Beauty in the eye of the employer. A research study into hospitality recruitment and the aesthetic labour paradigm

Lookism is a conceptual term that is defined as judging a person on the basis of the way they look or sound. It is a derivative of the terms such as racism or sexism. In this paper, research was conducted to investigate the prevalence of this concept within the current hospitality industry in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. This study questioned the act of judging a person on the basis of their looks or dialect and discussed the possible reasons for these judgments. The study discussed discrimination and whether or not it is possible to condemn such acts in the context of employment due to the human nature of searching for the beauty in everything from art to romance and even to staff, making it a subconscious act with no malice intended. The paper also discussed literature which suggests others benefits which companies could obtain from having an aesthetically pleasing workforce, such as gaining an edge over competitors by having staff who are in line with their company image. The researcher conducted interviews with managers involved in the recruitment and selection processes within businesses in the hospitality industry in the city of Edinburgh. Data was collected from a broad range of businesses such as hotels, bars and restaurants. Details of the specific methods of data collection allowed for optimum information collection which is rich data. Findings from this study indicate that appearance discrimination is prevalent within the hospitality industry, and employers are aware of this however; recruitment behaviour suggests that subconscious discrimination takes place for many reasons. Results also indicated continued presence of discriminations based on gender and sexual orientation. This study indicated that the current hospitality industry does not spend enough time and resources on the recruitment of front line staff, which should be considered in the future. This will help companies employ a higher quality of staff, with smaller staff turnover and staff consistency which could help to eliminate discrimination, including 'Lookism.'ba_inthospunpub1387_ethesesunpu