Hospitality's History

Abstract

Virtually no scholarly work has been written about the hospitality industry's history. This historiography exposes the gaps in what's available. For example, few works examine the development and growth of the industry. Most published reports are biographies, company histories, case studies, and coffee-table books. Missing are accounts of the industry's employees, the industry's customers, the demographics of both groups, and even consideration of the service interaction. Such topics as managerial, recruitment, and training practices; wage and compensation programs; benefits packages; and management succession are all unrecorded. This may be because most four-year programs focus on teaching management skills and tasks. Educators are encouraged to teach students the little picture versus the big picture; namely, how to manage on their first day on the job rather than what management has meant and could mean to the industry.