiences of practitioners in the tourism
and hospitality industry, ‘[i]n hermeneutic study, texts can be seen as layers
of meanings and also as expressions of lived experiences (phenomenology)’
(Suvantola, 2002, p. 10). Lived experience refers to a firsthand account of
a person’s own experience, ‘as opposed to all hearsay, conjecture, or imagi-

native and ratiocinator constructions’ (Burch, 1990, p. 1). This expressive
text-based inquiry stems from the fact that descriptive and reflexive first-
person accounts of significant personal experiences of working in the front-
line of the hospitality industry, expressed in all its emotional richness and
depth, are relatively under explored in hospitality and tourism research
(O’Gorman & Prentice, 2008).
The methodological framework uses expressive text (or writing) such as
narrative, poetry and metaphor to express the typical and significant nature
of real-life lived experiences of practitioners. This approach is very different
from investigations that are more analytically inclined. The purpose of the
expressive text is to provide a creative medium of expression that retains
the lived quality of the experience by vividly representing the meaning
and feeling conveyed in the experience so that ‘people can almost feel
its immediacy and challenge’ (Willis, 2002a, p. 9). It should to ‘generate
emotions, feelings, and conceptions which have similarity to those many
people experience when engaging with a work of art’ (Willis, 2002a, p. 10).
One may ask whether this type of approach is research or a literary work.
The answer is that it is research as it has a research agenda driven by
the methodological tradition of phenomenology and hermeneutics,
There is the inquiry before there is the expressive text. In this sense the research inquiry
sets the agenda and the expressive text making is somewhat ancillary to the research.
There is a slight feel that the expressive text is being commissioned and therefore
constrained by the interests of the researcher – it is thus a ‘research’ text before it is a
‘poetic’ [expressive] text. (Willis, 2002a, p. 9)
Researchers who want to gain deep insight into a lived phenomenon that
lacks understanding of its experiential quality, such as the lived experience
of hospitality reception practice, portrayed and interpreted as an example
in this chapter, find this approach useful. The framework herein adapts
Willis’ (2002b) study into adult education practice, which has been refined
and extended further by the researcher during a previous wider research
project undertaken to investigate the lived experiences of women reception-
ists in the hospitality industry (see Wijesinghe, 2007). In this previous
research project, the researcher explored typical and significant experiences
of four receptionists by crafting their experiences into 10 vignettes or
narratives.
However, for the purpose of illustration, this chapter explores only one
episode of practice. The guiding research questions in this study include the
following issues. What is the socio-cultural context of hospitality reception
practice in this chosen episode? What is the actual experience of hospitality
reception practice itself like (for the receptionist in this episode of practice)?
What sense did/does the receptionist make of his/her experience? What is
the significance of the typical themes of the receptionist’s experience in the
light of sociological discourses? What are the implications of the typical
elements of the receptionist’s experience for practice and professional
development of the wider hospitality practice?
In positivist research, the knowledge that is generated has to be conducive
to generalisation, whereas in interpretative research knowledge has to be
transferable to similar contexts (Garman & Piantanida, 1974). Thus, this
study is not concerned with discovering patterns accommodating general-
isation or law-like statements about this practice, as positivists do, but
rather with the ways in which receptionists experience and interpret the
situations related to their practice, so that when reading this account of the
experience, one can see that it is a possible experience for other practitioners
(while not exactly the same). In phenomenological social science (see Schutz,
1932) the belief is that since we are all human and live in the same world, a
certain part of reality is common to and shared by all humans.
At the same time, as we are also unique individuals, a certain part of our
reality is also unique or incidental to us. Both of these aspects – the common
and unique are of interest to the phenomenologist of the expressive text-
based tradition. The phenomenological inquiry is concerned mostly with
intuiting and describing this shared pattern of meaning making, so that
industry practitioners could identify and relate to the typical elements of the
experience and claim – ‘Yes, the experience was exactly like that for me!’, ‘I
can identify with this experience’ or ‘I can just imagine this happening!’. The
ability to identify sufficiently the elements of contextual bearing in which
the inquiry is conducted is important in order to know how applicable the
findings are to other contexts (Clandinin & Connelly, 1990, p. 7).
Phenomenology differs from other qualitative human science approaches
such as ethnography, symbolic interactionism, and ethno-methodology in
that classical phenomenology distinguishes between appearance and
essence. To obtain an appearance what is required is to merely look at
something – it is superficial, but to obtain essences, it is necessary to look
deep inside something to contemplate and reflect upon the main attribute. In
other words, phenomenology does not produce empirical or theoretical
observations or analytical accounts distant from the actual experience.
Instead, phenomenology offers descriptive accounts of concrete experiences
embedded in temporal, spatial, sensual and human relations as we live them.
Although this study is not concerned directly with the essence of a
phenomenon/experience in methods in-use by classical phenomenologists
(Husserl, 1931), the common elements of the lived experience is still the
focus. Thus, this study aims at arriving at an in-depth understanding of the
embodied common elements in the experience of hotel receptionist work and
portraying the experience through day-to-day personal stories in order to
understand the nature of this experience.
Scholars often appear to directly do phenomenological and hermeneutic
research but do not adequately explain how the philosophy translates into a
methodological application for the benefit of researchers new to this
paradigm, exposing one of the difficulties of using the philosophical tenets
of the hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches in applied research
effectively. As a result, most novice researchers often apply methodological
applications of these philosophies as a trial-and-error process. For example,
Botterill (2001, p. 199) points out that the ‘assumptions that underlie social
science research in tourism are seldom made explicit y the more complex
and difficult matter of the underlying assumptions upon which y – the
nature of reality (the ontological question) and the way of knowing (the
epistemological question) – are rarely articulated [and] can be construed to
be a potentially serious flaw’.
To address the issue, the first half of this chapter explains the steps
involved in translating interpretative hermeneutics and phenomenology
from the philosophical arena into the context of methodological application
in hospitality research. In this part, the chapter not only makes a significant
contribution by connecting the ontology and epistemology, but addresses

the topic more directly by extending these approaches towards application
as methodology and methods. Although, the framework here applies to the
context of hospitality reception work, the framework is relevant to the study
of lived experience in other disciplines and industries.
Hospitality Reception Practice
This study portrays the immediacy of the lived experience of hospitality

reception practice. Its setting is the hospitality industry, which is a
commercial industry that provides meals, accommodation, entertainment
and a variety of other facilities and amenities for a fee to those who are away
from their home environment. More specifically, located within the front
desk of an accommodation establishment, receptionists are the key personnel
responsible for taking reservations, checking guests in and out, handling
inquiries, and performing a variety of other guest relations tasks. A hospi-
tality receptionist performs mainly a relational activity which involves
linkages to others through the provision of hospitality. Hospitality reception

involves links to others through duty to provide for people – guests, co-
workers and managers – who are at different status levels. An essential part
of this job is managing these dynamic relationships, especially interactions
with guests. This study focuses on the relational aspects between receptionists
and guests, the typical issues that receptionists face in their relations with
guests, and what receptionists expect from these interactions. As the human
face of an accommodation establishment, receptionists should appear
energetic and happy at all times; sunny like a day full of sunshine, ready
to spring into action, always asking of guests, ‘How may I serve you?’
A receptionist ensures service meets guests’ expectations. Some guests can
be very demanding and even unreasonable. One guest can differ much from
the other in what he/she expects. Guests may expect from receptionists
anything from a sympathetic ear to a casual fling. Increasingly, receptionists
must function within the strict dictates of service that require a high level of
performance. Hospitality builds into it various idealised expectations, some
of which are fairly unclear. Accommodation establishments in the
contemporary hospitality industry, like hotels, are seeking to adopt many
prescribed service standards.
To ensure adherence to these standards, organisations fully control
receptionists, restricting them within limited latitude in the way they carry
out their duties. As a result, prescribed standards of service shape receptionists.
Dictates of service norms sometimes eclipse their personalities. Beneath

the dictates of service is the call to obey and to fit into the service culture of
the organisation. In following these dictates the spontaneous genuine
desires for providing hospitality is sometimes lost. Meeting hospitality
service standards is also a significant challenge. This chapter portrays,
interprets and discusses the significance and implications of the experience
of hospitality receptionists in meeting the requirements of the industry, via
a hotel receptionist’s typical lived experience of what it is like to engage
in hospitality reception practice.
The Significance and Contribution of This Study
The tourism and hospitality industry is one of the largest industries in the
world in terms of the revenue that the industry produces and the labour
force it employs. It is a dynamic industry which is currently increasing at an
exponential rate. The accommodation sector of the tourism industry
occupies a large share of this market and consists of hotels, motels and
guest houses. This sector, known as the hospitality industry, provides

accommodation, and food and beverage. In the forefront of any hospitality
establishment is the front desk or reception office. The front desk can be
thought of as the nerve centre (Paige & Paige, 1977, p. 15) of a hotel/motel
and the receptionist is the key person responsible for providing and co-
ordinating hospitality to guests, from the moment they step into the hotel
until their eventual departure.
The scholarly writings on the workplace have rarely focused on the
receptionist despite being a central function performed in the tourism and
hospitality industry. The Front Desk has hardly inspired in a scholarly way
real-life stories that portray and interpret the experience of reception work
especially the flavour of the many women that have and do stand behind it.
The broader profession does not fully appreciate this relatively under-
researched area. Even managers who have not progressed through the lower
ranks have very little understanding of the full extent of the demand placed
on receptionists and the kinds of experiences they possess; as a result, the
management perhaps under-supports the receptionist.
On another level, as an emerging discipline the body of knowledge in
tourism and hospitality has traditionally been adapted from other inter-
related but essentially different disciplines such as sociology, anthropology,
geography, marketing, management and economics. Hence, to differentiate
and advance knowledge of the discipline, we need to understand the
essential and unique attributes of hospitality and tourism practice. To

achieve this, we need to start with a clean slate and revisit our immediate
experience of the phenomenon of hospitality reception practice as if we were
experiencing it for the very first time.
As the classical phenomenologist Spiegelberg notes, ‘All phenomenology
takes its start from the phenomena. A phenomenon is essentially what
appears to someone, that is to a subject [for example, the hospitality reception
worker]’ (1959, p. 75); for example, the phenomenon in the present study is the
experience of hospitality reception practice and we want to view it as if we
were seeing it for the very first time rather than relying on secondary sources
that are coloured by various agendas. Direct access to real-life lived experience
is necessary so that we do not rely on analytical and conceptual notions,
stripped of rich direct experience, put forward by other disciplines. Before we
can explore our direct experience in a fresh way, we need to lay aside (called
epoché or bracketing, explained later) and empty our mind of all the
preconceived notions that we have about that phenomenon under study.
However, in reality completely laying aside these existing cultural under-
standings is impossible unless of course we have the ability to enter into deep
meditation and transcend our senses to contemplate the experiential nature of

such phenomena, but for most ordinary people accustomed to thinking
rather than contemplating, entering into such a meditative stance as the one
that Husserl (1931, 1973) advocated is not easy to achieve. Therefore, we
have to take the next best option available. This second option involves
using some strategic techniques to employ a phenomenological attitude as
follows:
1. Firstly, lay aside preconceived notions that we have by declaring

influential elements that underlie the particular aspect of the experience
being contemplated such as:
a. Researcher’s own interest and experience of the phenomenon being
investigated (i.e. why the researcher was interested in studying
hospitality reception practice).
b. Social and personal context of the practice (i.e. factual description of
the socio-historical context of the research participant’s (reception-
ist’s) experience).
c. Narration of the experience (describing the experience as it unfolded
through a sequence of events, resisting the urge to analyse the experience).
d. Eliciting the practitioner’s reactions and feelings brought on by the
experience.
e. Describing the practitioner’s interpretation of the experience.
2. Secondly, trying to sidestep the preconceived notions that we (the

research participant and researcher) have about the experience by
expressing it in metaphoric form.
The next section explains the researcher’s background and interest in the
study, so that any biases and preconceptions are explicit from the outset.
Situating the Researcher
As a former reception worker who had a largely negative taste of the

industry, the researcher wanted to confront her own experience in the
industry and the typical nature of hospitality reception practice in terms of
the challenges it offered. In doing this the researcher was also interested in
finding out what types of experiences other receptionists were having.
Later, as a lecturer in tourism and hospitality management, she wanted to
provide a window into the reality of the lived nature of this work for her
students, as there were very few portrayals of the practice, especially to
enable further study from a pedagogical perspective (e.g. there were very
few vignettes or narrative accounts of the experiences that were able to act
as case studies of the practice). In addition to her own experience, her
readings of studies in emotional labour (see Hochschild, 1983), for
example, suggested that workers engaged in services were vulnerable to
having their experiences filtered and re-named by the powerful agents of
the industry.
Therefore, she wanted to find out what receptionists actually experienced,
rather than what the industry said receptionists ought to be experiencing.
During the researcher’s quest for answers to such questions, she discovered
phenomenology and hermeneutics and found these human science
approaches suitable for representing lived experience. The following section
provides an overview of other studies that enabled an experiential knowing
through the exploration of lived practitioner experiences.
LITERATURE REVIEW ON EXPERIENTIAL

KNOWING
Scholars call out for research approaches that are able to generate more
holistic in-depth insights to advance knowledge about the hospitality
encounter (Brotherton & Wood, 2000). Lundberg, for example, seeks to
widen the research focus and points out that, given the complexity,
multiplicity and forever-changing nature of the hospitality phenomenon,
researchers should consider all approaches that can add research value.
He points out, ‘If our assumption of phenomenological complexity and
changefulness seems more realistic y it suggests that for a particular
research project of interest to hospitality researchers a variety of paths for
discovery and understanding may be equally viable. If this is so, then an
awareness of an appreciation of alternative modes and means of inquiry is
desirable if not requisite’ (1997, p. 2). Brotherton and Wood (1999,
p. 154) challenge that ‘these are uncomfortable times for the complacent
and unquestioning researcher or practitioner. If hospitality management
research and practice is to progress, those associated with it must reflect
more deeply over its essential nature and practical manifestations’. In the
book Knowing Differently: Arts-Based Collaborative Research Methods,
Liamputtong and Rumbold (2008, p. 2) point out that despite the various
ways of knowing that researchers have at their disposal ‘it is still
propositional (conceptual) knowing that dominates research in the health
and social sciences y Propositional knowing is of course built on other
ways of knowing y However, much academic research only samples

experiential (felt) knowing in precisely defined and narrow terms, in order
to explain phenomena, so that the data are second hand and the people
who provided them are kept, apparently at a distance y Because
propositional knowing is so dominant , other ways to knowing, that
access experience more immediately and richly or that translate into
action and practice, tend to receive less attention’. This point is relevant
for hospitality research.
Incorporate reflexive and critical paths of inquiry into tourism and
hospitality research may be necessary (see Pritchard & Morgan, 2007), in
order to build its own disciplinary knowledge. Much of the current
research within hospitality is analytical in nature and distant from the real
world application of the concept. These are conceptualisations of the
hospitality employment experience by academics rather than firsthand
experiential accounts by people working in the industry. They are
analytical descriptions of the experience and not accounts of the lived
experience, for example they are like the menu that describes the food, but
not the food itself. Such forms of analytical inquiry tend to be dried-out
reduced accounts of the lived phenomenon of hospitality practice. In
particular, they fail to capture the unique and essential nature of what
makes the hospitality employment experience recognisable as a possible
experience. The advantage of the expressive text-based qualitative

approach proposed in this study is that:
[i]t offers richly descriptive reports of individuals’ perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, views
and feelings, the meaning and interpretations given to events and things, as well as their
behaviour; displays how these are put together, more or less coherently and consciously,
into frameworks which make sense of their experiences and illuminates the motivations
which connect attitudes and behaviour, or how conflicting attitudes and motivations are
resolved and particular choices made. (Hakim, 1987, p. 26)
Wilson, Harris, and Small (2008, p. 16) state that Lynch emphasises the
underserved power of hospitality studies as an academic tool, in a recent
seminar presentation. Lynch’s ‘goal was to signal a new research and
teaching agenda that would empower and enhance the subject of
hospitality and facilitate the development of students of hospitality as
‘‘philosophic partitioners’’’ (Lynch cited in Wilson et al., 2008, p. 6).
Similarly, a number of leisure researchers have recognised the need to
adopt more creative ways of representing the contextualised lived accounts
of leisure and have come up with what they call, ‘creative analytic
practice’ (CAP). This approach involves the creation of imaginative and
creative mediums such as autoethnography fiction stories, visual images,

poetry, experimental media and performance to represent a lived
experiential account. A premise of CAP and interpretative research in
general is that lived experiences are complex to understand and represent
(Schwandt, 2000).
The goals of CAP are to reflect experiences in ways that represent their personal and
social meanings rather than simplifying and generalising. These meanings are not
researcher-derived in the form of explanations linked to generalised theory or
imposed through literature, but rather stem from the social spaces and cultural
contexts of those people being researched. Clearly, research is needed that con-
textualises leisure and encompasses the complexity with which it is lived. (Parry &
Johnson, 2007)
METHOD
The tenets of phenomenology, interpretative hermeneutics and text-based

expressive genre inform the methodological framework and research
techniques here. To discuss these different perspectives, this chapter includes
three sections. The first section is a philosophical and theoretical explication
of the research methodology, the second section is the application of the
methodology into practical steps, and the third section is an illustrative

example of the textually expressive techniques.
The first section of this chapter explains the philosophical and methodo-
logical tradition underlying hermeneutics and phenomenology and their
application in a research design of a lived experience study. In particular,
the focus is on how the two approaches of interpretative hermeneutics
and phenomenology could form the methodology to portray and interpret
lived experiences of practitioners. The chapter explains the various
theoretical and philosophical tenets that shape these two approaches, and
suggests how to combine these two philosophies as a methodology in
tourism and hospitality contexts. The aim of this approach is to show the
suitability of these approaches, and how the philosophical tradition of
phenomenology and hermeneutics inform the inquiry process.
The second section of this chapter illustrates a five-tier practical frame-
work consisting of text-based expressive techniques used to portray, interpret
and analyse the lived experiences of industry practitioners. This arts-based
methodological framework consists of five modes of textual representations
that incorporate the philosophical tenets of phenomenology and interpreta-
tive hermeneutics. The first step in the framework provides a factual des-
cription of the socio-historical context of the receptionists’ experiences, and
explicates the inquiry process used to investigate their experiences. Second,
through phenomenology, the chapter presents narrative portrayals of the
receptionists’ experiences; portrayals consisting of a variety of expressive
textual genre such as narrative, poetry and metaphor express this experiential
dimension. Third, hermeneutics interprets the meanings receptionists make
of their everyday experiences. Fourth, a literature review of the sociological
discourses explores significances of the meanings and insights towards the
contribution of knowledge in the study of hospitality. Fifth, the chapter
discusses the implications of the significant themes in relation to ongoing
concerns for hospitality practice and professional development. The second
section of this chapter discusses the five steps in this textually expressive
framework and explains the reasons for its content, style and structure in this
section. The third section of this chapter provides an illustrative example of
applying this methodological framework to an episode of practice from the
hospitality industry.
The following section interprets the various developments towards philo-
sophical hermeneutics, its basic tenets and the way in which hermeneutics
by different scholars and describes how hermeneutics research is useful. Next,
the chapter traces and discusses the development of phenomenology, starting
from Edmund Husserl.
Philosophical Hermeneutics: An Introduction
Hermeneutics is the ‘theory and practice of interpretation’ (van Manen,

1990, p. 179). The word derives from the Greek mythological character
Hermes, whose responsibility was to understand and interpret the divine
sayings of the Oracle at Delphi. Scholarly work uses its contemporary
meaning, and is something akin to ‘the art of understanding and the theory
of interpretation’ (Weininger, 1999, p. 1). Philosophical debate has prevailed
over the centuries on this definition which combines two elements, and the
debate has continued in ‘working out the tension between the technical,
theoretical task of, interpretation, understanding texts, historical periods,
and other people’ (Weininger, 1999, p. 1). The different ways in which
hermeneutics has been understood is outlined next.
Traditionally, hermeneutics focused on understanding historical texts
based on pretensions of scientific epistemology, where the reader would
attempt to build a system of understanding by re-enacting the relation-
ship between the author and original audience in an objective fashion
(Honeycutt, 1995). Schleiermacher (1977) opened up the debate leading to
hermeneutics by referring to it as a theory or technology of interpretation,

especially in relation to religious and classical texts. He argued that
hermeneutics is necessary when there is a possibility for misunderstanding as
in the above genre (religious and classical texts). His intention was to
‘understand an author as well or even better than he or she understands
himself or herself’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 179). The emphasis here is on the
thought of the other person experiencing the world.
Dilthey (1985), another pioneer of this tradition, was on the other hand,
not interested in the thought of the other person, but the world itself, the
lived experience which is expressed by the author’s text, as it is in this
chapter. van Manen succinctly explains this ‘Dilthey’s hermeneutic formula
is lived experience: the starting point and focus of human science expression:
the text or artefact as objectification of lived experience; and understanding:
not a cognitive act but the moment when ‘‘life understands itself’’ ’
[emphasis in original] (1990, p. 180).
In the twentieth century, the publication of Heidegger’s (1927) Being and
Time re-defined hermeneutics in a radical way which shifted the focus
from epistemology to ontology (Honeycutt, 1995). Heidegger broke away
from the epistemology, which insisted on separating understanding from
interpretation to arrive at what he perceived was objective secure knowl-
edge. Heidegger argues that the interpreter’s preconceptions, which remain
integral to all understanding, influences interpretation. Interpretation is
a cyclical process, which is referred to as the hermeneutic circle (Hogan,

2000). An overlooked possibility of the most primordial kind of knowing
embedded this cyclical process of interpretation (Heidegger, 1927, p. 195).
Hogan points out that Heidegger believes that ‘in order, however to realise
this possibility, critical attention would have to be paid not only to what the
interpreter was attempting to understand, but also to the interpreter’s own
fancies and popular conceptions – to the preconceptions that remain ever
active in steering such attempts’ (2000, p. 1). In this regard, it is difficult to
escape the subjective element in an interpretation. Hence absolute knowl-
edge is impossible: ‘It is because absolute knowledge is impossible that the
conflict of interpretations is insurmountable and inescapable’ (Ricoeur,
1981, p. 193).
Gadamer and his fellow researchers extended Heidegger’s work later.
Gadamer adds that in interpreting a text, we cannot separate ourselves or
escape from the meaning of the text, as understanding is not ‘an isolated
activity of human beings but a basic structure of our experience of life. We
are always taking something as something. That is the primordial fixation of
our world orientation, and we cannot reduce it to anything simpler or more
immediate’ [emphasis in original] (1970, p. 87). ‘Understanding is always an

interpretation, and an interpretation is always specific – an application’ (van
Manen, 1990, p. 180).
Application of Philosophical Hermeneutics to Research

Present day interpretative social sciences use the hermeneutic circle while
interviewing to obtain an in-depth and holistic understanding of a particular
text, or phenomenon. ‘The hermeneutic interview has a conversational
structure: it is oriented to sense making and interpreting experiential
meanings. The interview has a collaborative conversational structure that
lends itself especially well to the task of reflecting on phenomenological
meanings’ (van Manen, 2002). The researcher has attempted to separate
hermeneutics from phenomenology because one of the other tasks of the
inquiry is to uncover fresh attributes of the nature of the experience by
leaving out cultural predispositions as much as practicable. That is, to look
at how the phenomenon (reception practice) declares itself in the mind – by
setting aside as far as practicable the predispositions about the phenom-
enon. The hermeneutic process interprets with pre-existing values and ways
of seeing the world. Thus, meanings behind descriptive phenomenological
texts obtained from respondents/co-researchers employ both philosophical
hermeneutics and phenomenology for interpretation.
In this study, the author uses hermeneutics to understand and interpret

the meanings associated with hospitality reception work. The task of
hermeneutics is to interpret and articulate how the practitioner made sense
of her lived experiences. It works in conjunction with phenomenology to do
this. The textually expressive phenomenology (see Wijesinghe, 2009) used in
this study is located within a general hermeneutic approach. Ricoeur (1981)
argues that hermeneutics and phenomenology presuppose each other.
Heidegger illustrated the connection between hermeneutics and phenomen-
ology by referring to the term phenomenology from Dilthey to distinguish
his own philosophical investigation of everyday being from Husserl’s
transcendental phenomenology, which tried to achieve objective knowledge
by suspending concern for the subject’s life-world. The next section discusses
the philosophical outlook of phenomenology, which includes its founda-
tions, ontology and epistemology.
Phenomenology: An Introduction
The term phenomenology is a compound of the Greek words phainomenon

and logos. ‘It signifies the activity of giving an account, giving a logos, of
various phenomena, describing the various ways in which things can appear’
(Sokolowski, 2000, p. 13). Philosophy used the term phenomenology as
early as 1765. Kant (1724–1804 as cited in van Manen, 2003) used this term
to distinguish between the study of objects and events as they appear in our
experience (phenomena) and objects and events as they are in themselves
(noumena). For Hegel, phenomenology signified ‘Knowledge as it appears
to consciousness, the science of describing what one perceives, senses, and
knows in one’s immediate awareness and experience’ (1770–1831 as cited in
Moustakas, 1994, p. 26). In other words, Hegel saw phenomenology as the
science in which we come to know the mind as it is in itself through the study
of the ways in which it appears to us (van Manen, 2003). However, it was
not until Edmund Husserl that phenomenology became a well-developed
descriptive method as well as a human science movement based on modes of
reflection (van Manen, 2003).
The Foundation of Phenomenology

Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), a German mathematician and philosopher,
laid the foundation for phenomenology with the aim to ‘establish a secure
basis for human knowledge’ (Crotty, 1996b). For Husserl, phenomenology
is an attempt to describe how the world is constituted and experienced
through conscious acts (van Manen, 2003). His phrase Zu den Sachen refers
both to the things themselves and to the concept of let’s get down to what
matters! The idea was that phenomenology must describe what is given to us
in immediate experience without letting the experience filter through
preconceptions and theoretical notions. The notion of lived experience
obtained from Husserl’s notion of life-world or world is central to the
philosophy of phenomenology.
Since phenomenology was first developed, it has undergone many
changes of expansion and refinement, and today there are many schools
of thought. Scholars applying methods of phenomenology to their
research projects employ an eclectic mixture of the different traditions of
phenomenology. There are several phenomenological movements and
traditions today which include, but are not limited to, transcendental,
existential, hermeneutical, linguistic, ethical, and experiential and prac-
tice phenomenology (van Manen, 2003). This study uses a textually
expressive stance to phenomenological inquiry, based on the tenets of
interpretative hermeneutic and existential tenets of phenomenology. A
discussion of these various branches of phenomenology is beyond the
scope of this study, but the philosophical tenets of phenomenology as

applicable to the text-based expressive method are discussed selectively
in this chapter.
Phenomenological/Apodictic Truth. In discussing Husserlian phenomeno-

logy, Robert Sokolowski refers to two kinds of truth: the truth of
correctness and the truth of disclosure. Research in the positivist tradition
generally pursued the truth of correctness. It is about making a statement
about a proposition being held, and then going on to verify whether the
claim is true (2000, p. 158). The sense of falseness is central to the idea of the
truth of correctness. Phenomenology, on the other hand, pursued the truth
of disclosure, which is simply the display of a state of affairs as experienced
(2000, p. 158). The display or uncovering of a state of affairs requires its
own textual forms, judged for validity by its verisimilitude – its lifelikeness
(discussed in more detail further below). Bruner has expressed the
distinction between these two forms of truth, as seen in paradigmatic and
narrative traditions, as ‘A good story and a well-formed argument y can be
used for convincing another. Yet what they convince of is fundamentally
different: arguments convince one of their truth, stories of their lifelikeness’
(1986, p. 11). For Bruner, these two forms of truth, although radically
different, are complementary in function. Phenomenological description
seeks out verisimilitude, this lifelikeness.
Bracketing
Consciousness can take on many stances. The entry into the phenomen-
ological attitude is one such stance. Consciousness can operate from this
stance by exercising epoché or bracketing – ‘[b]racketing describes the act of
suspending one’s various beliefs in the reality of the natural world in order
to study the essential structures of the world’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 175), of
prior knowledge about the phenomenon. It is here that, as a result of eidetic
reduction, apodictic truth can be unveiled. Eidetic reduction is the process of
seeing past or through ‘the particularity of lived experience toward the
iconic universal, essence or eidos that lies on the other side of the con-
creteness of lived meaning’ (van Manen, 2003); apodictic truth is ‘[a]n
imaginary concept of truth in which it is supposed that we know something
with absolute certainty. To be an apodictic truth there must be no possibility
of mistake’ (Postmodern Therapies News, 2006). Apodictic truth can be
unveiled and understood because of the inter-subjective character of our
consciousness.
The aim of employing the phenomenological attitude in research is to rise
above and examine one’s predisposition to operate from the natural
attitude. Speaking metaphorically, the natural attitude is like a trap that

limits our understanding of our experience, and the phenomenological
attitude offers a way out of this trap. The way out of the trap is to study the
trap itself, so that the way in which the mind in the natural attitude
assembles the trap becomes clear. What we are seeking to do with a
phenomenological description, in this kind of research, is to provide an
account of the trap, so that one could see how, piece by piece, its structure
has come together to appear like a trap. The phenomenological description
has two underlying components in this kind of research. That is, the
description is not just about the trap (existence), but also the awareness of
the person in the trap in terms of the sense making. These two components
are referred to as objectivised-subjectivity and subjectified-subjectivity,
respectively (see Willis, 2002b). These two components precisely differenti-
ate the tenets of classical phenomenology from the new empathetic
phenomenology. Classical phenomenology originates, for example, from
the philosophy of phenomenology as discussed by those such as Husserl
(1931), Heidegger (1927), Spiegelberg (1959) and more recently by Crotty
(1996a).
Descriptive Account and Phenomenology

In phenomenology, the assumption is that the natural attitude usually hides
or veils the meaning of lived experience from our immediate view. So,
phenomenological description offers an account of our consciousness, which

helps unveil the lived reality of our experience. Description is the essential
function of the classical phenomenological approach. Consciousness is a
subtle process that lies above and beyond words. Any words that are used
are pale shadows of the reality. It is like describing the container rather than
the content, map rather than the destination, or the menu rather than the
food consumed. Therefore, trying to describe what we see in our immediate
experience can be difficult. As Crotty observes:
ythe difficulty does not lie merely in seeing ‘what lies before our eyes’ (which Husserl
saw as a ‘hard demand’), or knowing ‘precisely what we see’ (Merleau-Ponty said there
was nothing more difficult to know than that). We will also experience great difficulty in
actually describing [emphasis in original] what we have succeeded in seeing and knowing.
When we attempt to describe what we have never had to describe before, language fails
us. We find our descriptions incoherent, fragmentary, and not a little ‘mysterious’. We
find ourselves lost for words, forced to invent words and bend existing words to bear the
meanings we need them to carry for us. This has always been characteristic of
phenomenological description. We may have to be quite inventive and creative in this
respect. (1996b, p. 280)
This view points out the challenge in trying to use language to describe
what we have seen in our immediate experience. We can never adequately
describe our experiences without some form of hermeneutics or processing
taking place. It is difficult to articulate reality while retaining a conceptual
hold of it. As soon as one starts thinking, interpreting or attributing any
meaning, one reduces the experience’s reality. What one may end up
articulating is not the real thing, but a representation of it – a pale
shadow of it (yet, it seems that this is better than not having attempted it
at all). van Manen (1990) citing the Dutch phenomenologist Buytendijk
refers to this as the iconic quality of phenomenological description in
human science research. van Manen argues that ‘every phenomenological
description is in a sense only an example, an icon that points at the thing
which we attempt to describe’ (1990, p. 122). He then makes the obser-
vation that an effectively written phenomenological description acquires
a certain transparency which enables one to see the meaning structures of
the experience: ‘A description is a powerful one if it reawakens our basic
experience of the phenomenon it describes, and in such a manner that we
experience the more foundational grounds of the experience’ (1990, p. 122).
When writing a phenomenological description, one attempts to describe
different instances of the experience to see whether the same foundational
grounds of the experience come through. Putting this philosophical trait
into practice, Buytendijk’s phenomenological nod refers to the ability of an
effectively written phenomenological description to resonate with our sense

of lived experience. Citing Buytendijk, van Manen (1990) explains the
phenomenological nod as, ‘something that we could nod to, recognising it as
an experience that we have had or could have had. In other words, a good
phenomenological description is collected by lived experience and recollects
lived experience – is validated by lived experience and it validates lived
experience [emphasis in original]’ (1990, p. 27). The literature also refers to
this as the validating circle of inquiry.
Application of Phenomenology to Research
Early philosophers authored phenomenology concerned with ontology.

Contemporary scholars have derived an epistemology from this ontology
to apply the tenets of phenomenology to research lived experience. As a
result, there are many different methodological applications of phenom-
enology. In articulating a methodological relationship, some have moved
away from the tenets of classical phenomenology. Crotty (1996b) in his
investigation into the way in which phenomenological approaches are

applied in nursing research pointed out two of its applications, which
he named the new and classical phenomenology (described earlier).
These were later referred to as empathetic and intuitive phenomenology
by Willis (2002b).
The stance taken by the classical phenomenological approach is impor-
tant to this study. Hospitality workers, as suggested for example by
emotional labour (see Hochschild, 1979), have lost touch with their
immediate experiences while engaged in hospitality reception work to be
mostly aware of the understandings that the industry has bestowed on them,
under the rubric of customer service. To illuminate what appears for
hospitality workers in their immediate experience, classical phenomenology
can be useful. In this particular research project, the author employs the
classical phenomenological approach to emphasise the nature of experien-
cing the phenomenon of hospitality reception work. That is, on the
‘whatness’ of the experience (objectivised-subjectivity) – what is hospitality
reception practice like as an experience? Expressive texts can help craft an
integrated vision and awareness of the nature of this work by intuitively
grasping the patterns of hospitality reception work.
The new phenomenological movement on the other hand, which is also
important to this study, is an approach to social inquiry that started in
North America. Although classical phenomenology tilled the ground for it
to sprout, its fruits have taken on a post-contemporary philosophical

flavour, as it focuses on understanding and describing people’s subjective
experience to the exclusion of the nature of the phenomenon; ‘ y the
emphasis remains on common understandings and the meanings of common
practices, so that phenomenological research of this kind emerges as an
exploration, via personal experiences, of inherent and prevailing cultural
understandings’ (Crotty, 1996a, p. 265). It is primarily concerned with what
sense a subject made of his/her experience. It is about the subjective
awareness (subjectivised-subjectivity) of practitioners in relation to a pheno-
menon (i.e. thinking/conceptualising, feelings and meanings etc.). New
phenomenology, in contrast to classical phenomenology, does not attempt
to leave out cultural understandings, but employs it to understand what
sense a research participant made of an experience. In other words, it
emphasises the sense people make of things using their prevailing cultural
understanding.
A Research Design Based on Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

The designing of a study that takes into account the philosophical tenets of
hermeneutics and phenomenology is not an easy task. To devise a research
process true to these philosophical traditions, Max van Manen (1990,
pp. 30–34) provides six activities to follow. He makes it clear that these
activities are only suggestions and not meant to be followed diligently or in
the exact order in which they are listed.
Selecting a Specific Phenomenon

A phenomenological study is a very specific piece of work, as it is always
undertaken in the context of a specific individual, social and historical life
circumstance, and researches a particular aspect of human existence (van
Manen, 1990, p. 31). For this reason, van Manen points out that ‘[a]
phenomenological description is always one interpretation, and no single
interpretation of human experience will ever exhaust the possibility of yet
another complementary, or even potentially richer or deeper [emphasis in
original] description’ (1990, p. 31).
Investigating the Experience as We Live It Rather than as

We Conceptualise It
van Manen points out that all ‘experiential accounts or lived-experience
descriptions-whether caught in oral or written discourse – are never identical
to lived experience itself. All recollections of experiences y are already

transformations of those experiences’ [emphasis in original] (van Manen,
1990, p. 54). This implicates that researchers need to find ways of collecting
experiential accounts as close to the lived experience as possible, keeping in
mind that these accounts are not consciousness directly streaming onto
paper. van Manen suggests a variety of ways in which lived experiential data
can be gathered (1990, pp. 54–76):
Tracing etymological sources

Searching idiomatic phrases
Obtaining experiential descriptions from others
Protocol writing
Interviewing
Biographies, autobiographies and personal life histories
Diaries, journals and logs
Art (poetry, novels, stories and plays)
Phenomenological literature
Reflecting on the Essential Themes Which Characterise the Phenomenon

Third, reflecting on what constitutes the nature of the lived experience under
study. The nature or the essential themes are the typical structures or
characteristics of the experience. For example, in this study, the researcher is
interested in reflecting on the question of what is the typical nature of the
lived experience of hospitality reception practice. In reflecting on this
readers have to bear in mind that in our everyday existence we may take
some of these typical characteristics of the experience for granted. van
Manen states that ‘phenomenological research consists of reflectively
bringing into nearness that which tends to obscure, that which tends to
evade the intelligibility of our natural attitude of everyday life’ (1990, p. 32).
Describing the Phenomenon through the Art of Writing and Rewriting

Fourth, writing a piece of phenomenological text is a lengthy exercise,
because it needs to be crafted in such a way that the description takes on a
certain transparency – ‘it permits us to see the deeper significance, or
meaning structures, of the lived experience it describes’ (van Manen, 1990,
p. 122). For example, in the kind of study undertaken here, the data
collected by interviewing female receptionists must carefully craft episodes
of practice so that the experience comes to life for the reader, exhibiting its
lived nature.
Maintaining a Strong and Oriented Pedagogical Relation to the Phenomenon

Fifth, the researcher should be dedicated to uncovering knowledge about
the phenomenon true to the phenomenological and hermeneutic traditions.
van Manen explains this as follows: ‘[t]o establish a strong relation with a
certain question, phenomenon, or notion, the researcher cannot afford to
adopt an attitude of so-called scientific disinterestedness. To be oriented to
an object means that we are animated by the object in a full and human
sense. To be strong in our orientation means that we will not settle for
superficialities and falsities’ (1990, p. 33).
Balancing the Research Context by Considering Parts and Whole

Sixth, it is important to plan a careful inquiry into the phenomenon and not
get lost in the data or sidetracked in other ways. van Manen suggests the
following guiding questions to map out the inquiry (1990, p. 34):
Is the study properly grounded in a laying open of the question?

Does the study examine current forms of knowledge for what they may
contribute to the question?

Does the study show how some of these knowledge forms (theories,
concepts) are glosses that overlay our understanding of the phenomenon?
In looking at these activities, it is possible to see an overlap with the

criteria for determining good qualitative research that Piantanida and
Garman (1999) have proposed.
Criteria for Determining Quality in Experiential Research
Verisimilitude
This is one of the critical attributes that a phenomenological study should
have. To judge verisimilitude one should ask, ‘Does the work represent
human experiences with sufficient detail so that portrayals can be
recognisable as ‘‘truly conceivable experience’’?’ (Garman, 1996, p. 18).
Verisimilitude corresponds to the lifelikeness of an experience which can
generate a phenomenological aha leading to – ‘yes, the experience was
exactly like that for me!’, ‘I can identify with this experience’ or ‘I can just
imagine this happening!’ Barone and Eidsner refer to this quality as the
‘creation of a virtual reality’ (1997, p. 73).
Verite´
This criterion poses the question, ‘does the work ring true?’ (Piantanida &
Garman, 1999, p. 148). It relates to authenticity of the study in a number of
ways (Piantanida & Garman, 1999, p. 148): Is it consistent with accepted
knowledge in the field? Or if it departs, does it address why? Does it fit
within the discourse in the appropriate literature? Has the researcher taken
pains to cultivate a mindset conducive to an authentic inquiry? Is it
intellectually honest and authentic? How well has the researcher articulated,
documented and questioned the researcher’s reactions and thinking
throughout the inquiry process?
Integrity
This dimension relates to the soundness of the conceptual structure of the
study in terms of its flow and connectivity, logic of justification, and voice
and stance of the researcher. Is the work structurally sound? Does it hang
together? Is the research rationale logical, appropriate and identifiable
within an inquiry tradition? Do the author(s) and research participants use
the proper persona (or voice)? (Piantanida & Garman, 1999, p. 148).
Rigour
This relates to the quality of thought in the inquiry and is related to the
criteria of integrity and verité (Piantanida & Garman, 1999, p. 148): is there
sufficient depth of intellect, rather than superficial or simplistic reasoning?
Does the research carefully craft conclusions from sufficiently thick and rich
data? Does the researcher avoid solipsistic reasoning? Has the researcher
reflected in a careful/systematic rather than haphazard fashion? Has the
analysis/interpretation of the core portrayal been thorough or exhaustive?
Utility
This criterion relates to the ways in which the researcher has helped the
advancement of knowledge in the field under study, and the importance of
this contribution. Simply put, utility is the significance of the study. The
significance depends on the ‘extent to which the researcher has connected
the situational aspects of the study to issues embedded within broader
discourses. Particularly indicative of the dissertation’s utility are the
implications that the researcher draws from the portrayal of the pheno-
menon’ (Piantanida & Garman, 1999, p. 151). It begs the following
questions (Piantanida & Garman, 1999, p. 148): Is the inquiry useful and
professionally relevant? Does it make a contribution to a recognised field of
study or established bodies of discourse? Does the piece have a clearly
recognisable professional and/or scholarly audience? Is it educative?
Vitality
This relates to the study’s ability to emit a sense of energy, and vibrancy.
When related to the dimension of verisimilitude the portrayal should create
‘a vicarious sense of the phenomenon and context of the study, readers often
feel a sense of immediacy and identification with the people and events being
described. So, the study comes alive for the reader’ (Piantanida & Garman,
1999, p. 152). This criterion should lead to the promotion of empathy from
the reader that these scholars refer to.
This criterion also relates to the fact that the study comes to life for the
reader, making it more meaningful for the researcher, bringing forth the
researcher’s best work. The kinds of questions that can be posed in relation
to this dimension are (Piantanida & Garman, 1999, p. 148): Is the inquiry
important, meaningful, and nontrivial? Does it have a sense of vibrancy,

intensity, and excitement of discovery? Do metaphors and images
communicate powerfully?
Aesthetics
Most qualitative dissertations, especially when pursued through an arts-
based genre have an aesthetic quality as Barone and Eidsner (1997) have
stated. This aspect of the dissertation relates to: ‘Is it enriching and pleasing
to anticipate and experience? Does it give me insight into some universal
part of my educational self? Does it reveal powerful, provocative, evocative
and moving connections between the particular and the universal? Does the
work challenge, disturb, or unsettle? Does it touch the spirit?’ (Piantanida &
Garman, 1999, p. 148).
Ethics
This relates to the researcher’s ethical sensibility. In qualitative inquiries,
researchers can develop friendships with research participants and this kind
of bonding and trust can lead to the receiving of sensitive information,
which if used incorrectly can cause damage to the participants and/or
affiliated organisations. In order to ensure an ethical study is conducted the
researcher should ask ‘is there evidence that privacy and dignity have been
afforded to all participants? Did the researcher conduct the inquiry

carefully and honestly? Has every effort been made to represent the views of
others accurately and in the spirit in which they were shared/intended? Has
the researcher recognised and acknowledged his/her own preconceptions/
biases/assumptions and considered how these might distort understanding?
Does the language of the dissertation adhere to the principles of non-
discrimination? Does the inquiry have an ethical sensibility?’ (Piantanida &
Garman, 1999, p. 148).
The Nature of Data in Phenomenological Research
Most qualitative research recognises the researcher’s active role in the

process of interpreting a particular phenomenon. That is, the researcher
does not expect to be an uninvolved neutral person who oversees the process
in a detached manner to arrive at an objective reality, but rather someone
who is actively involved in constructing the very reality that he/she is
investigating. It is always through the researcher’s eyes that the reality of the
study is constructed, measured and shown. As explained in the previous

sections, phenomenological studies do not attempt to separate the objective
reality from the subjective reality, as the two are intermeshed (therefore, at
the onset of this chapter the researcher describes her background and
interest in the study). Thus in phenomenology the researcher must
incorporate his/her own experience in addition to that of research
participants. In fact, in the classical mode of phenomenology, one uses
only the researcher’s own experience, as one can only practise phenomen-
ology on one’s self. Classical phenomenology is necessarily a first-person
exercise, where each person contemplates his/her experience in its
immediacy (Crotty, 1998). In this classical approach, the researcher is the
one and only subject in the study. In the new/empathetic research approach,
researchers open up to other people’s experiences in addition to their own.
In the expressive text-based phenomenological method employed in this
study, the techniques of both the classical and new phenomenological
approaches can merge to bring out the best of both approaches.
The Inquiry Process

There are no prescriptive techniques and procedures to design this kind of
experiential research. The classical philosophers who contributed to
phenomenology do not appear to have been concerned with the provision
of a clear description of a research method, as their focus has been on
ontological and epistemological issues. A researcher wanting to apply the

philosophy of phenomenology to practical concerns has to pick and choose
from a variety of methods and techniques that are best able to serve the
purpose of his/her study.
Having studied the basic tenets of phenomenology and hermeneutics, and
seen the broad ways in which they can be incorporated into a research
design, a number of phenomenological studies were looked at to get some
ideas on how the receptionists’ personal stories could be portrayed and
brought to life, and how best the meanings embedded in their stories could
be conveyed and interpreted. To bring out its lived quality, the researcher
needed to craft the personal stories into a narrative format that would
showcase each experience in its lived quality. The personal stories needed to
be in an expressive textual format to make the reader feel as if he/she was the
one having the experience. For this to happen, the reader would need to get
a sensory feeling for the contexts, feel the receptionists’ emotions and hear
conversations that were taking place. So, a number of phenomenological
techniques that helped were looked at and, after reviewing a number of
studies, it was felt that the expressive text-based techniques that Peter Willis
developed in his book Inviting Learning: An Exhibition of Risk and

Enrichment in Adult Education Practice were useful, as he was able to
showcase each episode of practice as if it were an exhibit in an arts
exhibition. The particular mix of expressive text-based phenomenological
techniques adapted herein are an invention of Willis (2000, 2001, 2002b),
and it gave several ideas to present the data. While drawing inspiration from
his work, it was felt that his techniques did not fully serve the purpose of
previously undertaken wider study, as the study was not just concerned with
portrayals but also meanings, significances and implications. As a result,
Willis’ techniques were adapted with modifications. The next section of this
chapter discusses the text-based research techniques and procedures used in
the research design.
Expressive Text-Based Research Techniques
The expressive text-based research technique introduced here uses language

expressively and metaphorically for example through poetic reflections, and
storytelling. It helps provide a description of the perception of a
phenomenon rather than an explanation. It is essentially about perceiving
rather than conceptualising. Merleau-Ponty the great phenomenologist
writes, ‘Perception does not give me truths like geometry but presences’
(1974, p. 170). Influenced by Merleau-Ponty (1974) in his design of the

expressive text-based phenomenological research technique, Willis (2002b)
observes ‘ y the presences refer to the outcomes of being constantly in the
world as part of it; of being awake and aware of the world in which, and
of which, one is. Presences are generated by getting back to a first level of
awareness before engaging in conceptualising processes to become aware of
what is present in their life world, and what experiences are present to them’
(2002b, p. 134). The expressive text-based research agenda is to intuitively
grasp and portray these presences, which are a pre-analytic primordial form
of knowing. To extract this lived primordial knowing, a creative
contemplative space is necessary, such as Reason proposes ‘ y to make
meaning manifest through expression requires the use of a creative medium
through which the meaning can take form. This is not to be confused with a
conceptual grid which divides up experiences, it is rather the creation of an
empty space y which becomes a vessel in which meaning can take shape’
(1988, p. 80).
Identifying Sources of Data
In phenomenological research experiential accounts of data involves

narratives, poetry, metaphors, reflective journals as well as personal con-
versations. A researcher can collect data in various ways for example orally
through interviewing participants, or in written form through poetry, stories,
autobiographical accounts and so forth. Below, the chapter discussed these
in relation to the present study.
Recollected Personal Experiences

Keeping with the phenomenological and hermeneutic traditions, the study
comprises data recollected by personal stories from hospitality receptionists.
The study asked receptionists to reflect on the experience of their practice
and reconstruct their experience in the form of a story. Piantanida and
Garman (1999, p. 142) citing Dewy (1916) note that ‘although experience is
the context from which learning emerges, it is the act of reconstructing the
meaning [emphasis in original] of experience that actually yields learning.
Reconstructing the meaning of experience is, in essence, the interpretative
act at the heart of interpretative inquiry’. So, the data gathering process in
the wider study was one of collecting reconstructed experiences and their
underlying meanings from the receptionists under study.
The previous wider study (Wijesinghe, 2007) contained rich personal

stories related to the experience of hospitality reception practice. The stories
were crafted both from the researcher’s personal experience working as a
receptionist in the hospitality industry prior to joining academia, and from
other receptionists who have worked or continue to work in the hospitality
industry. One of the ways a researcher can collect data on the lived
experience is by interviewing participants about a specific personal
experience relating to the topic of study. In recollecting these experiences
what is important is not that an absolutely accurate memory of the
experience is obtained (as we know memory can be notoriously unreliable),
but how the meaning of the experience is reconstructed in recollecting the
experience in the form of a story that can yield learning. This re-
construction is a highly personalised revealing text in which a participant
shares a story (or stories) about specific incident that is typical of his/her
own lived experience. ‘Using dramatic recall, strong metaphors/similes,
images, characters, unusual phrasings, puns, subtexts, and allusions, the
researcher/writer constructs a sequence of events, a ‘plot’, holding back on
interpretation, asking the reader to re-live the events emotionally with the
writer. Narratives of the self, do not read like traditional ethnography

because they use the writing techniques of fiction. They are specific stories
of particular events. Accuracy is not the issue; rather, narratives of the self,
seek to meet literary criteria of coherence, verisimilitude, and interest’
(1994, p. 521).
As Richardson has shown here, plotting a story of a personal experience is
a primary tool used in interpretative research. It creates a virtual reality into
the experience by bringing out the lived sensual dimension of the account.
The aim is to make the reader experience the reality of the episode as if he/
she is a spectator or an onlooker into the experience. The reader should
ideally see, hear, sense and feel what the narrator may have experienced at
the time. If the reader narrates the story effectively the reader should be able
to identify with the storyteller and empathise with his/her cause or situation.
The reader is able to see in the storytelling all the prejudice, values, fears and
logic that coloured the experience and understand and empathise with the
narration’s viewpoint. Although the narrative is a fictional account taken
from life, it mirrors the lived world and somehow makes the familiar fresh
(Willis, 2002b). Another use of the narrative genre is that ‘It makes it
possible to involve us pre-reflexively in the lived quality of concrete
experience while paradoxically inviting us into a reflective stance vis-à-vis
the meanings embedded in the experience’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 121). The
episodes sketched here are not only accounts of specific events of practice,
but also contain typical elements of hospitality reception work and related
experience.
The methods of data collection from other receptionists included
interviews of hospitality employees involving a small number of questions,
used as a guideline for conversations around the topic. The questions took
the following structure:
Interview Questions
1. Can you describe in general terms your job title, the type of establishment
that you work/worked for and the requirements of your engagement in
hospitality work? What do you think were the key demands of your
work? What roles do you think you were required to take on?
2. Reflect on an event that was/is typical of your everyday work. Can you
narrate that incident in as much detail as possible telling me things such
as: What happened? What were the issues? Who was involved? When was
it? What was the setting like? What were the power relations?
3. What was the experience itself like? Can you express the experience by
employing a metaphor by using sentence stems of the following format

(adapted from Crotty, 1996a, pp. 272–273):
a. what comes to light when I attend to hospitality practice in this
context is yy
b. hospitality practice in this context is like yy
c. hospitality practice can be described as yy
d. what shows up when I think of hospitality practice in this context
is yy
4. How did you feel during this situation? Can you describe your feelings in
relation to these events?
5. What sense can you make of this experience? (Or could be alternatively
framed as – How did you make sense of that experience? Why do you
think you felt the way you did? How would you explain the way you felt?
What do you understand was going on? What did this mean for you?)
The respondents in this type of research are co-researchers working with

the researcher to craft a textual representation that is true to their
experience. Consequently, once the researcher wrote up an episode of
practice, the researcher would need to meet with each respondent to get his/
her feedback on how well the issue was represented. This involved an
ongoing dialogue with the respondents throughout each phase crafting the
episodes.
FIVE-TIERED EXPRESSIVE TEXT-BASED

FRAMEWORK
The text-based methodological framework consists of five modes of textual

representations that translate the philosophical tenets of phenomenology
and interpretative hermeneutics. The first step in the framework is a factual
description of the socio-historical context situated within the receptionists’
experiences of practice, and an explication of the inquiry process used to
investigate their experiences. Second, phenomenology represents reception-
ists’ experiences via narrative portrayals; portrayals consisting of a variety of
arts-based textual genres such as narrative, poetry and metaphor express
this experiential dimension. Third, hermeneutic-interpretation interprets the
meanings receptionists make of their everyday experiences. Fourth, a
literature review of the sociological discourses provides significances of the
meanings and insights towards the contribution of knowledge in the study
of hospitality. Fifth, the framework discusses implications of the significant
themes in relation to ongoing concerns for hospitality practice and
professional development. The next section discusses the above five steps
in this expressive text-based framework and explains the reasons for its
content, style and structure.
Step 1: Factual Description of the Socio-Historical

Context of the Phenomenon Under Study
This refers to the description of the situational background and actualities

and contexts of hospitality reception practice, as well as formative back-
ground to the specific research issue. The aim of this section is to set the stage
for the experience of hospitality reception practice, or whatever practice is
being researched, to unfold. In relation to the episode of practice to be
explored, the receptionist is introduced and the issue and context is described.
Step 2: Portrayal of the Experience
The structure of the experience portrayal in the episode of practice takes the
following format:
Narrative – the receptionist narrates her recollected experience, and
collaborates with the researcher to craft it into a narrative.
Poetised reflection – she expresses her experience using poetry as a vehicle

of representation.
Metaphors – the receptionist and the researcher collaborate to capture
and express the various significant aspects of the receptionist’s experience
through metaphors/similes.
The Narratives
‘A narrative is an active (re)construction of events and experiences; the
narrator decides to include certain events and to tie these events together in
a certain manner. The plot is the scheme used for tying actions and events
through time and place’ [emphasis in original] (Abma, 2002, p. 10). So, a
narrative is a reconstruction, it is not an attempt to capture the former
meaning of an experience as it was first experienced, but a rearranging of the
experience in a way that creates possibilities for new meaning to emerge or
the authentication of former meaning (Sophia, 1998, as cited in McLaren,
1999, p. 365) ‘ y the power of creating new narratives about our lives
cannot be underestimated. Re-storying, or re-telling one’s own story, or
drawing out unspoken stories, expands and creates possibilities. Creating

own visual narratives and stories has allowed own experience to be
reframed y in a way, everything known is learned through stories, and one
is really drawn into exploring the deeper waters of women’s lives;
investigating what is not said, in the silences and the gaps. One wants to
know about the deep crevasses, the Eddies and the Whirlpools, the
indecision and the uncertainties. This is what we learn’.
Richardson (1994) observes that narrative is a powerful literary tool used
in social research, especially when writing about the researcher’s own
experience. He writes that it frames lived experience in such a way that
others intuitively glean its meanings. It creates a virtual reality into the
experience by bringing out the lived sensual dimension of the account. The
aim is to make the reader experience the reality of the episode as if he/she is
a spectator or an onlooker into the experience. The reader should ideally
see, hear, sense and feel what the narrator may have experienced at the time.
If the researcher narrates the story effectively the reader should be able to
identify with the storyteller and empathise with his/her cause or situation.
The reader is able to see in the storytelling all the prejudice, values, fears and
logic that coloured the experience and understand and empathise with the
narration’s viewpoint. Although the narrative is a fictional account taken
from life, it mirrors the lived world and somehow makes the familiar fresh
(Willis, 2002b).
Another use of the narrative genre is that ‘It makes it possible to involve us
pre-reflexively in the lived quality of concrete experience while paradoxically
inviting us into a reflective stance vis-à-vis the meanings embedded in the
experience’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 121). The episodes sketched here are not
only accounts of specific events of practice, but also contain typical elements
of hospitality reception work and related experience. This typification
element is a borrowing from classical phenomenology, similar in format to
van Manen’s (1990, p. 119) phenomenological anecdote, which he sees as a
poetic narrative which describes a universal truth. However, the difference is
that the phenomenological anecdote is not weaved around one episode, but
crafted as a singular piece of text by taking the gist or typical elements from
several episodes. The wider study from which this study forms a part presents
each personal story separately for two reasons as follows.
One of the purposes of this study is to portray each episode as it unfolded
in its lived element. Each episode’s vividness and immediacy intends
to provide a window into what hospitality reception practice was really
like and how receptionists experienced it. Providing an anecdote of the
experience would have defeated this purpose as it would have been like
doling out a soup made by putting several experiences together rather
than doling each individual experience in its actual flavour.
Secondly, although there were unifying themes threading through all the
stories, each story had its particular flavour, or unique quality and the
different issues needed its own stage.
The narration of experience in an expressive text-based inquiry such as
this study involves identifying a significant and typical happening from one’s
practice, and then narrating it so that the full meaning of the episode,
circumstances or situation, can be seen and communicated (Willis, 2002b).
In the wider study that was undertaken, four female receptionists narrated
several personal stories from their practice, plotted around a typically
mundane episode that illuminates the nature of everyday hospitality
reception practice. Although the settings and narrators differ in each
episode, the phenomenon that prompted the story – hospitality reception
practice – is the same. The narration lends itself to an understanding of
common elements in a common experience.
Poetised Reflection
Certain aspects of the experience are evoked in the portrayal of the
experience of hospitality practice in each episode of practice, via a poetic
discourse. Poetry can be defined as ‘literature that evokes a concentrated
imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response

through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound and rhythm’
(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p. 542 as cited in Willis, 2002b, p. 162). The
poetic discourse contained herein evokes some powerful visual imagery
through several lines of prose put together, but not so much through sound
or rhythm. A poem, as Robert Frost (Richardson, 1994, pp. 521–522) has
put it, is ‘the shortest emotional distance between two points’ – the speaker
and the reader. It is a powerful medium of connecting with the reader, even
in instances where the reader does not see eye to eye with the speaker.
‘[P]oetry’s rhythms, silences, spaces, breath, points, alliterations, meter
cadence, assonance, rhyme, and off-rhyme engage the listener’s body, even
when the mind resists and denies it’ (Richardson, 1994, p. 522).
Poetry is generally ‘built from the line rather than the paragraph or block of
text, and this creates in the reader a different feeling according to the ‘‘balance
and shift of the line’’’ [emphasis in original] (Willis, 2002b, p. 162). The
discourse used herein is not so much poetry but poetic reflection in the sense
that texts explicitly express the meanings through words, rather than implicitly
expressing it aesthetically through metaphor. Willis who used poetic
reflections in his thesis makes the point that ‘[t]he challenge is to produce a
vivid reflection that is strong and evocative, even if, as a poem, it is as yet not
as distilled or as perfect as it could conceivably become’ (2002b, pp. 166–167).
Metaphors/Similes
Metaphor can also transform ideas into things such as when an abstract idea
receives the qualities of the concrete thing to which it is compared
(Radzienda, 2004). Metaphors and similes are one of the primary devices for
representing experience with clarity (Fernandez, 1974). They have a way of
tapping into our primordial knowing that we can only intuitively grasp. This
is argued by Polany, from the point of view that ‘Every interpretation of
nature that is based on some intuitive conception of the general nature of
things relates to the view that these intuitions are expressed in metaphors/
similes (as intuitions of inchoate matters must be)’ (1964, p. 10 as cited in
Fernandez, 1974, p. 119). Metaphors/similes are the closest that one can get
to the experienced moment.
Skinner claims that ‘Behaviourists have recognised that metaphor is
the device men possess for leaping beyond the essential privacy of the
experiential process’ (1945, as cited in Fernandez, 1974, p. 119). Researchers
use metaphors as a tool to tap unconscious beliefs, feelings and other
experiential qualities not accessible through direct questioning. For example,
Woodside (2004, 2006, 2008) has conducted a number of research inquiries
where metaphors have been employed through what he calls the Forced
Metaphor Elicitation Technique (FMET) to decode consumers’ implicit
thinking in choosing certain brands and products. Woodside’s FMET
techniques serve a very similar function in this study, as research participants
are encouraged to make an association of what the experience was like with
another experience that has similar elements but comes from a different
context.
This research uses metaphor as a tool to get close to the experience as
possible and re-create pattern in metaphorical shape and form, without
directly pointing out the meaning. Hence, the metaphors/similes section in this
chapter aims to recapitulate the experience of hospitality reception practice in
an episode of practice through a series of metaphorical images, trying to
capture and hold onto as much of the experience as possible. The metaphorical
intuiting approach used in this study is drawn from the work of Crotty
(1996a). Crotty’s approach involves identifying and focusing on the pheno-
menon (not on one’s self), bracketing out all preconceptions, and letting the
phenomenon shape the way you experience it. The idea is to contemplate the
phenomenon, behold it in the consciousness and let the pen craft its shape and
feeling through metaphor. This is not an easy task. So, to do this, he proposes
the use of several sentence stems, which help describe the nature of the
phenomenon. The following are some of the sentence stems that he has
suggested and the words hospitality reception practice have been inserted here
in the space left for the phenomenon (Crotty, 1996a, pp. 272–273):
I picture hospitality reception practice as ————————————

Hospitality reception practice feels like ————————————
What comes to light when I focus on hospitality reception practice is ———————
Hospitality reception practice sounds to me like ————————————
What I see in hospitality reception practice is ————————————
Each of the sentence stems uses the classical/intuiting phenomenological

approach to bring out what the experience was like or nature of the
experience by tuning into different sensory awareness such as sight, sound
and feeling.
In this study, the various elements of the experience that have been woven
into a plot in each narrative are expressed in metaphors/similes, so that its
structure becomes clear and easier to grasp. The study generates metaphors/
similes to capture all dimensions of the experience. The saturation point
reaches when nothing new becomes available. At this point, where no new
elements are uncovered, one should move forward to unravel the elements
of the phenomenon.
Step 3: Interpretation of the Experience
Interpret each receptionist’s experience as he/she expresses his/her feelings

related to that experience. Unravel each experience’s meaning and then
organise into themes.
Feelings
Feelings express the emotional and/or sensory reaction of the practitioner
towards their situation during the episode. This section is located broadly
within the empathetic phenomenological paradigm. Herein the word feeling
loosely denotes emotion. Harre (1998) writes that the term emotion is multi-
vocal in its usage and that the literature on emotion has conceptualised it in
two ways. That is, emotions as a bodily condition or feeling, or alternatively
as a physiological state. Harre views an emotional display as a complex
judgement that is the performance of a social act, for example, raging at
someone. Emotions also denote a sense of embodiment in the world.
As outlined earlier, this study is also interested in interpreting the mean-
ings attributed to the experience of hospitality reception work. Research
pursues these meanings through hermeneutics, which allows interpretation

of other people’s meaning. That is, what sense do receptionists make of their
work? What do they think is going on? What is their understanding of the
experience? The aim is to step into the shoes of the respondents and
understand how they felt about the situation that has been described by
them and then to interpret their meaning.
Unravelling of Themes
Unravelling herein refers to extracting the characteristics of the phenom-
enon. The unravelling section is concerned with identifying, interpreting and
putting into shape emerging phenomenological themes from each hospitality
reception work account. Drawing from van Manen (1990), Bricher (1997)
points out that themes are a ‘Simplification of the structure of the experience
but their value is that they can assist in both giving shape to and capturing
the phenomenon’. Bricher also points out that in contrast to its usage in
other contexts, ‘A theme is not the outcome of a phenomenological study,
but a part of the process which leads to the phenomenological description’
(1997, p. 43).
Once the narratives and metaphors/similes are completed the process of
unravelling is concerned with drawing out the lived meaning from them.
Unravelling, in this study, represented what van Manen refers to as seeking
meaning in his work: ‘We try to unearth something ‘telling’, something

‘meaningful’, something thematic in the various experiential accounts – we
work at mining meaning from them’ (1990, p. 86).
The study juxtaposed the phenomenological and hermeneutic themes
expressed through the ten episodes of practice so that common elements can
be summarised into broader themes as follows:
Step 4: Significance of the Experience
The above developed themes are categorised and then explicated, analysed,
compared and grounded in pre-existing social discourses. That is, the chapter
links and classifies themes under broad topic categories and explains them.
The aim of this component is to help broaden the field relating to the
experience of hospitality reception work through explanatory knowledge
generated herein. For example, the researcher promoted and extended
knowledge by linking themes to the broader discourses in culture, feminist
theory, role theory, power factors, labour and consumerism, and also notions
about home environment. In this process, there is a continuation of the

reflective process that has been present throughout this study. Piantanida and
Garman explain the conceptual reflection process employed here as a ‘form of
reflection, [whereby] researchers begin to connect their recollective and
introspective reflections with broader theoretical concepts and issues. Instead
of relying on their immediate or instinctive interpretation of events,
researchers begin to draw upon formal knowledge to (re)construct the
meaning of experiences in relation to the phenomenon under study. In con-
ceptual reflection, interpretative researchers are resonating simultaneously
with the specific context of the study and with existing discourses about the
phenomenon under study’ (1999, p. 143). In this linkage with the broader
discourses this chapter draws from a variety of discourses, such as articles
from Union magazines, poetry, Shakespeare’s plays and academic literature.
Step 5: Implications for Practice
Having uncovered the meanings and significance in the experience of

hospitality reception practice in this chosen episode of practice, this section
discusses the implications of the phenomenological and hermeneutic insights
for practice and professional development. These implications are a result of
the lessons learnt from the inquiry. The implications have a bearing on
policy, practice and future research. In showing and discussing the essential
attributes of this type of work, the aim is to establish a foundation for
further investigations into such work.
In light of the portrayal, interpretation and significance of the experience
of hospitality reception practice, one way is to consider the implications for
receptionists, in terms of the attributes and skills needed to do the work.
Such implications are useful for those who are already in the occupation,
have left the occupation or would like to join the occupation. As van Manen
has stated, a hermeneutic and phenomenological study such as this
‘encourages a certain attentive awareness to the details and seemingly
trivial dimensions of our everyday [reception work] lives. It makes us
thoughtfully aware of the consequential in the inconsequential, the
significance in the taken-for-granted’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 8). It helps one
to act tactfully in reception situations on the ‘basis of a carefully edified
thoughtfulness’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 8). That is, the implications of this
study help understand the experience of the practice better in terms of what
receptionists are required to do in the industry, why they are feeling the way
they are feeling, and the skills, competencies, roles, personal attributes and
dispositions that are needed to do this kind of work.

Implications on the role of the receptionists for example in the researcher’s
wider study included being able to invite, welcome, and then subsequently
through a mixture of friendliness, kindness and some strategic distance,
transform and convert strangers to be compliant and generous guests,
prudent customers to be generous spenders, travellers to be vacationers, and
visitors to be tourists. Receptionists need to form meaningful connections
with guests during their stay and further convert them to archetypes of
vacationers and possibly tourists who are disarmed, compliant, valued,
pampered, enriched and pleased; thus, bidding farewell to departing guests
while encouraging them to return with assurances of rewards.
Implications follow for the pedagogy of hospitality practice as this study
helps to make ‘interpretative sense of the phenomena [experience of
hospitality reception practice] of the lifeworld in order to see the pedagogic
significance of situations and relations of [receptionist work]’ (van Manen,
1990, p. 2). For example, further research could look at the themes of the
experience that has been uncovered to see whether these themes are
generalisable for a cross-section of practitioners and if so, the impact of
these attributes on the HR processes of recruitment, selection, performance
management, development and rewarding.
For educators in tourism, this study will provide an insight into the kinds
of challenges that students may encounter in the hospitality industry and the
caring and pedagogic role that hospitality workers play in the host–guest
encounter. Hopefully, these insights will help academics prepare prospective
hospitality workers to handle the practice of hospitality better. The
researcher developed a booklet for undergraduate hospitality students
containing the vignettes of lived experiences from the wider study to use as a
point of discussion on the significance and meanings of hospitality work.
This has proved to be a very effective pedagogic tool, as students found their
work in the industry to be more meaningful as a result of the insights gained
from reading about the practice. For example, students reported that they
were able to gain valuable insights into hospitality work which they had not
previously foreseen; students who were undertaking hospitality work
reported that the vignettes resonated with their personal experiences in the
industry and that they were able to make sense of certain aspects of their
practice which they had not previously understood or taken for granted.
Hopefully, this will challenge hospitality practitioners to review existing
practices and policies as a consequence of the increased awareness brought
through the experiences presented in this study.
At a macro level, the kind of approach suggested in this chapter offers an
opportunity to explore the experience of hospitality practice as if one was

experiencing the practice for the ‘very first time’. This perspective allows
researchers to identify structures of the receptionists’ experiences scholars
have not noticed or recognised previously. By showing and interpreting the
essential attributes of this type of work, this chapter establishes a foundation
for further research investigations.
The next section of this chapter provides an example from hospitality
reception practice to show how the techniques explained applies to a real-life
scenario. The narrator’s (research participant’s) own words/voice forms the
description below. The following are some excerpts from some of these
stories (the names of the people and places described here are pseudonyms).
THE CASE STUDY: ‘DO YOU KNOW HOW

IMPORTANT I AM?’ MS LIM
Factual Description of the Socio-Historical Context of the Experience
Introduction
Ganga, a young receptionist who worked in a major five-star hotel in
Sri Lanka named the Goldmark narrates the following episode in her
own voice.
Contextual Orientation
This opening episode took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1991 when
Ganga was a ‘Trainee Front Desk Assistant’ at the Goldmark hotel. Ganga
was nineteen years of age at the time and had only worked at the Goldmark
for about five months when this incident took place.
Location. The Goldmark is a luxury city hotel that accommodates both

business clients and vacationers. A majority of the in-house guests are
foreigners who generally combine business with pleasure and leisure. It
occupies a superior position in the five-star market, and boasts of luxury,
comfort and ultimate prestige. Commanding one’s view, the hotel is a
magnificent architectural epitome that rises like a kingdom, wrapped in acres
of lush tropical gardens and the deep blue sea.
As your vehicle turns in to the coconut palm-lined driveway of the hotel,
the air smells of the sea, sending you instantly into a holiday mood. Then as
you come to a stop at the hotel’s grand entrance, doormen dressed like
soldiers in their Navy-like uniform, march in to open the doors, ‘Good
afternoon sir/madam, welcome to the Goldmark!’. As you step out, young
smartly dressed men (porters), all wanting to be of service, are ready with
trolleys to collect your baggage. You walk across the red carpet perhaps laid
just for you, and walk towards the door as if in a dream, you feel like an
important dignitary. A tall giant of a doorman, who looks like a Scotsman
in his kilt except for the fact that this one is dressed in a white suit with white
gloves and looks slightly out of place in the hot tropical weather, leaps to
open the door and beckons you into a fairytale world.
As you walk through that door, the first sensation you feel is the cool
breeze from the air conditioning that is a welcoming contrast to the hot
muggy weather outside. The dazzling hue of gold and silver stops you in
your tracks, and captures your imagination and excites your senses. Large
gold and brass pillars, solid gold framed paintings, contrasting with the
silver of grand crystal chandeliers and marble floors, arrest your attention
and indeed convey to you that you have entered a contemporary palace in
all its glamour and comfort. The furnishings are of the finest quality with
lush Persian carpets and thick velvet drapes. There are soft comfortable
lounges with Indian embroidered cushions everywhere and large picture
windows that look directly into the lush gardens and the deep blue sea.
Guests dressed in fashionable garments are lazing on the lounges reading
newspapers and magazines. The lobby smells of a light summery breeze
perfumed by the scent from the large adornments of flower arrangements in
every imaginable colour that seem to be everywhere. There is light piano
music flowing through the lobby giving a fairytale quality to the whole
experience. As you walk towards the reception you get drifts of the aroma of
delicious baking and freshly brewed coffee making you slightly hungry. Just
as you think of food, a waiter walks up to you with a beverage tray and offer
you a large mocktail with a wedge of pineapple, a lychee and a little paper
umbrella garnish.
Everywhere you look there is fun, excitement and luxury. Some are being
pampered in the health resort or having a leisurely swim outside enjoying
the tropical weather. Some are sitting in the lobby sipping cocktails and
enjoying the live music. Young girls in strappy dresses, arm in arm with their
lovers are making their way to the discotheque or entwined in passionate
embraces under the palms. This is the fairytale world that Goldmark’s
guests walk into, and it sets the scene for a fantasy holiday as if you were a
king or a queen.
The Reception Setting. Attractive young female receptionists in their high

heels, pink blouses and skirts, and the male receptionists, cleanly shaved, in
their grey suits, crisp white shirts and silver ties, all with smiling faces are all
part of the show. They blend into the glamour of the hotel like the
furnishings and beckon you and attract your attention.
The receptionists are like magicians, working hard to make the fairytale
world become a reality for the guests, without a thought to their own
personal needs. Receptionists have to welcome guests as if they are kings
and queens, and make them feel very special and valued. However, despite
this focus on pampering guests, two-thirds of the Goldmark’s receptionist
job description involved many mundane administrative and clerical duties,
undertaken behind scenes to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
The reality, says Ganga, was quite different for receptionists working in
this world of opulence and glamour. For instance, in the Goldmark where
there are sofas everywhere, the receptionists have never experienced what it
is like to sit on them. In fact, they spend their entire time at work standing
behind a counter. They are mere onlookers into the opulence and comfort
that they are part of as the hotel does not allow employees to enter the hotel
as guests/consumers.
Issues
The following narrative describes an episode which portrays competing
priorities of roles and tasks typical to hotel reception work. It portrays the
balancing of competing priorities and loyalties. These include senior staff
who have been in the job for a long time, abusing their power; conflicts
between administrative/clerical role and social role of receptionist work;

trying to choose between loyalties to management and to the guests;
management choosing profit maximisation over employee goodwill;
catering for the need for importance and personal recognition demanded
by guests.
Portrayal of the Experience
Excerpt 1: Out of the above issues this excerpt relates to conflicting

priorities.
The receptionist still remembers this incident vividly. It was around 10.55
p.m., about five minutes before it was time to clock-out for the day and she
was running late with balancing her float. The music and entertainment in
the lobby had come to a close and most in-house guests had retired to their
rooms for the night. The lobby manager’s station, opposite the reception
desk, was unoccupied at the time. On this particular occasion, she was
working with Nihal and Sumith. Nihal was the most senior reception worker
at the reception desk. He had initially been the head cashier in the hotel and
then later promoted to the reception desk. Nihal often chose to work the
evening shift when managers and supervisors in the front office had retired
for the day. He didn’t do his share of the work and spent most of the time in
the back office talking to his friends on the telephone or socialising with his
colleagues from other outlets. As he was higher up in the organisational
hierarchy and was able to bend management’s ear to his causes, we were
afraid to complain about him to management; so, junior receptionists such as
I, who were only on traineeship level, did all his share of the work. This
meant that those of us unfortunate enough to be rostered to work the
evening shift with him were often overworked and went home feeling worse
for it. On the day of this incident, Nihal was sitting at the back office,
chatting with his friends from other departments. The workers in other
departments who wanted to be in his good books due to his seniority often
did him personal favours. Room service often offered Nihal special meals
and beverages. Even senior management did not expect to receive such meals
without paying for them, as the hotel provided free staff meals in the staff
cafeteria. Staff, of course, perceived their food as inferior to the guest food.
Sumith, the other senior receptionist was pretending to be working at the
front, without actually doing anything useful. During the day, he had been
off-loading most of his work onto a junior. Having experienced life in an
egalitarian society abroad and being only nineteen years of age with young
hormones rushing wildly, this receptionist was fuming with the injustice of it
all. She was at the end of her eight-hour shift, feeling very tired, not at all
feeling like a magician who was going to make her dream come true. In fact,
she felt more like a witch ready to pounce on anyone who made her job any
more difficult.
Reports that she had just printed were covering her, and the printer next
to her was buzzing away printing more. She had bundles of money and
travellers cheques all over her desk and coins and notes counted into piles on
the desk in front of her. There were paper clips, rubber bands and envelopes
all scattered on the desk. She was in the midst of doing some calculations on
the computer, slouching at the desk as her feet were really aching from
having stood behind the desk for nearly eight hours, and was fully engrossed
in her work, which meant that she was not looking up, as she usually would,
but looking down at her paperwork. She was in no mood to receive guests,
let alone treat them like kings and queens.
It was at this time that she sensed someone walking towards the desk.
She felt rather exasperated at the intrusion at that time of the night. This is
one time that she really wished that the hotel was empty so that she could
carry on with her balancing without any interruptions from guests. Sumith
was on the phone on a personal call. He was not taking an interest in
serving the guest. She knew she would need to attend to the guest and that
meant first of all smiling. She hated having to smile when she did not feel
like it. It felt so unnatural and so un-spontaneous; it made her feel like a
circus animal performing on demand. She was also not comfortable
establishing eye contact directly with guests for prolonged periods. So, she
waited until the guest was almost near the desk, looked up, greeted her
with a quick smile and looked down and then up again without directly
looking at the guest’s eyes.
The guest was a small, Oriental woman extravagantly dressed in a red
tailored suit, and matching bright red high heels. Her dark straight hair was
neatly pinned at the back in a bun. Her posture was dead straight as she
walked with a sense of authority towards the desk. She reached the counter,
laid her very expensive-looking handbag on the counter and informed the
receptionist that she was Ms Jinju Lim, checking in and that she had a
reservation. She looked at the receptionist as if the latter should have
recognised her straightaway by that name. The receptionist uttered the usual
phrases of welcome. The guest then asked whether Aruna and Chris were
working. The receptionist informed her that they no longer worked with the
hotel. She looked disappointed. The receptionist then located her reserva-
tion and asked her to fill out a guest registration card.
Ms Lim appeared unsettled for some reason. When she finally finished
completing the registration card, the receptionist requested an imprint of her
credit card. This is when things started to get nasty. Ms Lim shook her head
at the receptionist as she passed her the registration card. She said in what
the receptionist felt was a chiding tone that all her details should be on the
records as she had stayed at this hotel before. The receptionist re-checked
her reservation record, as well as the no-show record, and found there was
no note indicating she was a return guest. Rather than saying that the record
did not indicate this, the receptionist apologised, then sidestepped her
interrogation and said that she would add Ms Lim to the return-guest list.
Having reassured the guest the receptionist again politely requested her
credit card for an imprint. The receptionist was getting quite impatient with
the guest as she wanted to get back to her counting as soon as possible. Ms
Lim tapped the pen on the counter impatiently while shaking her head at the
receptionist and said in a disdainful tone, ‘Ayooow! I have no time for this
nonsense’, and refused to give her card. The receptionist was taken aback by
her rudeness. In the culture of the receptionist, to shake one’s head at
someone and say ayooow is the ultimate insult. It was like saying, ‘you
stupid dumb-bell, I have no patience with you!’ The receptionist wriggled

like a worm and felt humiliated. She didn’t know how to continue extending
her hospitality while holding on to her dignity. She was caught in between
her feelings of intimidation and her duty to be friendly.
She explained, ‘Madam, I am really sorry for the inconvenience caused,
but this is the hotel’s policy and I do not have the authority to waive the
policy’. The receptionist thought on one level, she almost enjoyed this little
triumph over the guest, and on another level felt powerless either to send the
guest to her room as she wished or maybe even send her packing out of
the hotel for being so difficult. The procedure for guest check-in and taking
either a cash deposit or a credit card imprint was clearly spelled out in the
operations manual and there was no room to cover herself, if she didn’t
follow the rules. In fact, it was only a couple of weeks ago that the staff were
given a memo to say that they must get a credit card imprint or a cash
deposit from every guest, warning that some receptionists had not been
following this procedure thus putting the hotel at risk. The receptionist knew
of several employees who had to pay from their own pocket because for one
reason or another they had failed to collect the money from the guest.
Ms Lim’s room rate for one night alone was more than two months of a
receptionist’s salary. So, the receptionist was clearly not willing to take a risk.
Ms Lim clearly appeared insulted at having to give her credit card details.
The receptionist kept assuring her that it was a procedure that the hotel
followed with all the guests, including long-standing guests. She kept saying,
‘I am a regular guest at your hotel; I don’t know why you won’t just let me
go to my room. I don’t have the patience to go through these payment
procedures; I shouldn’t have to’. The struggle continued for what seemed
like an eternity as Ms Lim kept refusing and the receptionist kept persuading
her to change her mind. Finally, as the receptionist was thinking of giving up
in desperation, Ms Lim threw her credit card at her, and verbally almost
slapped her, saying ‘take it’. The receptionist felt like a beggar who had been
hassling for money. She picked up the card from the counter, took an imprint,
handed it back and apologised once more saying that as the guest may
understand she did not have any authority in the matter. While the
receptionist was talking, the guest had whisked her bag away and made her
way to the elevator. The receptionist felt upset because the guest was angry
with her, and also relieved as if a fierce dog had attacked her and finally let go.
The next morning when the receptionist came back to work, she had
momentarily forgotten the incident. So, when she was summoned to the
front office director, Mr Gunaratna’s office, at half past ten in the morning,
she had no idea what was about to unfold. The director informed her that it
was concerning the incident with Ms Lim. A chill rang down her spine and
her palms began to sweat. Mr Gunaratna said in a calculated tone that
Ms Lim was a valued regular guest at the hotel, and had stated that she
was disappointed with the inattentive attitude towards her the night before.
Mr Gunaratna added that clearly there was a lot of explaining to be done.
The receptionist gasped. Her whole face felt warm as she felt the blood
gushing into her cheeks. She gritted her teeth and tried to remain composed.
How dare the guest complain when clearly she was in the wrong and how
dare Mr Gunaratna take her side, was all the receptionist could think.
Mr Gunaratna continued in a chilling tone that Ms Lim was threatening
to take her business elsewhere. She was a travel agent, and she being
unhappy meant that she could take away business from the hotel. When
Mr Gunaratna finished his accusation he asked the receptionist whether she
had anything to say in her defence. She felt as if she was back in school
reprimanded by the schoolmaster for misbehaving. She told him in a
wavering voice that she was surprised at the accusation because she had not
done anything wrong except follow standard hotel procedure in requesting
the credit card information.
He cut her off in mid-sentence, and said that the nature of the accusation
concerned her rudeness towards the guest. ‘My rudeness?’ the receptionist
was confounded. She once more expressed her surprise that the guest had
thought that she was not courteous, because she was always courteous
towards her guests. Mr Gunaratna said that he liked the way she referred to
guests as ‘my guests’, and in this instance, he would excuse her. He then went
on to explain that it is not their place to displease the customer, because as
they all knew the customer was always right. It was their job to fix whatever
the customer felt unhappy about and he said that he expected the receptionist
to ring the guest, apologise to her and persuade her to stay with the hotel.
‘Do whatever is necessary to fix this. You’ve caused a problem and now you
have to fix it. Offer her a discounted room rate to compensate for the
damage’, he said in a dismissive tone. ‘Yes sir’, the receptionist said and
closed the door turning to leave with a feeling of betrayal.
Poetised Reflection
The following is an excerpt from the receptionist’s poetised reflection on the
nature of her experience in this episode of practice:
I protect this fortress

day and night
from passers-by;
this fortress built

with sweat, dreams and love
is as much mine as yours y.
My eyes and ears open
Lest an enemy take us unarmed
Each cart and wagon searched
Lest a wolf in sheep’s clothing pass
Suddenly with guns and ammunition
cart bursts in through the gates;
make-way! or my blood be drawn they yell
I leap, not for my life,
but to close the gate.
Yet, my master
like a chameleon you change,
slash my heart out
toss it bleeding off into the cart
and jest any more parts you need my friends.
Metaphors/Similes
The describing of the story brings the respondent’s mind back to the
incident, and now she turns to contemplate the event and to let its meanings
reveal itself through metaphors as follows.
Hospitality reception practice seems to be like being a wild horse broken

to pull a cart.
Hospitality reception practice feels like a balloon kicked around by people
and ready to burst.
Reception work reveals itself to me in this episode as a sock used and
discarded.
The experience felt like being a shock absorber, absorbing shocks from a
rough road.
I picture hospitality reception practice in this episode as a juggler.
What I detect in hospitality reception practice is like being caught in
quicksand.
Hospitality reception practice looks to me like a rope pulled in different
directions.
I depict hospitality reception practice in graphic form as a butterfly
pinned to a board.
Hospitality reception practice presents itself to me as being cooked in a
pressure cooker.
Hospitality reception practice strikes me as being abandoned at a
shipwreck.
What unfolds to me as I dwell on hospitality reception practice is that it is
like a cow milked until dry.
I picture hospitality practice in this episode as like a rabbit immobilised by
the headlights of a car.
Interpretation of the Experience
Feelings
I felt angry that guests were always trying to see how far they could push
you.
Feelings of rejection, insecurity and disappointment overtook me as I felt
that there was little support and appreciation of my work. A feeling of
being used and discarded.
I felt disintegrated because of the pulling and shoving around in all
directions by guests and management.
I felt vulnerable and intimidated by the power held over me.
I felt curtailed by the restrictions and control placed over me.
I felt dispirited by the forced passivity and disempowerment.
Unravelling of Themes
Forced passivity in the face of an omnipotent power – The experience was
one of forced passivity. It is an experience in which you feel consumed by
a powerful force. It is one in which you are immobilised by fear of the
power held over you.
Disempowering and delimiting like a cat put on a leash.
Precarious – There is a sense of being dependent on the whim of others,
where the outcome is not clear-cut.
Performing prescribed pseudo intimacy – There is an element of extreme
sociability whereby you feel forced to be intimate, and to display
emotions that you may not necessarily feel.
Withstanding pressure and disintegration – The experience was one of
constant pressure, an endless milking of energy.
Having sensitivity to the dynamics of social and psychological needs –
The experience is one of having to receive guests with a grandiose and
ceremonious dance to boost people’s egos and place them on a pedestal.
Handling competing demands and loyalties – The experience was one of
being caught between competing demands and loyalties and working with
conflict. The experience was like being a juggler–synthesiser fulfilling one

function while being engaged in another
A watchdog and defender of territory – It was also like being a gatekeeper
camouflaged as a gracious hostess, where the role of keeping away
unwanted guests intermingles and competes with the role of gracious
receiving of people as welcome guests.
Being in servitude – A sense of powerlessness and lack of control colours
the experience as the guest and management holds much power over you.
The experience of reception practice is a mixed feeling of being a hostess
and a servant.
A flexible shield – Hospitality reception practice had the effect of being a
human buffer or shield; it was like a shock absorber, absorbing shocks
from a rough road or a vest that absorbs bullets, to make it comfortable,
safe and smooth for others.
Recurring sequence – The experience of reception practice has a recurring
sequence, doing the same thing over and over. The monotony strips the
spirit of the action.
Significance of the Experience
This section illustrates through an example the linking of experiential

themes to the analytical themes in the sociological discourses under the two
broad categories relating to the prescriptive nature of service and the

experience of being controlled and performance in the service role. There are
many other dimensions of the experience addressed in the wider study, but
for ease of illustration only two overarching experiential elements of the
receptionist’s experience has been chosen for concentration.
Prescriptive Nature of Service and the Experience of Being Controlled

Scholarly writing widely analyses and theorises in a variety of ways the
theme of prescriptive behaviour in service settings, for example, through
standard operating procedures, hierarchical organisational structures and
authoritarian management styles, as well as through staff selection, training
and reward. However, there are only a handful of empirical studies that
have portrayed or interpreted the subjective lived experiential dimension of
controlling, especially in the context of hospitality reception work. Poems
written about work situations make a welcome source of experiential
accounts, given this scarcity of scholarly work. In an interesting move, this
sense of powerlessness was strongly expressed by a room attendant (whose
job is to clean rooms) in a poem that was sent to the South Australian
entries of the Liquor and Hospitality Miscellaneous Workers’ Union’s
(LHMWU) national poetry competition. The poem has been quoted (with
permission from the Union) so that the structure of the experience can be
gleaned (Lyle, 2002, p. 6).
The Casual Workers’ Song
Our worksite’s (like) a pit of venomous snakes,

Where there’s slitherin’ and crawlin’ and all that it takes.
‘Cos the bosses have power and we get no say [author emphasis added],
And the bosses are hell bent to keep it that way.
So there’ll be no complaints here, you’d better watch out,
The opinion Gestapo is there on the scout.
And we leave when we can, ‘cos the atmosphere’s crappy,
But they don’t give a damn, they say ‘Let’s all be happy’!!!
Chorus:
(aside, in a mock Teutonic accent ‘Ve haf vays off making you happy’)
To the grovelling favourites there’s promises made,
With a message to others, ‘Be very afraid’.
And beware if you dare, get one toe out of line,
They can show off their muscles and ‘just change their mind’ y
(aside, nice as pie, ‘Sorry, Trev, no work for YOU tomorrow’ y)

When the mercury’s hoverin’ around thirty five,
And you’re wishin’ to Christ that you weren’t alive.
And you’re bustin’ yer guts and you’re dyin’ of thirst,
Never mind OH&S, it’s a race to be first y
(aside, ‘And what kindergarten do YOU go to, dearie?’)
If they made changes now it might be too late,
But the old pit’s got into a terrible state.
When the good folk are gone and there’s fights everywhere,
Who’ll they find to blame it on, y Ask someone who’ll care!
This poem captures a range of emotions that casual hospitality workers

experience around the concept of being controlled. These emotions are
injustice, powerlessness, lack of concern on the part of bosses, apprehension
of losing the job, helplessness, frustration and lack of dignity. Some
underlying themes are that bosses flaunt their power and make you cringe,
the hypocrisy of appearances, the drudgery of hard work and the ever-
present threat of having your hours limited or losing the job altogether.
These themes resonate with some of the experiences described in this study.
The experiential dimension of being controlled in the workplace has been
recognised in the literature in various ways; for example, Höpel (2002)
contends that workers are controlled through the organisation’s culture,
socialisation processes, training and job descriptions. He sees service
workers as merely playing a part/role, where organisations have provided
the script, backdrop and the setting. The workers are given very little choice
and autonomy on playing the part ‘[I]f this authority says that the play is
Hamlet then the actors cannot play Macbeth, however the authorities may
propose that Hamlet be played in the style of Macbeth or with the
characters of Julius Caesar’ (2002, p. 258).
Mason (1988) expresses a similar view having empirically investigated the
experience of hotel receptionists. Mason in his dissertation contends that the
prescribed operational aspects of the job are clearly set out in the Front
Office Manual and ‘What the receptionist is left to decide upon is the order
in which they are to be done (though guidelines are also given in such
manuals) and the way in which to do them’ (1988, p. 231). He shows that
workers are often disgruntled by not having sufficient opportunity or
encouragement to use initiative and, instead, simply being told what to do.
In such an environment Kemp and Dwyer (2001, p. 78) contend that
employees are more doers than thinkers.
Theorising about prescriptive standards in service work, a number of

scholars have pointed out its cause as market pressure and manage-
ment’s need to maintain order and control. Such a response partly
reflects the sovereign status accorded to consumers in today’s
supposedly customer oriented corporate culture, for example, Ritzer
(1996) and Ritzer and Liska (1997) point out that of work is stan-
dardised and routinised because consumers are wanting highly predic-
table, efficient, calculable and controlled service outcomes. The way in
which the task and relational aspects of service work are formed and
regulated through prescriptive practices has been the discussion of
others (see Klaus, 1985). Scholars point out employees’ roles and
appropriate responses and actions are prescribed and governed through
organisational rules (see Friesen, 1972; Hochschild, 1979, 1983; Matsumoto,
1990), customs and manners (see Mennell, Murcott, & Van Otterloo, 1992),
service scripts (see Smith & Houston, 1983), rituals (see Visser, 1991) and
etiquette.
Kemp and Dwyer point out that in a regulated work environment
‘ y the expectation of management is that good valued employees will
adhere to management’s expressed directives y . This style of strategic

management relies on power and decision-making residing at the top
level of the organisation. There is a reliance on the legitimate authority
that goes with positions to reinforce decisions. The use of policies,
procedures and rules ensures that action in the organisation goes accord-
ing to the ‘‘grand master plan’’’ (2001, p. 78). They contend that one of
the reasons behind regulating work through this top down approach is
that employee actions are predictable and controlled. Despite the
prescriptive nature of their job and what some scholars have stated
there is generally enough leverage in the role for the server to work out
how he/she wants to play the role, as the episodes in the researcher’s
previous study has shown (e.g. in Wijesinghe, 2007 Neelam and Mary’s
stories demonstrate how they acted within their role while using their
own judgement). That is, they displayed more personal agency than, for
example, the receptionist in this study did. However, some receptionists
might perceive this leverage and take on the opportunity, while others
may not see it and perform as if they are in a self-imposed prison. These
receptionists may be unwilling to contest the rules or deviate from them
for fear that they may not have any ground to stand on. Therefore, they
may perform their role as given by the organisation without taking any
risks of changing and adopting the role.
Performance in the Service Role

The present research demonstrates that in the service role, receptionists take
on the role of actors whereby they dress and groom to create a certain
image, and stylise their communication using scripts supplied by others. For
example, receptionists are careful not to reveal the chaos in the back-of-
house, because it will not be conducive to the magical atmosphere
receptionists are trying to generate. So, the receptionist will smile at the
guest instead and say, ‘Welcome to the Goldmark’.
Reception work is also a performance, demarcated from normal
behaviour. Receptionists may use formalised scripts, like ‘How may I serve
you?’, ‘Could I be of assistance with anything else?’, ‘Have a nice day!’ In
everyday communication, these types of phrases are not generally used. The
guests on the other hand, can request a favour without any pleasantries. For
example, a guest may walk over to the reception desk and say ‘I’m here to
check-in, the name is Brown’, without wasting time introducing him or
herself or engaging in polite small talk as one would usually do in ordinary
day-to-day life. All this can create a personage that is not one’s true self,
which can instigate a sense of acting. This is captured in the in a poem that
has been written about service work, ‘[y]ou say phrases that are not yours –
you hear phrases that are not theirs’ (Marcus, 1995, p. 251). This kind of
feeling shows up in reception settings where both receptionists and guests
play a role, each behaving in ways designed to put on a social performance.
The role has a scripted conversation structure to fit into the proper role of
guests or receptionists (Price, 2008). In putting up a performance rece-
ptionists often experience a dichotomy, or duality between their personal
self-identity and work self-identity explored next.
Duality between Service Performer and Role. One of the themes that come
through is that receptionists see themselves as having a separate identity
from their job role, and the chapter explains this using role theory.
Solomon, Surprenant, Czepiel, and Gutman state that people are social
actors ‘who learn behaviours appropriate to the positions they occupy in
society. Although the actors in a service setting may be very different
individuals in their leisure time, they must adopt a relatively standardised set
of behaviours (i.e. read from a common script) when they come to work or
enter the marketplace’ (1985, p. 102). The receptionist’s personality can be
significantly different from their job role, creating a sense of dissonance (see
Hochschild, 1983). Metaphorically speaking, receptionists describe their role
in such a way as if it were a foreign object pasted into their body. Goffman
calls this way of ‘perceiving role distancing’. This perceiving is ‘The process
by which the individual effectively expresses separateness between himself
and his putative role’ (1961, p. 108 as cited in Branaman, 1997, p. i).
Goffman (1974, p. 292 as cited in Branaman, 1997, p. i), who focuses on
things from a symbolic interaction perspective, notes that people are able to
distance themselves from, ‘Roles in which they are involved by defining
them as accidental or otherwise unrelated or insignificant to personal
identity’. This distancing may also be explainable by role incongruity
(Schneider, 1980 as cited in Ross, 1995, p. 316).
However, the issue in this episode of practice is that the receptionist feels
there is conflict between her contrived work role (e.g. she has to be bubbly
and exuberant at all times) and her authentic non-work work role, and that
it is difficult to reconcile the difference in the two roles. The question is
mostly one of: ‘What is my work role and what is ‘me’?’. For the receptionist
in this narrative her personality in non-work settings feels free and real,
while in the work setting it is constrained and feels contrived. Goffman
explains this conflicting duality in self through his distinction between the
all-too-human self and the socialised self (1959, p. 56 as cited in Branaman,
1997, p. xviii) or between the self-as-performer and the self-as-character

(1959, p. 252 as cited in Branaman, 1997, p. xviii). Similarly, Arlie
Hochschild (1983) describes this as estrangement from self, which she
believes happens due to interference with the functionality of feelings for
commercial purposes.
The Dialectical Tension between Real Self and Contrived Work Self. In the
book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman (1959)
explores this concept through the front-stage and back-stage dichotomy. In
his study, he likens people’s behaviour to actors in a theatre. He states that
when people are back stage not seen by the public, they behave in habitual
ways more authentic to their real self; but when they are in the face of the
public, performing on the front stage, they play out certain roles that are
contrived and different from their habitual ways. These concepts show that
work self, links with front-stage behaviour and that no-work private self,
links with back-stage behaviour.
A source of direct revelation of the lived dialectical tension between these
two interacting forces of one’s real self and work self is illustrated in a series
of anthologies on poetry about work; for example, under Labour Trilogy,
Myung-Hee Kim presents three poems, one of which is titled Mask Play.
This poem expresses how workers have to cover up their true selves under a
mask to do their job and sell their soul, ‘she hangs her real self on the
hanger y brings down a mask she is to wear for her bread and butter’ (1990,
p. 247). The poet then expresses that these swapping of selves creates tension
within her public and private fac- ade, ‘[c]langing alarm-bells through her
bone joints, her marrow screams: Help! Help! I am your marrow!’ (1990,
p. 246). What is happening here is similar to what Hochschild (1983, p. 33)
calls deep acting, where the person gets so immersed in the role that the
person of the performer becomes diffused by the role and instigates a certain
estrangement from the real self. The poet Myung-Hee takes this expression
of estrangement from one’s real self at work one step further in the third
poem Dead-End Street to show that even when the worker steps out of the
job, there really is no true freedom or salvation from this imprisonment of
competing selves, ‘[w]here can she go to become like a bird in the air, to
become like a lily in the field?’ (1990, p. 246). The poet states that the
confinements of a working-world trap the worker and there is nowhere to
turn for refuge when the alienation takes place within one’s self. It induces a
sense of panic and despair and the worker is fighting to hold on to her sanity
and escape from this entrapment only to find that there is no way out. The
line, to pin her against the wall has a certain resonance with the experience
described in the episode portrayed herein where one element of the

experience is analogous to a butterfly pinned to a board, unable to move
about freely and feeling a sense of being held against one’s will. The
receptionist responds this way also because she struggles with her own inner
emotional self on one side, which wanted to be free and on the other side,
her rational self, which wanted to abide by the rules which would pin her
down.
The Endurance of a Submissive Standard of Behaviour

Many hospitality organisations employ women in marginal jobs, where it is
easy to make them submissive to the manager’s demands. Samarasuriya, for
example, states that in fact in certain Sri Lankan settings women are sought
after in these occupations due to their perceived ‘submissiveness to authority
and their lack of organizational background’ (1982, p. 81), which allows
hotels to exercise power over them to bend and form them whichever way
management want. At another level, the prescriptive nature of service work
imposes a set of work rules for governing one’s self that is sometimes
different from rules a person is accustomed to in daily life outside of work.
This has been expressed in various ways in the present study, for example, as
making connections with people they hardly knew, presenting an ideal
corporate image of themselves and spending their energy making other
people happy.
Receptionists have to tolerate situations they would not normally

tolerate, for example tolerating a guest who is verbally abusive. This
involves having to not retaliate and to hold back one’s anger and
frustration. This may not be something one is accustomed to doing in
non-work settings. The resulting frustration has been expressed by Marcus
as a form of bullying by the employer through the words ‘[y]ou’ve pinched
me into submission’ (1995, p. 251). The poet captures in this poem the
resigned way in which workers live through the turmoil of not being able to
express their true emotions.
Implications for Practice
The major challenge which has been an overarching theme is for a

receptionist to be able to successfully convert strangers to guests at arrival.
This chapter situates hospitality reception practice within a specific
personal, social, cultural, environmental and commercial/occupational
setting, where each of these forces can create many and varied possibilities
for the experience to take shape, each of these aspects have implications
for achieving this challenge. Therefore, this study considers all of these
forces for their impact in the challenge to convert strangers to compliant
guests and form meaningful connections with them.
The social aspect of the receptionist role (see Wijesinghe, 2007) implies
first of all, being able to invite, welcome and convert strangers to guests;
secondly, to form meaningful connections with guests during their stay and
further convert them to archetypes of vacationers and possibly tourists who
are disarmed, compliant, valued, pampered, enriched and pleased; thirdly,
to bid farewell to departing guests, and to charge and collect the dues for
their stay. The social role receptionists have to undertake partly overlaps
with the professional/commercial dimension. However, the occupation/
commercial requirements have other specific challenges in terms of satis-
fying guests and the call for legitimising their behaviour; making revenue
and the call for up-selling; minimising risks and the call for flexibility, tact
and diplomacy; ability to reconcile tensions; being professional and the call
to be well prepared and resourceful.
In reception work things can suddenly get chaotic and stressful. There
could be strong visual, sensory, auditory and olfactory sensations that
can impinge on the experience, and detract from effectively serving the
guest (e.g. entertainment in the lobby or an argument between guests).
Receptionists are required to manage their environment in order to create
a safe, homely, comfortable/luxurious, prestigious, professional, imaginable

and entertaining environment to best serve the guest.
Hospitality reception experience takes place in a cross-cultural setting
where people from diverse cultures come together. Receptionists need
effective intercultural skills to manage this cultural diversity. At the same
time, the practices of the hospitality industry have a strong corporate
American influence, which can conflict with the national culture. Therefore,
management need to pay more attention to the underlying cultural scripts in
service delivery. Recognising the danger of over generalising beyond the
current context, future research could explore the relevance of these research
findings to the experiences of receptionists in other part of the tourist
industry and even further afield.
There are also personal challenges of converting strangers to guests. This
involves cultivating certain personality traits, such as being helpful, selfless
and being a good talker and listener. It also involves having a sense of
personal agency, which gives power from within to do what is needed. Race,
age, gender, status and attractiveness influenced the sense of power. The
demanding nature of the occupation also requires a passion for this type of
work, flexibility and commitment to the job.

Managers and policy makers can undertake actions to improve the
practice. This study shows that there are implications to the practice in terms
of recruitment, training and ongoing support. One of the major challenges for
managers is the poor attrition rate in the hospitality industry. While addres-
sing possible reasons as to why employees leave the industry is important,
attracting suitable people through recruitment practices in the first place is
also important. Managers in the hospitality industry need to play an active
role in recognising the professional dimensions of hospitality work and the
personal attributes that have the best fit. They need to attract people who have
a commitment to the industry. Having stated this, the author is aware that in
the business world where profit maximisation spurs the provision of
hospitality, where there is a high propensity to be casual and in an industry
where employees may often see it as a casual job rather than a profession there
can be some impediments to seeing these suggestions put into practice.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS STUDY

Even though this study took much effort to retain the text-based nature of
the themes, in the crafting of the episodes inevitably a certain amount of
analysing took place; this happened as a result of the labelling and
categorising. However, much thought was put into crafting the portrayals so
that the experience of receptionists could be brought to life in a way that
readers could recognise the experience as a possible one, and create that
‘aha, so, that is what it is like!’ moment. This chapter attempted to create
the quality of verisimilitude in a variety of ways.
First of all, the portrayal showed typical issues experienced in real day-to-
day reception practice. The portrayal consisted of a personal story, as this is
an appropriate medium to engage the reader in an empathetic stance, as
explained earlier. The receptionist narrating her experience, created a vivid
picture, by describing the sensory taking-in of the experience in as many of
its lived dimensions as possible. The verisimilitude of these portrayals was
then refined through acts of deliberation with colleagues, other researchers
and students.
The testing for verisimilitude happened in a number of ways. The author
compiled draft booklets of these portrayals and distributed them to students
in an undergraduate course called Managing the Hospitality Experience.
These episodes served as a conversation points in the classroom to reflect on
the experience of working in the industry. Students who had worked in
various facets of the hospitality industry commented that these stories

resonated with similar experiences in their working life. Others said that
they could just see it happening. The overall agreement was that the
portrayals created a vivid sense of what it was like to have those experiences.
The author received similar sentiments during conference presentations.
Piantanida and Garman (1999, p. 147) note that another criterion by
which good qualitative research is judged is on the basis of whether the
‘researcher has taken pains to cultivate a mindset conducive to an authentic
inquiry’. This relates to the question of whether the researcher entered the
study with a receptive stance. In undertaking this research project,
the author was keen to understand the experience of reception practice as
it would reveal itself, rather than coming with a closed mindset.
The study included spending much time learning the tenets of
phenomenology and how tenants could be applicable in uncovering the
typical nature of the phenomenon under study. For instance, the generation
of metaphors/similes to express the experience provided a space to look
at the experience anew. The five-step process of contextual description,
phenomenological portrayal, meaning extraction, grounding in sociological
readings and implications for practice used in this study were all devised to
engage thoroughly with the phenomenon under study. These installations
were different ways of engaging with the phenomenon.
CONCLUSION
To research the nature of lived experiences of service providers in

hospitality and tourism type service contexts, and express to the reader
what ‘it is really like to engage in this type of work’ this chapter discusses
an expressive text-based research approach. The objective of lived
experience research is to undertake a study of practitioner experience
and represent it in a way that does not take away the emotions and
meanings of the experience. The expressive text-based techniques includes
literary genre such as poetry, metaphor and narrative that express the
emotions and meanings. The tenets of hermeneutics and phenomenology
underlying the framework are useful in representing the lived quality of
the experience without taking away the emotions and meanings of the
experience. This chapter sought to focus on the application of a five-tired
process by blending the philosophical tenets of phenomenology and
hermeneutics to arrive at a textually expressive methodology to research
practitioner experience. As a part of this application, it described the
necessary steps involved in applying this framework to an actual research
inquiry, using as an illustrative example an episode of practice from

hospitality reception work. This example demonstrated how the literary
techniques of storytelling, poetry and metaphor could bring the
experience alive for the reader to see in the narration all the prejudice,
values, fears and logic that coloured the experience in order to
understand the viewpoint from which it is narrated. This subjective
aspect of the inquiry has as its focus the exploration, via personal
experiences, of what hospitality practice is like. While the narratives have
some autobiographical subjective elements, the main focus was on the
receptionist practice itself. Following this major section, the study
undertook a theoretical exploration of reception work and the challenges
it offers to people thinking of entering this field. In light of the portrayal,
interpretation and significance of the experience of hospitality reception
practice, this kind of study can have implications for practitioners in
terms of the attributes and skills needed to do the work. The implications
are useful for those who: are already in the occupation, have left the
occupation and would like to join the occupation. Based on the insights
gained in this study, it may be useful to undertake survey-driven
quantitative studies to find out to what extent the elements of the
reception experience unravelled in this study, are common to many
receptionists in similar circumstances.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author thanks Peter Willis and Shirley Chappel for their feedback on
content and style to earlier versions of this chapter.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author thanks Peter Willis and Shirley Chappel for their feedback on
content and style to earlier versions of this chapter.
REFERENCES
Abma, T. A. (2002). Emerging narrative forms of knowledge representation in the health
sciences: Two texts in a postmodern context. Qualitative Health Research, 12(1), 5–27.
Barone, T., & Eidsner, E. (Eds.). (1997). Arts-based educational research. Washington, DC:
American Education Research Association.
Botterill, D. (2001). The epistemology of a set of tourism studies. Leisure Studies, 20(3),
199–214.
Branaman, A. (Ed.). (1997). Goffman’s social theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Bricher, G. (1997). A phenomenological study of the lived experience of paediatric nurses. Ph.D.
thesis, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria.
Brotherton, B., & Wood, R. C. (1999). Towards a definitive view of the nature of hospi-
tality and hospitality management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 11(4), 165–173.

Brotherton, B., & Wood, R. C. (2000). Hospitality and hospitality management. In
C. Lashley & A. Morrison (Eds.), In search of hospitality: Theoretical perspectives
and debates (pp. 134–156). Oxford: Butterworth-HeinemannChapter 8.
Bruner, J. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University press.
Burch, R. (1990). Phenomenology, lived experience: Taking a measure of the topic.
Phenomenology and Pedagogy, 8, 130–160.
Clandinin, J. D., & Connelly, F. M. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry.
Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2–14.
Crotty, M. (1996a). Doing phenomenology. In P. Willis & B. Neville (Eds.), Qualitative research
practice in adult education (pp. 265–276). Melbourne: David Lovell Publishing.
Crotty, M. (1996b). Phenomenology and nursing research. Melbourne: Churchill Livingstone.
Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspectives in the research
process. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Dilthey, W. (1985). Poetry and experience (Vol. V). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Fernandez, J. (1974). The mission of metaphor in expressive culture. Current Anthropology,
15(2).
Friesen, W. V. (1972). Cultural differences in facial expressions in a social situation: an
experimental test of the concept of display rules. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of
California, San Francisco, CA.
Gadamer, H. -G. (1970). On the scope and function of hermeneutical reflection. In G. B. Hess &
R. E. Palmer (Trans.), Continuum, 8, 77–95.
Garman, N. (Ed.). (1996). Qualitative inquiry: Meaning and menace for educational researchers.
(Chapter 1). Ringwood, VIC: David Lovell Publishing.
Garman, N., & Piantanida, M. (Eds.). (1974). Criteria of quality for judging qualitative research.
Melbourne: David Lovell Publishing.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Penguin Books.
Hakim, C. (1987). Research design: Strategies and choices in the design of social research
(Vol. 13). London: Allen & Unwin.
Harre, R. (1998). Emotion across cultures. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences,
11(1), 43–53.
Heidegger, M. (1927). Being and time. In J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson (Eds.). Oxford:
Blackwell.
Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American Journal of
Sociology, 85, 551–575.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley,
CA: University of California.
Hogan, P. (2000). Hermeneutics and educational experience. Retrieved from http://
www.vusst.hr/ENCYCLOPAEDIA/herm.htm. Accessed on 24 June 2003.
Honeycutt, L. (1995). Hermeneutics. Retrieved from http://www.public.iastate.edu/Bhoneyl/
derrida/hermeneutics.html. Accessed on 24 June 2003.
Höpel, H. (2002). Playing the part: Reflections on aspects of mere performance in the customer–
client relationship. Journal of Management Studies, 39(2), 255–267.
Husserl, E. (1931). Ideas: General introduction to pure phenomenology. London: George Allen &
Unwin.
Husserl, E. (Ed.). (1973). Experience and judgment: Investigations in a genealogy of logic.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Kemp, S., & Dwyer, L. (2001). An examination of organisational culture – The Regent Hotel,
Sydney. Hospitality Management, 20, 61–76.

Klaus, P. G. (1985). Quality epiphenomenon: The concept of understanding of quality in
face-to-face service encounters. In J. Czepiel, M. Solomon & C. Surprenant (Eds.), The
service encounter: Managing employee/customers interaction in service business. Lexington,
MA: Lexington Books.
Liamputtong, P., & Rumbold, J. (Eds.). (2008). Knowing differently: Setting the scene.
(Chapter 1). New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers Inc.
Lundberg, C. C. (1997). Widening the conduct of hospitality inquiry: Towards appreciating
research alternatives. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 21(1), 1–13.
Lyle, C. (2002, Winter). The casual workers’ song. Union News: The magazine for LHMU
members. Adelaide.
Marcus, S. (1995). At the office. In N. Coles & P. Oresick (Eds.), For a living: The poetry of
work (pp. 251–252). Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Mason, S. D. (1988). Technology and change in the hotel industry: The case of the hotel
receptionist. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Durham, Durham.
Matsumoto, D. (1990). Cultural similarities and differences in display rules. Journal of Cross-
Cultural Psychology, 20, 92–105.
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Using Expressive Text in Research to Interpret and Portray Lived Experience:

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Volumes 1–2: Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality

Volume 4: Tourism-Marketing Performance Metrics and

ADVANCES IN CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

FIELD GUIDE TO CASE

United Kingdom – North America – Japan

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

First edition 2012

Copyright r 2012 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Reprints and permission service

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

WHY CASE STUDY RESEARCH? INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: ANALYSIS OF TEXTS

ANALYSIS OF TEXTS – INTRODUCTION

IMMERSED IN GREEN? RECONFIGURING

EVOKED EMOTIONS: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS WITHIN

USING CONCEPT MAPPING AND STAKEHOLDER

ASSESSING THE GROUNDED THEORY OF PACKING

USING EXPRESSIVE TEXT IN RESEARCH TO

PART TWO: EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWS

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWS – INTRODUCTION

SINGLE CASE STUDY RESEARCH: THE

FASHIONS IN TOURISM: THE VIEWS OF RUSSIAN

CASE STUDIES IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS

PART THREE: FIELD RESEARCH

FIELD RESEARCH – INTRODUCTION

PRACTICAL TIPS FOR CONDUCTING RESEARCH

KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS AND

EPIPHANY TRAVEL AND ASSISTED-SUBJECTIVE

FUNCTIONS AND BEHAVIORS OF TOURISTS IN

CASE STUDIES OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS’

PART FOUR: STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATORY

PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH FOR

PROTECTING SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

ACCESSIBILITY AS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

DIT-ACHIEV MODEL FOR SUSTAINABLE

PART FIVE: RESEARCHING INDIGENOUS

RESEARCHING INDIGENOUS AND MARGINAL

FIELDWORK IN REMOTE COMMUNITIES: AN

STAKEHOLDERS, HIGH STAKES AND HIGH TIDES:

USE OF MIXED-METHODS CASE STUDY

PART SIX: CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS

CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS – INTRODUCTION

DESIGNING A QUALITATIVE MULTI-CASE

INDEPENDENT INSTRUMENTAL CASE STUDIES:

CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND BUSINESS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 559

Maria Amoamo Te Temu, Department of Māori Studies,

Antonella Capriello Department of Economic and Business

Sheila Flanagan School of Hospitality Management &

University in British Columbia, Canada

Jane Legget School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland

University of Technology, New Zealand

Chris Ryan School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland

Jude Wilson Faculty of Environment, Society and Design,

USING EXPRESSIVE TEXT IN

Field Guide to Case Study Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure

The expressive text-based approach suggested here is still a relatively

consists of a ﬁve-tiered textually expressive methodology that is