Description
The purpose of this paper is to explore issues of control, fake solidarity and breakdown in
hospitality. Following Robinson and Lynch, the need to explore the subjective experience of hospitality
through literature is identified as being highly important to the understanding of this social
phenomenon. One poem was chosen as a means of exploring subjective dimensions of hospitality and
a detailed study was undertaken.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Hospitality through poetry: control, fake solidarity, and breakdown
Martha G. Robinson Paul A. Lynch
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To cite this document:
Martha G. Robinson Paul A. Lynch, (2007),"Hospitality through poetry: control, fake solidarity, and
breakdown", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 237 - 246
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Kevin D. O'Gorman, (2007),"The hospitality phenomenon: philosophical enlightenment?",
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Conrad Lashley, (2007),"Studying hospitality: beyond the envelope", International J ournal of Culture,
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Hospitality through poetry:
control, fake solidarity, and
breakdown
Martha G. Robinson
Department of Hispanic Studies, School of European Languages and Cultures,
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, and
Paul A. Lynch
The Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management,
Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore issues of control, fake solidarity and breakdown in
hospitality. Following Robinson and Lynch, the need to explore the subjective experience of hospitality
through literature is identi?ed as being highly important to the understanding of this social
phenomenon. One poem was chosen as a means of exploring subjective dimensions of hospitality and
a detailed study was undertaken.
Design/methodology/approach – From a total of 60 published poems on hospitality originally
identi?ed, one poem was selected owing to the interesting conceptual issues it raised, “Coffee with the
meal” by Ogden Nash. The method of analysis is a sociolinguistic study from a critical discourse
analysis perspective.
Findings – Issues are elicited concerning management control, the micro- and macro-universes
affecting hospitality (as de?ned in Robinson and Lynch), the signi?cance of forms of discourse in the
construction of hospitality, issues leading to a breakdown in the consumer’s perception of the
hospitality experience. In Ogden Nash’s poem, the breakdown is presented at the inter-personal level
between the service provider (the waiter) and the customer.
Research limitations/implications – The investigation of sociolinguistic discourse from a critical
discourse analysis perspective, applied to textual analysis provides a potentially valuable tool for
analyzing literature in the search for insights into the assumptions and cultural discourse about
hospitality. In this case, the chosen poem suggests that experiences of hospitality in commercial
hospitality settings are subject to control by service deliverers. The insights provided can be
instructive as comments on the experience of being a guest in commercial contexts. The poem is
illustrative rather than representative.
Practical implications – The analysis of these poems can be useful in developing a sensitive
awareness of service breakdowns and the perceptions of customers. The research can assist in the
development of a more customer-centric approach to guest and host relations in commercial settings.
Discussion focuses upon the signi?cance of discourse, how we know hospitality, curriculum
implications and means of advancing qualitative research methods used in hospitality.
Originality/value – The use of literary criticism of poems is a unique approach which suggests
that the study of hospitality can be informed invoking a multidisciplinary approach, by insights
from ?elds of study not immediately linked to the management of commercial hospitality
operations.
Keywords Hospitality services, Poetry, Literary criticism
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Hospitality
through poetry
237
Received December 2006
Revised January 2007
Accepted April 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 3, 2007
pp. 237-246
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710817765
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Introduction
Recognition is growing of the value of examination of hospitality through various
disciplines (Lashley and Morrison, 2000; Robinson and Lynch, 2007) as well
as recognition of the relatively limited range of gathering data and methods of analysis
employed to date in the investigation of hospitality (Lynch, 2005). This paper presents
a sociolinguistic perspective of the hospitality discourse as found in the restaurant
exchange experience. The exchange has been identi?ed as central to commercial
hospitality (Lashley, 2000) and is crucially founded on human linguistic and cultural
interactions. A paradox exists in that guests are enticed to consume hospitality
services of their own freewill, yet the nature of the experience is highly regulated and
may lead to a loss of consumer freewill.
Particular focus is on the intangibles of hospitality, an area that has been largely
neglected in studies devoted to the subjective experience of hospitality. Telfer (2000)
comes close to acknowledging the subjective dimension of hospitableness through
identifying hosting behavioral patterns as associated with a sense of the emotional
attachment to the home. However, in tourism, exploration of the subject through, for
example, photographs (Markwick, 2001), diaries (Selaniemmi, 2001) and literature,
which provide representations of subjectivity, has a respectable academic lineage.
Empirical neglect of the intangible experiences of hospitality is surprising given the
high level of personal interaction that the exchange requires. Where exploration
has taken place, the focus has been on the provider perspective, for example,
Hochschild (1983) and criticism has been made of the treatment of subjectivity being
in a detached manner (Ellis, 1991). The nature of the controlled hospitality experience
has received little attention.
Here, the server/customer interaction in the commercial hospitality environment
from this subjective purchaser perspective is presented. Following the trend of
Robinson and Lynch (2007), its representation through the language of poetry is
examined and a textual analysis of a poem describing a particular hospitality
experience contained within a sociolinguistic framework is provided. In this type of
approach, human interactions are examined from the perspective of the language
employed in its particular social context. Exchanges acquire meaning as common
beliefs and expectations of the individuals involved are evaluated (Holmes, 1992;
Holmes and Stubbe, 2003). Since, the hospitality experience relies highly on verbal and
non-verbal social interactions, a sociolinguistic perspective seems highly appropriate.
In addition, critical discourse analysis as presented in van Dijk (1998, 2001) inter alia
provides a way to systematically examine the type of discourse implicated in social
interactions involving power and relations of inequality.
The concept of communities of practice (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 1992) is
relevant because it captures the idea that social groups, which have common goals,
share speci?c and similar linguistic means of interacting (Holmes, 1992). These social
groups, then create predictable linguistic patterns which can be described in terms of
micro- (such as a group of friends or members of a gang), and macro-level (such as
class, age ethnicity, gender, etc.) abstract categories. Here, this latter dichotomy is
applied and reinterpreted for the context of the hospitality experience. Firstly, two
levels of discourse are identi?ed which we will call the micro- and macro-universe of
the hospitality experience. These correlate directly with the above-mentioned
dichotomy in that in hospitality, the micro-universe is objective and it identi?es the
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real restaurant exchange situation and the verbal interactions are taking place.
In referential terms, it is endophoric (Halliday and Hassan, 1976) and its properties are
drawn from the formal and linguistic exchanges presented in the actual hospitality
exchange. The macro-universe in contrast, is subjective and it identi?es with the world
of beliefs and expectations which are de?ned by social culture. It refers to abstract
categories such as class, gender, ethnicity, etc. It is exophoric (Halliday and Hassan,
1976) and it refers to the extra-linguistic context, which aids our understanding of the
hospitality discourse experience. This paper examines the control relations and
breakdown established as a result of the interactions between these two universes in
the context of the language of poetry.
Methodology
The poem to be examined was selected following a literature search concentrating
upon twentieth and twenty-?rst century English language poems. From an initial
60 poems, a shortlist of 10 was made. One of these short-listed poems is examined here.
The selection is on the basis of having a focus upon the restaurant exchange and
raising important issues concerning social control rather than any judgment of literary
worth. Paterson (2004, p. 34) associates poetry with “the systematic interrogation
of the unconscious” and also having “intrinsic-cultural value” something which
“invokes”. Poetry creates a universe, not the universe. It is a social construction, a
phenomenological view of the world (as viewed by the poet) that permits consideration
of the individual subjective experience.
The poemrepresenting some of these issues is: “Coffee with the meal” by Ogden Nash.
Regardingthe concept of communityof practice mentionedabove, here the concernis with
the different linguistic devices and social patterns established in a hospitality
environment. The poem can be embedded within the macro-level abstract category of
class and describes a breakdown between reality and behavioral expectations in a
waiter/customer relationship driven by social class in a restaurant experience. At the
micro-level, the most salient linguistic feature is the employment of what we will call
stagedcode-switching. This strategytriggers the breakdownof relations byestablishinga
surprising and unexpected control relation which is mirrored by a further array of textual
and linguistic strategies. In what follows, Nash’s poem will be presented.
The poem
Coffee with the meal
A gentlemanly gentleman, mild as May,
v2 Entered a restaurant famed and gay.
A waiter sat him in a draughty seat
v4 And laughingly inquired what he’d like to eat.
Oh I don’t want venison, I don’t want veal,
v6 But I do insist on coffee with the meal.
Bring me the clams in a chilly group,
v8 And a large tureen of vegetable soup,
Steaks as tender as a maiden’s dream,
v10 With lots of potatoes hashed in cream,
And a lettuce and tomato salad, please,
v12 And crackers and a bit of Roquefort cheese,
But, waiter, the gist of my appeal,
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v14 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
The waiter groaned and he wrung his hands;
v16 Perhaps, da headwaiter onderstands.
Said the sleek headwaiter, like a snobbish seal,
v18 What, Monsieur? Coffee with the meal?’
His lips drew up in scornful laughter;
v20 Monsieur desires a demi-tasse after!
The gentleman’s eyes grew hard as steel,
v22 He said: I’m ordering coffee with the meal.
Hot black coffee in a great big cup,
v24 Fuming, steaming, ?lled right up.
I don’t want coffee iced in a glass,
v26 And I don’t want a miserable demi-tasse,
But what I’ll have, come woe, come weal,
v28 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
The headwaiter bowed like a poppy in the breeze;
v30 Monsieur desires coffee with the salad or the cheese?
Monsieur said: Now you’re getting warmer;
v32 Coffee with the latter, coffee with the former;
Coffee with the steak, coffee with the soup,
v34 Coffee with clams in a chilly group;
Yes, and with a cocktail I could do,
v36 So bring me coffee with the cocktail, too.
I’ll ?ght to the death for my bright ideal,
v38 Which is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
The headwaiter swiveled on a graceful heel.
v40 Certainly, certainly, coffee with the meal!
The waiter gave an obsequious squeal,
v42 Yes sir, yes sir, coffee with the meal!
Oh what a glow did Monsieur feel
v44 At the warming vision of coffee with the meal.
One hour later Monsieur, alas!
v46 Got his coffee in a demi-tasse (Nash, 1938).
“Coffee with the meal” depicts a waiter/customer relationship in a restaurant
experience. A customer enters a micro-universe where a certain social order prevails.
All the players have their predestined place, de?ned by expectations established in the
world outside this universe. This “macro-universe” de?nes the controlling parameters
contained in the actual restaurant experience. The order pre-determined by the
macro-universe in the host/customer interaction in Nash’s poem establishes that the
customer be a controller and the provider, the controlled element in this relation.
The macro-universe is de?ned by the expectations set out by the beliefs of the
customer. The set is prede?ned by the macro-level of social class. The customer
apparently belongs to the upper-social stratum and expectations are determined by the
general social order, which establishes the initial control relation: the customer controls
the quality and the types of hospitality exchanges. The waiter in contrast, is the
controlled element in this initial relationship.
Nevertheless, in “Coffee with the meal” the reverse situation is found. Instead of this
initial customer/waiter dominance relationship, a breakdown occurs through a
mismatch between expectations established in the macro-universe and the reality
found in the micro-universe of the restaurant experience. The latter mismatch leads to
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a reversal of roles between customer and waiter. Contrary to initial expectations, in
reality the provider is the controller and the customer is the controlled. The breakdown
of dominance relations can be seen clearly through the language the poem employs.
In “Coffee with the meal” customer and waiter are introduced initially in v1 and v3
as “a gentlemanly gentleman” and “a waiter”. From a syntactic point of view, these are
inde?nite noun phrases (NP), a continuation of an article and a noun, and this type is
generally used in textual discourse in order to introduce information that is new to the
hearer and speaker (or writer and reader in this case). At this point, the waiter is still an
impersonal entity but the reader already knows that the customer is “gentlemanly”.
He has been introduced into the universe of discourse as “a gentleman” in v1 already
with an identity tag stating that he belongs to a speci?c-social class. The waiter
acquires personal attributes in v4 where he addresses this customer with the
non-neutral adverb “laughingly” so adding scorn and attitude to the relationship. A
more neutral adverb such as smiling could have been chosen. Hereon, the reader may
infer that the relationship between the micro- and the macro-universe will break down
eventually.
Preparing for this breakdown is the ensuing speech of the “gentlemanly gentleman”:
v5 Oh I don’t want venison, I don’t want veal,
v6 But I do insist on coffee with the meal.
In v5 and v6, initial expectations de?ning his social class are expressed. For example,
from inferences drawn from the macro-universe the reader knows that the
social-structural order identi?es individuals who consume venison and veal as
having a re?ned taste. This is de?ned more closely in what follows:
Bring me the clams in a chilly group,
v8 And a large tureen of vegetable soup,
Steaks as tender as a maiden’s dream,
v10 With lots of potatoes hashed in cream,
And a lettuce and tomato salad, please,
v12 And crackers and a bit of Roquefort cheese,
But, waiter, the gist of my appeal,
v14 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.”
“clams in a chilly group” in v7, “as a maiden’s dream” in v9 present us with erudite
imagery introducing a ridiculous and humorous element which Nash plays upon. Now,
the reader knows the controller/controlled relation is doomed.
In v1 where the customer/controller is introduced as “a gentlemanly gentleman” the
relationship destiny is not yet known, but it could be assumed that it will be
straightforward. However, the request for “Roquefort cheese” introduces a second
intentional humorous element in v16
v16 Perhaps, da headwaiter onderstands.
v16 is a phonetic transcription emphasizing phonetically the nasalization of the
vowel (o˜) in onderstands which provides the waiter with a French personality.
In sociolinguistic terms, this phenomenon is known as “code-switching”. This refers to
the short and systematic change of linguistic systems induced by social or situational
requirements. Holmes (1992) argues that switches often express the speaker’s and
addresses ethnic or social membership owing to either solidarity oriented or markers
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for social distance. They signal particular relationships between participants and can
be found in situations determined by social status (in relation to class) or in the
professional world (as markers of formality). However, “code-switching” is particularly
common in bilingual communities and the interaction between the “gentlemanly
gentleman” and the waiter by no means can be characterized as being part of such a
social setting. Neither individuals are native speakers of French, but this switching of
codes is introduced for humorous, but ultimately controlling effect. Therefore, this type
of “staged code-switching” which is very much reminiscent of the concept “staged
authenticity” introduced by Greenwood (1982). In contexts where different cultures
interact there is a tendency for the elements determining the essential blueprints
de?ning them, to erode in detriment of the oft material-based power relations, resulting
in manipulation and derision.
In “Coffee with the meal” the culture of this particular service encounter is
determined by the social order of class and status. Staged-code-switching introduced in
by the waiter clearly identi?es a status relationship. By switching codes, he enters a
relation of solidarity with the customer. From v5 to v12 the reader knows that this
customer is from a sophisticated background. It can be inferred from knowledge of the
universe of expectations, that everything French is the symbol for ultimate
sophistication. By switching to French, the host levels himself with the customer’s
world of gentlemen. More instances occur in v18, v20 and v30:
v18 What, Monsieur? Coffee with the meal?
v20 Monsieur desires a demi-tasse after!
v30 Monsieur desires coffee with the salad or the cheese?
However, this solidarity is nothing but a fallacy as is learned from the sequence of
adjectives sleek, snobbish and scornful:
Said the sleek headwaiter, like a snobbish seal,
v18 What, Monsieur? Coffee with the meal?
His lips drew up in scornful laughter,
These adjectives have been placed in an ascending gradation of semantic importance.
Likewise, the customer answers in parallel expressions representing his increasing
level of frustration. First, by using the strong denotation of the verb insist and a single
occurrence of NP, coffee, in v6:
v6 But I do insist on coffee with the meal.
Then by trying to clarify this request in coupling the gist with the repetition of coffee
with, coffee with, coffee with. . .
v13 But, waiter, the gist of my appeal,
v14 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
This pattern appears to be a contradiction. The meaning of gist does not need to be
accompanied by three instances of “coffee”. Expressing the customer’s exasperation at
the waiter’s attitude, leads him to express an ultimatum:
v21 The gentleman’s eyes grew hard as steel,
v22 He said: I’m ordering coffee with the meal.
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Readers are prepared for this ultimatum in v21 by the resultant the eyes grew hard as
steel, which then takes the reader to the cataclysmic culmination of what follows. v22
introduces a string of direct speech with great illocutionary force: having failed before
in his requests for coffee, the customer is now ordering the waiter to bring the “Coffee
with the meal.” What follows is a frenzied sequence of verses:
v23 Hot black coffee in a great big cup,
v24 Fuming, steaming, ?lled right up.
v25 I don’t want coffee iced in a glass,
v26 And I don’t want a miserable demi-tasse,
v27 But what I’ll have, come woe, come weal,
v28 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.”
Here, the climax of the tension that has been building up. The point of no return for the
customer: the gentlemanly gentleman has now lost his place in the micro-universe.
First, he represents his coffee dream:
v23 Hot black coffee in a great big cup,
v24 Fuming, steaming, ?lled right up.
v25 I don’t want coffee iced in a glass,
Then he engages also in code-switching in v26:
v26 And I don’t want a miserable demi-tasse,
v26 represents the turning point of the waiter/customer relation represented in the
poem. By engaging in staged code-switching, the customer has dropped to the level of
the waiter. The waiter, in turn, acquires full identity. In v39, he is ?nally introduced
with the de?nite NP “the headwaiter”:
v39 The headwaiter swiveled on a graceful heel.
As mentioned above, information already known to the speaker/hearer is introduced
into discourse with de?nite NPs. This is interpreted as an instance of anaphoric
backwards referencing, as already in v16 the waiter has been described as:
v16 Perhaps, da headwaiter onderstands.
“da headwaiter” is also a de?nite NP but differs from the one depicted in v39. First, “da
headwaiter” is a phonetic imitation from French and here it is easy to miss that it is a
de?nite NP. It merely provides cataphoric referencing, and refers forward to v39.
In contrast in v39, the waiter is described simply as “the waiter” both as a de?nite
NP and placed in sentence initial position highlighting his importance in the text and
by extension in the micro-universe. Cataphoric referencing and the end-focus principle
highlights the NP “an obsequious squeal” like a triumphant clarion. The waiter has
?nally become the master of the situation and the micro-universe:
v40 Certainly, certainly, coffee with the meal!
The waiter gave an obsequious squeal,
v42 Yes sir, yes sir, coffee with the meal!
No matter how much reassurance the waiter gives the “gentlemanly gentleman” by
presenting assertions expressing reassurance (Certainly, certainly in v40 and Yes sir,
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yes sir in v42) this only fools the customer into a false sense of security. The entity in
charge, is ?nally the waiter and not the customer, as the reader ultimately discovers:
v45 One hour later Monsieur, alas!
v46 Got his coffee in a demi-tasse.
Discussion
What immediately strikes us from the content of “Coffee with the meal” is that it
clearly depicts the tension between the micro- and macro-universes of the hospitality
experience and the ensuing breakdown of relations. It is clear that the needs of the
organization predominate and that the waiter mediating interaction on behalf of
the organization is constrained in its behavior apparently by the limited nature of, and
the ritualistic construction of the hospitality product. It is often mentioned in the
literature (Telfer, 2000) that although the principal tenet of hospitality is the
deliverance of feelings of wellbeing, it is also the case that methods of social control are
often responsible for a loss of hospitableness in the world of commercial hospitality.
The poem highlights the process of control by the hospitality provider and the loss of
control by the hospitality consumer. It evokes the issue of snobbism associated with
traditional-restaurant customer service and prompts re?ection upon class-bound
(British) status relationships between waiter and customer. When the waiter ?rst
engages in staged code-switching by saying “Monsieur” (in v18), and in so doing
attempting to remove the waiter-customer status differentials, the reader can divine the
attempt will not succeed as it lacks broader cultural coherency where the status of the
roles are de?ned. However, when the customer engages in staged code-switching (v26),
it is apparent that a loss of control by the customer has occurred and an extreme and
forlorn attempt is made to effect recovery by dropping the role accorded to their
position. Such waiter-customer behaviors illustrate Goffman’s (1959) depiction of
organizational actors presenting their selves in everyday life.
In summary, the poem vividly represents the experiential reality of certain types of
management-control methods prompting the reader to re?ect further on their nature.
Depicting feelings about the experience of control, indirectly personal in “Coffee with
the meal” must surely encourage a greater concern with the effects of management
control methods. Given that, for example, one sees a rapid increase in demand for
serviced apartments apparently in response to the negative experiential reality of
hotel-control methods (Wood, 1994), such considerations are very important. The
construction of hospitality is founded upon tensions inherent in the management
methods employed.
“Coffee with the meal” focuses the reader upon the importance of discourse neglected
in Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical account. The sociolinguistic discourse analytic
approach provides important additions to the explorative armory of the hospitality
researcher. The use of staged code-switching which in real life situations is employed as
a marker of solidarity, is employed here as a manipulative device in the representation of
a fundamentally disrespectful relationship to the customer. This is mirrored by the
diligent use of adjectives and the structuring of information all culminating in the total
exasperation of the customer who ?nds himself in a no-win situation. Therefore, it is also
important to draw attention to the implications of types of discourse associated with
particular types of management control.
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On the more practical side, the exploration of different hospitality discourses leads
to the realization of whether academics are able to engage in the knowledge of how
hospitality works. As mentioned in Robinson and Lynch (2007), literature by means of
properly contextualizing and encasing hospitality experiences, provides a useful tool
for the exploration of the metaphysical self and the individual response to the
experience of “objective” hospitality. There is a gap in the literature involving
customer-oriented studies. Whilst studies involving the exploration of emotional and
aesthetic labor are in plentiful supply (Hochschild, 1983; Nickson et al., 2001), these
generally focus upon the employee leaving the consumer perceptions of the situation
and what such labor actually means in the dark.
Therefore, instead of hiding behind traditional scienti?c modes of inquiry where the
self is denied, the qualitative hospitality researcher needs to engage with his/her own
subjective self and that of others. For example, responding to the criticisms of Riley
and Love (1999), the development of qualitative research in hospitality and tourism
requires a willingness to avoid the pitfalls of the past as well as to challenge some of
our basic assumptions about knowledge and its understanding. The inclusion of the
study of literature on hospitality (or other types of texts for that matter), in its own
right in the development of accurate qualitative research methodologies, or to
supplement existing management courses, is entirely logical rather than an act of mere
self-indulgence. More broadly, the investigation represents one example of the
development of hospitality as an academic subject and that the study of hospitality has
to engage in the presentation and representation of hospitality in all its forms if it is
ever to be properly understood.
Conclusion
In this paper the linguistic and non-linguistic strategies and social patterns employed
in a speci?c hospitality environment has been investigated. The poem demonstrates
how macro-level of social class predetermined initially the social order of the
micro-universe and how not even rebellion on behalf of the customer will prevent
the breakdown of relations between macro- and micro-universes. In particular, the
deployment of linguistic strategies (staged code-switching, information structuring
and use of adjectives) was central in the depiction of the breakdown between these
universes resulting in a disrespectful relation between customer and waiter.
Finally, literature is able to provide contextualized examples of service encounters
which can then be subjected to scrutiny and analysis. Also, the perspective of critical
discourse analysis has been identi?ed as being of paramount importance in the
development of alternative qualitative research methodologies that researchers are
able to employ in the representation of subjective experiences of hospitality.
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Greenwood, D. (1982), “Cultural authenticity”, Cultural Survival, Vol. 6 No. 3, available at: www.
culturalsurvival.org/publications (accessed 29 December 2006).
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Holmes, J. and Stubbe, M. (2003), “Power and politeness in the workplace”, A Sociolinguistic
Analysis of Talk at Work, Longman, London.
Lashley, C. (2000), “Towards a theoretical understanding”, in Lashley, C. and Morrison, A. (Eds),
In Search of Hospitality: Theoretical Perspectives and Debates, Butterworth-Heinemann,
Oxford, pp. 1-17.
Lashley, C. and Morrison, A. (Eds) (2000), In Search of Hospitality: Theoretical Perspectives and
Debates, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Lynch, P.A. (2005), “Sociological impressionism in a hospitality context”, Annals of Tourism
Research, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 527-48.
Markwick, M. (2001), “Postcards from Malta: image, consumption”, Context Annals of Tourism
Research, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 417-38.
Nash, O. (1938), “Coffee with the meal”, in Harvey, A. (Ed.), A Picnic of Poetry. Poems about Food
and Drink, The Penguin Group, London.
Nickson, D., Warhurst, C., Witz, A. and Cullen, A-M. (2001), “The importance of being
aesthetic: work, employment and service organization”, in Sturdy, A., Grugulis, I. and
Willmott, H. (Eds), Customer Service: Entrapment and Employment, Palgrave,
Basingstoke, pp. 170-90.
Paterson, D. (2004), “Rhyme and reason”, The Guardian Review, November 6, pp. 34-5.
Riley, R. and Love, L. (1999), “The state of qualitative tourism research”, Annals of Tourism
Research, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 164-87.
Robinson, M.G. and Lynch, P.A. (2007), “The power of hospitality: a sociolinguistic approach”,
in Lashley, C., Lynch, P.A. and Morrison, A. (Eds), Hospitality: A Social Lens, Elsevier,
Oxford, pp. 141-54.
Selaniemmi, T. (2001), “Pale skin on playa Del anywhere: Finnish tourists in the Liminoid South”,
in Smith, V. and Brent, M. (Eds), Hosts and Guests Revisited: Tourism Themes of the 21st
Century, Cognizant Communication Corporation, New York, NY, pp. 80-92.
Telfer, E. (2000), “The philosophy of hospitableness”, in Lashley, C. and Morrison, A. (Eds),
In Search of Hospitality, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, pp. 38-55.
Van Dijk, T. (1998), Ideology. A Multidisciplinary Study, Sage, London.
Van Dijk, T. (2001), “Critical discourse ana´lisis”, in Shiffrin, D., Tannen, T. and
Hamilton, H.E. (Eds), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
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pp. 65-80.
Corresponding author
Paul A. Lynch can be contacted at: [email protected]
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doc_260398697.pdf
The purpose of this paper is to explore issues of control, fake solidarity and breakdown in
hospitality. Following Robinson and Lynch, the need to explore the subjective experience of hospitality
through literature is identified as being highly important to the understanding of this social
phenomenon. One poem was chosen as a means of exploring subjective dimensions of hospitality and
a detailed study was undertaken.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Hospitality through poetry: control, fake solidarity, and breakdown
Martha G. Robinson Paul A. Lynch
Article information:
To cite this document:
Martha G. Robinson Paul A. Lynch, (2007),"Hospitality through poetry: control, fake solidarity, and
breakdown", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 237 - 246
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Hospitality through poetry:
control, fake solidarity, and
breakdown
Martha G. Robinson
Department of Hispanic Studies, School of European Languages and Cultures,
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, and
Paul A. Lynch
The Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management,
Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore issues of control, fake solidarity and breakdown in
hospitality. Following Robinson and Lynch, the need to explore the subjective experience of hospitality
through literature is identi?ed as being highly important to the understanding of this social
phenomenon. One poem was chosen as a means of exploring subjective dimensions of hospitality and
a detailed study was undertaken.
Design/methodology/approach – From a total of 60 published poems on hospitality originally
identi?ed, one poem was selected owing to the interesting conceptual issues it raised, “Coffee with the
meal” by Ogden Nash. The method of analysis is a sociolinguistic study from a critical discourse
analysis perspective.
Findings – Issues are elicited concerning management control, the micro- and macro-universes
affecting hospitality (as de?ned in Robinson and Lynch), the signi?cance of forms of discourse in the
construction of hospitality, issues leading to a breakdown in the consumer’s perception of the
hospitality experience. In Ogden Nash’s poem, the breakdown is presented at the inter-personal level
between the service provider (the waiter) and the customer.
Research limitations/implications – The investigation of sociolinguistic discourse from a critical
discourse analysis perspective, applied to textual analysis provides a potentially valuable tool for
analyzing literature in the search for insights into the assumptions and cultural discourse about
hospitality. In this case, the chosen poem suggests that experiences of hospitality in commercial
hospitality settings are subject to control by service deliverers. The insights provided can be
instructive as comments on the experience of being a guest in commercial contexts. The poem is
illustrative rather than representative.
Practical implications – The analysis of these poems can be useful in developing a sensitive
awareness of service breakdowns and the perceptions of customers. The research can assist in the
development of a more customer-centric approach to guest and host relations in commercial settings.
Discussion focuses upon the signi?cance of discourse, how we know hospitality, curriculum
implications and means of advancing qualitative research methods used in hospitality.
Originality/value – The use of literary criticism of poems is a unique approach which suggests
that the study of hospitality can be informed invoking a multidisciplinary approach, by insights
from ?elds of study not immediately linked to the management of commercial hospitality
operations.
Keywords Hospitality services, Poetry, Literary criticism
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Hospitality
through poetry
237
Received December 2006
Revised January 2007
Accepted April 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 3, 2007
pp. 237-246
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710817765
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Introduction
Recognition is growing of the value of examination of hospitality through various
disciplines (Lashley and Morrison, 2000; Robinson and Lynch, 2007) as well
as recognition of the relatively limited range of gathering data and methods of analysis
employed to date in the investigation of hospitality (Lynch, 2005). This paper presents
a sociolinguistic perspective of the hospitality discourse as found in the restaurant
exchange experience. The exchange has been identi?ed as central to commercial
hospitality (Lashley, 2000) and is crucially founded on human linguistic and cultural
interactions. A paradox exists in that guests are enticed to consume hospitality
services of their own freewill, yet the nature of the experience is highly regulated and
may lead to a loss of consumer freewill.
Particular focus is on the intangibles of hospitality, an area that has been largely
neglected in studies devoted to the subjective experience of hospitality. Telfer (2000)
comes close to acknowledging the subjective dimension of hospitableness through
identifying hosting behavioral patterns as associated with a sense of the emotional
attachment to the home. However, in tourism, exploration of the subject through, for
example, photographs (Markwick, 2001), diaries (Selaniemmi, 2001) and literature,
which provide representations of subjectivity, has a respectable academic lineage.
Empirical neglect of the intangible experiences of hospitality is surprising given the
high level of personal interaction that the exchange requires. Where exploration
has taken place, the focus has been on the provider perspective, for example,
Hochschild (1983) and criticism has been made of the treatment of subjectivity being
in a detached manner (Ellis, 1991). The nature of the controlled hospitality experience
has received little attention.
Here, the server/customer interaction in the commercial hospitality environment
from this subjective purchaser perspective is presented. Following the trend of
Robinson and Lynch (2007), its representation through the language of poetry is
examined and a textual analysis of a poem describing a particular hospitality
experience contained within a sociolinguistic framework is provided. In this type of
approach, human interactions are examined from the perspective of the language
employed in its particular social context. Exchanges acquire meaning as common
beliefs and expectations of the individuals involved are evaluated (Holmes, 1992;
Holmes and Stubbe, 2003). Since, the hospitality experience relies highly on verbal and
non-verbal social interactions, a sociolinguistic perspective seems highly appropriate.
In addition, critical discourse analysis as presented in van Dijk (1998, 2001) inter alia
provides a way to systematically examine the type of discourse implicated in social
interactions involving power and relations of inequality.
The concept of communities of practice (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 1992) is
relevant because it captures the idea that social groups, which have common goals,
share speci?c and similar linguistic means of interacting (Holmes, 1992). These social
groups, then create predictable linguistic patterns which can be described in terms of
micro- (such as a group of friends or members of a gang), and macro-level (such as
class, age ethnicity, gender, etc.) abstract categories. Here, this latter dichotomy is
applied and reinterpreted for the context of the hospitality experience. Firstly, two
levels of discourse are identi?ed which we will call the micro- and macro-universe of
the hospitality experience. These correlate directly with the above-mentioned
dichotomy in that in hospitality, the micro-universe is objective and it identi?es the
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real restaurant exchange situation and the verbal interactions are taking place.
In referential terms, it is endophoric (Halliday and Hassan, 1976) and its properties are
drawn from the formal and linguistic exchanges presented in the actual hospitality
exchange. The macro-universe in contrast, is subjective and it identi?es with the world
of beliefs and expectations which are de?ned by social culture. It refers to abstract
categories such as class, gender, ethnicity, etc. It is exophoric (Halliday and Hassan,
1976) and it refers to the extra-linguistic context, which aids our understanding of the
hospitality discourse experience. This paper examines the control relations and
breakdown established as a result of the interactions between these two universes in
the context of the language of poetry.
Methodology
The poem to be examined was selected following a literature search concentrating
upon twentieth and twenty-?rst century English language poems. From an initial
60 poems, a shortlist of 10 was made. One of these short-listed poems is examined here.
The selection is on the basis of having a focus upon the restaurant exchange and
raising important issues concerning social control rather than any judgment of literary
worth. Paterson (2004, p. 34) associates poetry with “the systematic interrogation
of the unconscious” and also having “intrinsic-cultural value” something which
“invokes”. Poetry creates a universe, not the universe. It is a social construction, a
phenomenological view of the world (as viewed by the poet) that permits consideration
of the individual subjective experience.
The poemrepresenting some of these issues is: “Coffee with the meal” by Ogden Nash.
Regardingthe concept of communityof practice mentionedabove, here the concernis with
the different linguistic devices and social patterns established in a hospitality
environment. The poem can be embedded within the macro-level abstract category of
class and describes a breakdown between reality and behavioral expectations in a
waiter/customer relationship driven by social class in a restaurant experience. At the
micro-level, the most salient linguistic feature is the employment of what we will call
stagedcode-switching. This strategytriggers the breakdownof relations byestablishinga
surprising and unexpected control relation which is mirrored by a further array of textual
and linguistic strategies. In what follows, Nash’s poem will be presented.
The poem
Coffee with the meal
A gentlemanly gentleman, mild as May,
v2 Entered a restaurant famed and gay.
A waiter sat him in a draughty seat
v4 And laughingly inquired what he’d like to eat.
Oh I don’t want venison, I don’t want veal,
v6 But I do insist on coffee with the meal.
Bring me the clams in a chilly group,
v8 And a large tureen of vegetable soup,
Steaks as tender as a maiden’s dream,
v10 With lots of potatoes hashed in cream,
And a lettuce and tomato salad, please,
v12 And crackers and a bit of Roquefort cheese,
But, waiter, the gist of my appeal,
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v14 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
The waiter groaned and he wrung his hands;
v16 Perhaps, da headwaiter onderstands.
Said the sleek headwaiter, like a snobbish seal,
v18 What, Monsieur? Coffee with the meal?’
His lips drew up in scornful laughter;
v20 Monsieur desires a demi-tasse after!
The gentleman’s eyes grew hard as steel,
v22 He said: I’m ordering coffee with the meal.
Hot black coffee in a great big cup,
v24 Fuming, steaming, ?lled right up.
I don’t want coffee iced in a glass,
v26 And I don’t want a miserable demi-tasse,
But what I’ll have, come woe, come weal,
v28 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
The headwaiter bowed like a poppy in the breeze;
v30 Monsieur desires coffee with the salad or the cheese?
Monsieur said: Now you’re getting warmer;
v32 Coffee with the latter, coffee with the former;
Coffee with the steak, coffee with the soup,
v34 Coffee with clams in a chilly group;
Yes, and with a cocktail I could do,
v36 So bring me coffee with the cocktail, too.
I’ll ?ght to the death for my bright ideal,
v38 Which is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
The headwaiter swiveled on a graceful heel.
v40 Certainly, certainly, coffee with the meal!
The waiter gave an obsequious squeal,
v42 Yes sir, yes sir, coffee with the meal!
Oh what a glow did Monsieur feel
v44 At the warming vision of coffee with the meal.
One hour later Monsieur, alas!
v46 Got his coffee in a demi-tasse (Nash, 1938).
“Coffee with the meal” depicts a waiter/customer relationship in a restaurant
experience. A customer enters a micro-universe where a certain social order prevails.
All the players have their predestined place, de?ned by expectations established in the
world outside this universe. This “macro-universe” de?nes the controlling parameters
contained in the actual restaurant experience. The order pre-determined by the
macro-universe in the host/customer interaction in Nash’s poem establishes that the
customer be a controller and the provider, the controlled element in this relation.
The macro-universe is de?ned by the expectations set out by the beliefs of the
customer. The set is prede?ned by the macro-level of social class. The customer
apparently belongs to the upper-social stratum and expectations are determined by the
general social order, which establishes the initial control relation: the customer controls
the quality and the types of hospitality exchanges. The waiter in contrast, is the
controlled element in this initial relationship.
Nevertheless, in “Coffee with the meal” the reverse situation is found. Instead of this
initial customer/waiter dominance relationship, a breakdown occurs through a
mismatch between expectations established in the macro-universe and the reality
found in the micro-universe of the restaurant experience. The latter mismatch leads to
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a reversal of roles between customer and waiter. Contrary to initial expectations, in
reality the provider is the controller and the customer is the controlled. The breakdown
of dominance relations can be seen clearly through the language the poem employs.
In “Coffee with the meal” customer and waiter are introduced initially in v1 and v3
as “a gentlemanly gentleman” and “a waiter”. From a syntactic point of view, these are
inde?nite noun phrases (NP), a continuation of an article and a noun, and this type is
generally used in textual discourse in order to introduce information that is new to the
hearer and speaker (or writer and reader in this case). At this point, the waiter is still an
impersonal entity but the reader already knows that the customer is “gentlemanly”.
He has been introduced into the universe of discourse as “a gentleman” in v1 already
with an identity tag stating that he belongs to a speci?c-social class. The waiter
acquires personal attributes in v4 where he addresses this customer with the
non-neutral adverb “laughingly” so adding scorn and attitude to the relationship. A
more neutral adverb such as smiling could have been chosen. Hereon, the reader may
infer that the relationship between the micro- and the macro-universe will break down
eventually.
Preparing for this breakdown is the ensuing speech of the “gentlemanly gentleman”:
v5 Oh I don’t want venison, I don’t want veal,
v6 But I do insist on coffee with the meal.
In v5 and v6, initial expectations de?ning his social class are expressed. For example,
from inferences drawn from the macro-universe the reader knows that the
social-structural order identi?es individuals who consume venison and veal as
having a re?ned taste. This is de?ned more closely in what follows:
Bring me the clams in a chilly group,
v8 And a large tureen of vegetable soup,
Steaks as tender as a maiden’s dream,
v10 With lots of potatoes hashed in cream,
And a lettuce and tomato salad, please,
v12 And crackers and a bit of Roquefort cheese,
But, waiter, the gist of my appeal,
v14 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.”
“clams in a chilly group” in v7, “as a maiden’s dream” in v9 present us with erudite
imagery introducing a ridiculous and humorous element which Nash plays upon. Now,
the reader knows the controller/controlled relation is doomed.
In v1 where the customer/controller is introduced as “a gentlemanly gentleman” the
relationship destiny is not yet known, but it could be assumed that it will be
straightforward. However, the request for “Roquefort cheese” introduces a second
intentional humorous element in v16
v16 Perhaps, da headwaiter onderstands.
v16 is a phonetic transcription emphasizing phonetically the nasalization of the
vowel (o˜) in onderstands which provides the waiter with a French personality.
In sociolinguistic terms, this phenomenon is known as “code-switching”. This refers to
the short and systematic change of linguistic systems induced by social or situational
requirements. Holmes (1992) argues that switches often express the speaker’s and
addresses ethnic or social membership owing to either solidarity oriented or markers
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for social distance. They signal particular relationships between participants and can
be found in situations determined by social status (in relation to class) or in the
professional world (as markers of formality). However, “code-switching” is particularly
common in bilingual communities and the interaction between the “gentlemanly
gentleman” and the waiter by no means can be characterized as being part of such a
social setting. Neither individuals are native speakers of French, but this switching of
codes is introduced for humorous, but ultimately controlling effect. Therefore, this type
of “staged code-switching” which is very much reminiscent of the concept “staged
authenticity” introduced by Greenwood (1982). In contexts where different cultures
interact there is a tendency for the elements determining the essential blueprints
de?ning them, to erode in detriment of the oft material-based power relations, resulting
in manipulation and derision.
In “Coffee with the meal” the culture of this particular service encounter is
determined by the social order of class and status. Staged-code-switching introduced in
by the waiter clearly identi?es a status relationship. By switching codes, he enters a
relation of solidarity with the customer. From v5 to v12 the reader knows that this
customer is from a sophisticated background. It can be inferred from knowledge of the
universe of expectations, that everything French is the symbol for ultimate
sophistication. By switching to French, the host levels himself with the customer’s
world of gentlemen. More instances occur in v18, v20 and v30:
v18 What, Monsieur? Coffee with the meal?
v20 Monsieur desires a demi-tasse after!
v30 Monsieur desires coffee with the salad or the cheese?
However, this solidarity is nothing but a fallacy as is learned from the sequence of
adjectives sleek, snobbish and scornful:
Said the sleek headwaiter, like a snobbish seal,
v18 What, Monsieur? Coffee with the meal?
His lips drew up in scornful laughter,
These adjectives have been placed in an ascending gradation of semantic importance.
Likewise, the customer answers in parallel expressions representing his increasing
level of frustration. First, by using the strong denotation of the verb insist and a single
occurrence of NP, coffee, in v6:
v6 But I do insist on coffee with the meal.
Then by trying to clarify this request in coupling the gist with the repetition of coffee
with, coffee with, coffee with. . .
v13 But, waiter, the gist of my appeal,
v14 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.
This pattern appears to be a contradiction. The meaning of gist does not need to be
accompanied by three instances of “coffee”. Expressing the customer’s exasperation at
the waiter’s attitude, leads him to express an ultimatum:
v21 The gentleman’s eyes grew hard as steel,
v22 He said: I’m ordering coffee with the meal.
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Readers are prepared for this ultimatum in v21 by the resultant the eyes grew hard as
steel, which then takes the reader to the cataclysmic culmination of what follows. v22
introduces a string of direct speech with great illocutionary force: having failed before
in his requests for coffee, the customer is now ordering the waiter to bring the “Coffee
with the meal.” What follows is a frenzied sequence of verses:
v23 Hot black coffee in a great big cup,
v24 Fuming, steaming, ?lled right up.
v25 I don’t want coffee iced in a glass,
v26 And I don’t want a miserable demi-tasse,
v27 But what I’ll have, come woe, come weal,
v28 Is coffee with, coffee with, coffee with the meal.”
Here, the climax of the tension that has been building up. The point of no return for the
customer: the gentlemanly gentleman has now lost his place in the micro-universe.
First, he represents his coffee dream:
v23 Hot black coffee in a great big cup,
v24 Fuming, steaming, ?lled right up.
v25 I don’t want coffee iced in a glass,
Then he engages also in code-switching in v26:
v26 And I don’t want a miserable demi-tasse,
v26 represents the turning point of the waiter/customer relation represented in the
poem. By engaging in staged code-switching, the customer has dropped to the level of
the waiter. The waiter, in turn, acquires full identity. In v39, he is ?nally introduced
with the de?nite NP “the headwaiter”:
v39 The headwaiter swiveled on a graceful heel.
As mentioned above, information already known to the speaker/hearer is introduced
into discourse with de?nite NPs. This is interpreted as an instance of anaphoric
backwards referencing, as already in v16 the waiter has been described as:
v16 Perhaps, da headwaiter onderstands.
“da headwaiter” is also a de?nite NP but differs from the one depicted in v39. First, “da
headwaiter” is a phonetic imitation from French and here it is easy to miss that it is a
de?nite NP. It merely provides cataphoric referencing, and refers forward to v39.
In contrast in v39, the waiter is described simply as “the waiter” both as a de?nite
NP and placed in sentence initial position highlighting his importance in the text and
by extension in the micro-universe. Cataphoric referencing and the end-focus principle
highlights the NP “an obsequious squeal” like a triumphant clarion. The waiter has
?nally become the master of the situation and the micro-universe:
v40 Certainly, certainly, coffee with the meal!
The waiter gave an obsequious squeal,
v42 Yes sir, yes sir, coffee with the meal!
No matter how much reassurance the waiter gives the “gentlemanly gentleman” by
presenting assertions expressing reassurance (Certainly, certainly in v40 and Yes sir,
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yes sir in v42) this only fools the customer into a false sense of security. The entity in
charge, is ?nally the waiter and not the customer, as the reader ultimately discovers:
v45 One hour later Monsieur, alas!
v46 Got his coffee in a demi-tasse.
Discussion
What immediately strikes us from the content of “Coffee with the meal” is that it
clearly depicts the tension between the micro- and macro-universes of the hospitality
experience and the ensuing breakdown of relations. It is clear that the needs of the
organization predominate and that the waiter mediating interaction on behalf of
the organization is constrained in its behavior apparently by the limited nature of, and
the ritualistic construction of the hospitality product. It is often mentioned in the
literature (Telfer, 2000) that although the principal tenet of hospitality is the
deliverance of feelings of wellbeing, it is also the case that methods of social control are
often responsible for a loss of hospitableness in the world of commercial hospitality.
The poem highlights the process of control by the hospitality provider and the loss of
control by the hospitality consumer. It evokes the issue of snobbism associated with
traditional-restaurant customer service and prompts re?ection upon class-bound
(British) status relationships between waiter and customer. When the waiter ?rst
engages in staged code-switching by saying “Monsieur” (in v18), and in so doing
attempting to remove the waiter-customer status differentials, the reader can divine the
attempt will not succeed as it lacks broader cultural coherency where the status of the
roles are de?ned. However, when the customer engages in staged code-switching (v26),
it is apparent that a loss of control by the customer has occurred and an extreme and
forlorn attempt is made to effect recovery by dropping the role accorded to their
position. Such waiter-customer behaviors illustrate Goffman’s (1959) depiction of
organizational actors presenting their selves in everyday life.
In summary, the poem vividly represents the experiential reality of certain types of
management-control methods prompting the reader to re?ect further on their nature.
Depicting feelings about the experience of control, indirectly personal in “Coffee with
the meal” must surely encourage a greater concern with the effects of management
control methods. Given that, for example, one sees a rapid increase in demand for
serviced apartments apparently in response to the negative experiential reality of
hotel-control methods (Wood, 1994), such considerations are very important. The
construction of hospitality is founded upon tensions inherent in the management
methods employed.
“Coffee with the meal” focuses the reader upon the importance of discourse neglected
in Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical account. The sociolinguistic discourse analytic
approach provides important additions to the explorative armory of the hospitality
researcher. The use of staged code-switching which in real life situations is employed as
a marker of solidarity, is employed here as a manipulative device in the representation of
a fundamentally disrespectful relationship to the customer. This is mirrored by the
diligent use of adjectives and the structuring of information all culminating in the total
exasperation of the customer who ?nds himself in a no-win situation. Therefore, it is also
important to draw attention to the implications of types of discourse associated with
particular types of management control.
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On the more practical side, the exploration of different hospitality discourses leads
to the realization of whether academics are able to engage in the knowledge of how
hospitality works. As mentioned in Robinson and Lynch (2007), literature by means of
properly contextualizing and encasing hospitality experiences, provides a useful tool
for the exploration of the metaphysical self and the individual response to the
experience of “objective” hospitality. There is a gap in the literature involving
customer-oriented studies. Whilst studies involving the exploration of emotional and
aesthetic labor are in plentiful supply (Hochschild, 1983; Nickson et al., 2001), these
generally focus upon the employee leaving the consumer perceptions of the situation
and what such labor actually means in the dark.
Therefore, instead of hiding behind traditional scienti?c modes of inquiry where the
self is denied, the qualitative hospitality researcher needs to engage with his/her own
subjective self and that of others. For example, responding to the criticisms of Riley
and Love (1999), the development of qualitative research in hospitality and tourism
requires a willingness to avoid the pitfalls of the past as well as to challenge some of
our basic assumptions about knowledge and its understanding. The inclusion of the
study of literature on hospitality (or other types of texts for that matter), in its own
right in the development of accurate qualitative research methodologies, or to
supplement existing management courses, is entirely logical rather than an act of mere
self-indulgence. More broadly, the investigation represents one example of the
development of hospitality as an academic subject and that the study of hospitality has
to engage in the presentation and representation of hospitality in all its forms if it is
ever to be properly understood.
Conclusion
In this paper the linguistic and non-linguistic strategies and social patterns employed
in a speci?c hospitality environment has been investigated. The poem demonstrates
how macro-level of social class predetermined initially the social order of the
micro-universe and how not even rebellion on behalf of the customer will prevent
the breakdown of relations between macro- and micro-universes. In particular, the
deployment of linguistic strategies (staged code-switching, information structuring
and use of adjectives) was central in the depiction of the breakdown between these
universes resulting in a disrespectful relation between customer and waiter.
Finally, literature is able to provide contextualized examples of service encounters
which can then be subjected to scrutiny and analysis. Also, the perspective of critical
discourse analysis has been identi?ed as being of paramount importance in the
development of alternative qualitative research methodologies that researchers are
able to employ in the representation of subjective experiences of hospitality.
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Corresponding author
Paul A. Lynch can be contacted at: [email protected]
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