On-property hotel financial controllers: A discourse analysis approach to characterizing behavioural roles

Abstract

This empirical study set out to characterize the role behaviour of Hong Kong international 4 star on-property hotel controllers in their interaction with line management. The approach adopted in this research involved separate 'in depth' interviews with four on-property hotel controllers, with each controller subsequently participating in the content analysis of the transcribed interviews. The conclusion from this study is that the predominant behavioural role of these on-property hotel controllers is neither that of a 'bean counter' nor a 'valued business partner' as has been suggested in the literature, but rather that of 'company cop'. Sometimes as 'police officer', sometimes as 'consultant' and sometimes by the back door, as a 'spy/watchdog', these on-property hotel controllers exercise their mandate to ensure compliance with the company 'laws'. These characterizations, with the exception of that of 'spy/watchdog', seem to be compatible with characterizations reported by on-property controllers in businesses in comparable operating circumstances to that of the hotel and conclusions from previous focussed studies on on-property hotel controllers. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.