CASE STUDY
The Hidden Emotions of Tourism
by
Charles Lamson
Resistance is an inevitable aspect of systems of motivation and control. This is true even of cultural forms of control. Although, if unobtrusive control is working, it is largely invisible. However, some modes of resistance may be overt and public. For example, some of the stewardesses in one study admitted accidentally spilling hot coffee in the lap of especially obnoxious travelers. But, it is more likely that resistance to unobtrusive control will occur in private places and times. This case is about emotional control and resistance in three tourism-related organizations; an airline (F.W.A.), a cruise ship (the Radiant Spirit). and Pairs - an up-scale, all inclusive Caribbean resort. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.
Pairs and Radiant cater to people from all over the world, but primarily from Europe and North America. F.W.A. has a less exclusive clientele, but also operates largely in North America. Their marketing rhetoric - from brochures to television ads - depict all three businesses as catering to tourists in every way. At Pairs, frontline employees, all of whom are black, are taught that they are to display the happy-go-lucky attitude that tourists expect of Caribbean people. Employees on the Radiant, all of whom are white, learn to mimic the behaviors of the crew of the television series The Love Boat, which means to constantly be smiling and perky. In all three, employees learn that the customer is always right, and that employees will always be smiling and happy servants. They also learn that these duties have no limits. One Pairs staff member said, "A guest coming here could be a thief or a murderer, but we have to be nice to them no matter what." Cassie, a radiant employee, told about a man at the ship disco, who
asked me to dance. He was grabbing me and holding me close... and saying these weird things... like, "Have you ever thought of coming over to the dark side?" I just played dumb....In this type of situation, you don't want to piss someone off....I don't know what I could get away with and what I could not I was so frustrated that I had no control.
When Cassie reported the incident to her supervisor she was told to walk away when things like that happen. But after a training program, that included the motto, "We never say no," she really did not know what to do, and she blamed herself for not knowing.
All three organizations use a variety of mechanisms to enforce their behavioral rules. At Pairs, each guest is given an evaluation sheet, that includes a section where she or he is asked to comment on the performance of the staff - by name. Twice a month the public relations office posts the comments for all employees to see. Cash rewards are given to employees who receive many positive comments. Punishments are given to those with negative comments. The Radiant uses a similar system, and it works so well that employees believe that the passengers are their second bosses. Their cash awards seem to focus on control as well as service. One employee won an award by suggesting that mirrors be installed throughout the ship, so that employees could constantly monitor their appearance. F.W.A. uses ghost riders - supervisors who fly disguised as customers.
Their employees themselves help discipline one another, pairs post summaries of customer comments. When the sheets are posted, all the desk staff excitedly huddle together behind the reception desk to read the results. Workers read positive comments aloud for all to hear. Workers with the highest points, receive congratulations from their peers. Workers with low points and negative comments, are talked about behind their backs. For the rest of the week, when Ken, a bellman, walked by the desk, Simone teased him, by saying, "I don't see your name here." He immediately turned the pages of the report, until he found a remark that included his name. "It only takes one," he said. If any of the Radiant's workers complain, their coworkers will tell them, "It's a tough job. If you can't handle it, go home."
The control system does seem to work. Most of the workers are like Trendy, about whom a Pairs worker commented, "I have never seen Trendy get mad. I'm not telling a lie. In all the years I've been here, I've just seen her smile when guests or supervisors are present." A Radiant employee said, "Our job is to be happy, and there will be times when you don't feel that way. You have to put it aside and look as though you are enjoying your job." The employees' performances are so fluid, and so convincing, that they seem to be scripted. One script welcomes new guests: "Hi, I'm Laura, your concierge [big smile]. I am here to help. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call. If any situations arise please call. We are out of the office a lot, but we have a radio. So just call the operator and he will get in touch with us." Even the actor's voice is scripted. When the staff members talk to one another, or to guests from the Caribbean, they use the local patois - with its rhythmic tone and colorful metaphors. But with guests, only standard English is used.
Perhaps most important, most of the workers see their act as just that a strategic way of behaving, that fulfills management's commands, while making their lives easier. Radiant employees complained bitterly that management shoved the customer service program down their throats. And behind the scenes in the galleys of airliners - the back rooms of resorts, and the tiny employee staterooms on cruise ships - "servanthood" is a different thing entirely. When safely out of the hearing of guests or management, Pairs staffers talk about anything and everything, and they often complain about the customers - making it clear that it simply is not true that the customer is always right. A Radiant employee told all his peers about a customer who asked if the ship generates its own electricity; the employee wondered, "What if I would have told him, 'No, we run an extra long electric cord back to port.'" Simone was working at the Pairs registration desk with Sandy one day, and a U.S. tourist interrupted to ask Sandy if he could mail his postcards with U.S. stamps. Sandy, in his best British-English, explained that he would have to use local stamps, because each country uses its own stamps and postal system." As the guest departed. Sandy immediately shifted into his local dialect, and the employees talked at length about how little U.S. residents including Sandy's friends at school, knew about Caribbean or West Indian culture. In fact, one of the dominant topics of conversation involved the various failings of the guests - their stupid questions ("Why is it raining?" or "What language are the staff members speaking?" [the answer is English]), their arrogance (for example, one U.S. resident repeatedly demanded that the desk clerk check his bill for unauthorized long-distance calls, after seeing his maid using his phone - even after being told that the maids always use the room phones to notify the desk when they have finished cleaning a room), their paranoia (a German couple would not leave their luggage for a moment lest a staff member steal a tacky palm-leaf hat, and another couple demanded to know the location of the American embassy in case of civil unrest - something that had not happened on this island in almost a century), and their racism (all staff members are black; almost all guests are white). Telling these stories to one another seemed to serve three purposes - they placed a worker in a superior role vis-a-vis the guest thus reversing the complete subservience demanded by their organization; They help cushion the worker from negative comments by the guests, making it less likely that they will blame themselves when they encounter rude behavior; and paradoxically they allow the worker to continue to play his or her assigned role, while simultaneously rejecting it.
 Employees also share with one another strategies for resisting the control system. F.W.A. old-timers tell new employees how to detect ghost riders, and how to use privacy laws to short circuit managerial strategies, such as making random checks of the flight attendants bags. They teach one another to follow the most alienating rules only when management is around. Terry was told to never again wear her Santa earnings on flights during the holidays. To get around the policy she took them off when management was around, and put them on when she stepped on a plane. They fulfill the requirement to wear makeup only during their annual performance reviews, and wear the required high-heeled shoes, only when flying through a hub city where managers are likely to be hanging around. They teach one another to use humor to keep overbearing pilots in their places, and to combat the sexism that often accompanies their jobs; they bring beverages to the pilots before takeoff, as ordered, but poke fun at the rule by asking them if they need to be "hydrated." Or they devise systems that allow them to escape the housemothers, who are assigned to women's dormitories during training - for example, signing one another in and out in order to resist curfews that the airlines impose.
END
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