Professional superheroes: Are changes in higher education stretching hospitality management academics' professionalism to the limit?

The higher education sector in the UK has changed considerably over the last few decades, but particularly in the last ten years. As a result, working practices are such that hospitality management academics are ‘stretching’ their professional orientations in-order to accommodate increased bureaucratic and market-focused requirements, which in-turn impacts upon their professionalism. A typology is introduced in this empirical paper which is used to gain a deeper understanding of professionalism and professional orientations of this vocational academic group in the context of a changed higher education working environment.