The Communicative Constitution of Hospitality Organization: A Ventriloquial Analysis of Guest Service

Abstract

Seeking a form of knowledge that explains the communicative constitution of hospitality organization, I observed, figured out, and made sense of the service interaction that occurred in an actual unscripted conversation between the frontline staff (FLS) and the guest at the hotel front desk. I observed how agents and figures make a difference, how they act, speak, perform and deliver guest service on behalf of their principal. I framed the research problems in terms of incarnating/embodying figures and agents in the hospitality organization within the organizational communication discourse: How is hospitality organization incarnated/embodied in the guest service interaction? What is the configuration of agents in hospitality organization? How agents expressed themselves in the guest service interaction? I booked an overnight stay at a hotel in South Korea to undergo the check-in procedure. I requested a colleague to video record my check-in activity. The service interaction between the frontline staff (FLS) and served as data for my study. Drawing from Cooren's (2010) ventriloquism that applies in the context of an organization, I explained how intangible and tangible agents manifested and found voice or agency in organizational interaction. I uncover agents and figures who took part in the emergence of hospitality organization and completion of guest service. The hospitality organization was incarnated through communication. It was embodied through a hybrid agency of Human, Intangible and Tangible agents. The human, intangible and tangible agents that configure the hospitality organization expressed themselves in the Traditional welcome, Touch of service and Tokens for service. From this data, I developed a theory of guest service that draws from a communicative constitutive understanding of hospitality organizations. Guest service materialized, actualized, presented, embodied itself through all the beings - human, intangible or tangible forms, organizational, structural and technological agents. Communicating amounts to ventriloquizing all these beings that animate and express themselves with and through the FLS. They convey an attachment and passion that were recognizable as embodied in and through the way the FLS talk, act, perform and conduct himself. A series of entities and figures are convoked, invoked, and evoked in their interaction. The significance of providing excellent guest service is an important decision for business performance in the hospitality industry because the satisfaction of guests on the hotel's products and services is indivisible in their mind, it forms a coherent whole with human, intangible and tangible agents collectively accomplishing and delivering guest service.