Positive gender congruency effects on shopper responses: Field evidence from a gender egalitarian culture

This field study examined how customer-employee interactions are affected by the congruency between an employee's gender and the perceived gender image of the consumption context in one of the most gender equal cultures in the world (Scandinavia). Mystery shoppers had a service encounter with an employee across a set of physical commercial settings that were classified according to their gender image. The mystery shoppers noted the gender of the employee, provided employee evaluations, and indicated word-of-mouth (WOM) ratings. Shoppers who had a gender congruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “feminine” consumption context) reported more favorable employee evaluations and WOM ratings than shoppers who had a gender incongruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “masculine” consumption context), with the impact of gender congruency on WOM ratings mediated by employee evaluations, particularly with respect to competence inferences. These findings highlight the ethical dilemma of a positive gender congruency effect, as it can generate superior consumer responses but also risks resulting in gender occupational segregation.     

Female self-perception as barrier to international careers?

It is a matter of fact that women are underrepresented in international management. In most of the articles on female expatriates, the companies' reluctance to send women abroad is usually named as first justification why female managers are rare in the international arena. The reasons cited are manifold, ranging from stereotypical views of the personnel managers to the prejudices women are expected to face abroad. Some authors tried to find additional causes such as dual career couples, cultural factors or the general lack of women in top management. However, only little has been written about the women's own fault for not being selected. Literature on gender-based stereotypes, female self-perception or traditional role models is broad. Typical issues are a perceived lack of self-confidence, stereotypical behaviour or underestimation. But a relation to expatriation is rarely found. Therefore, the aim of this article is to answer if and how women themselves contribute to their under-representation in international management.     

“Girlfriend getaway” as a contested term: Discourse analysis

All-female leisure travel is a fast growing tourism market segment that is frequently called “girlfriend getaways.” This study explored the meanings associated with the “girlfriend getaway” term, using discourse analysis to understand the ways women build significance, activities, identities, relationships, politics, connections, and sign systems and knowledge with respect to it. Eleven focus groups and 15 individual interviews were conducted with 83 American and Canadian women. The analysis revealed that “girlfriend getaway” is a term with contested and polysemous meanings. While some women found it to be adequate, accurate, cute, and reflective of their all-female tourist experiences, others described it as stereotypical, narrow/claustrophobic, “pink,” inadequate, and unreflective of their experiences. At times, the same symbolic meanings attracted some women but alienated others. Thus, tourism marketers need to identify and engage with different strands within their female clientele to ensure that their strategies appropriately respond to various preferences and lifestyles.     

Tourists’ agency versus the circle of representation

Tourism studies scholars have criticized but not overcome the passivity inherent in analyses of the reproduction of stereotypes in tourism encounters. Problematizing the category of viewers, I open the black box of the circle of representation as a self-reinforcing process, showing how tourists’ (re)production of images of ‘the other’ is rooted in their agency. Using Q-method and film-assisted observations embedded in ethnography, I describe how Dutch tourists reflexively ignore, interpret and mold contrasting information when they reproduce mythical Maasai imagery. This reproduction often contradicts the ‘performance’ of their hosts and is not a post-tourist phenomenon. A typology of three tourist perspectives further underlines the non-monolithical nature of these images, and how ‘the self’ is central in their active reproduction.     

Why diversity management fails: Metaphor analyses unveil manager attitudes

Through analysing managers’ use of metaphorical images, this study is the first to reveal negative stereotyping of a senior hospitality workforce. In-depth analyses indicate that age discrimination exists towards seniors; managers seem to be biased. Some have positive experiences with a senior workforce, but when it comes to recruiting new employees, younger people are the first choice. There is a coexistence of positive and negative attitudes, where negative attitudes cohere with traditional stereotypes of ageing individuals in the society. This underlying prejudice is probably one of the reasons why diversity management, in terms of age diversity, has failed in the Norwegian hospitality industry.     

Tourist stereotypes and servers’ attitudes: a combined theoretical approach

Local attitudes towards tourism comprise one of the most researched topics in tourism. However, researchers still need to examine attitudes of specific local groups, acknowledge tourist stereotypes as an influential factor and test different theoretical approaches, to develop a broader understanding and explanation of attitudes. Based on an emic perspective, this study analysed servers’ stereotypes of a specific group of tourists – locally known as chilangos – and associated attitudes in a Mexican resort. By adopting a combined theoretical approach drawn from social exchange theory and integrated threat theory, this study’s results reveal that individuals who depend economically on tourism do not always have positive attitudes and that negative stereotypes on their own are not the strongest predictors of attitudes. By combining both theories’ postulations, the findings show that perceived economic benefits and personal positive contact together account for positive attitudes but that these factors are significantly counterbalanced by negative tourist stereotypes. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The stereotyping of tourism management students in a business school setting

Previous research has shown that students in business schools hold stereotypes concerning their peers who are undertaking different specializations. Yet, to the authors’ knowledge, no research to date has investigated the stereotyping of tourism management students by other business students. The present study seeks to fill this research gap. The insights are important because negative perceptions exacerbate the challenge of attracting high-quality prospects for tourism degree programs and of producing graduates who enjoy favorable recognition by their peers and by industry. Tourism management students are future leaders who are critical to the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the tourism sector. In-depth interviews revealed three stereotyping themes: personality attribution, legitimacy, and professionalism. The study concludes by discussing potential stereotype-reducing strategies.     

Facial expressions versus words: Unlocking complex emotional responses of residents toward tourists

Tourism as an emotional sphere, researchers' efforts on emotions lag behind the fruitful achievements of psychology, in both methods and theories. Tourism studies on emotion mostly rely on self-reports only, thus limiting the understanding to explicitly expressed emotions. This study aims to compare residents' emotional responses toward tourists expressed implicitly (through facial expressions) and explicitly (through self-reports), and interpret identified discrepancies by exploring the psychological mechanism behind the two expression channels. Using self-developed video vignettes as triggers, Hong Kong residents’ facial expressions during watching and self-reported emotions after watching the videos were recorded. Through a comprehensive comparison, desires-derived and stereotypes-elicited emotional responses of residents toward tourists were distinguished. Facial expressions conveyed more desires-derived emotions like happiness, sadness, and anger, whereas self-reports emphasized stereotypes-elicited emotions, particularly disgust. A dual-process model of emotion formation was proposed to interpret the emotional expressive discrepancies, thereby enhancing the theorization of tourism studies on emotion.