Professionalism : A study of English post-1992 university hospitality management academics.

The term professionalism is endemic in the discourses of work and education. However, there is an absence of empirical work on professionalism with hospitality management academics in post-1992 universities in the UK. Changes have also occurred in the HE sector over recent decades but there has been no exploration of the impact of these on this specific group of practitioners. This research seeks to bridge this gap and contribute to a deeper understanding of professionalism in relation to these academics that have a relatively recent tradition in universities. This qualitative study does not seek to redefine professionalism, but focuses on examining and identifying specific aspects of the construct. Through a synthesis of different aspects of professionalism and a review of changes in legislation and university systems, a professionalism typology was developed. The typology was used as an analytical tool to describe the professional orientations of individual hospitality management academics. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with thirteen hospitality management academics, working in three post-1992 universities in England. Data were also gathered using mind maps and a reflective log. Inductive and deductive techniques were used to analyse and interpret the data. Findings indicate that the changes in the Higher Education sector are having a significant impact on hospitality management academics and their professionalism. As a result the professional orientations of hospitality management academics could be regarded as being stretched in order to meet the work demands made on them. This is causing conflict and tension as the pressure of economies of performance, associated with bureaucracy, managerialism and performativity in post-1992 universities collide with the ecologies of practice associated with scholarly ways of working. This research contributes to the debate about the professionalism of academics and supports a process of re-thinking their work tasks. It suggests that there should be changes in practice to strengthen the professional orientations of individual academics as part of maintaining standards in UK Higher Education.