A qualitative research on the relations of labor exploitation, domination, and resistance in hotel businesses

The purpose of this research is to describe how hotel employees perceive their experiences of labor exploitation, domination, and resistance. The theoretical basis of the research is labor process theory, John Scott's classification of domination and resistance, and Bourdieu's field theory. By adopting the qualitative method in the research, how employees perceive their experiences of exploitation, domination and resistance has been revealed through the phenomenology. Within the scope of the research, face-to-face interviews were held with 28 employees working in four- and five-star hotels in Antalya. According to the findings, when the employment patterns and working conditions in the sector are examined, hotel employees are exposed to a high level of labor exploitation. However, it has been determined that the employees are both exploited and kept under strict control through the control mechanisms. In addition, employees are subjected to physical, material, status and ideological domination by managers, bosses, customers, and other colleagues. It has been observed that the employees are often submissive due to the interests (illusio), the fear of unemployment and oppression, loyalty, legal inadequacies, and lack of organized struggle, but occasionally resist with daily resistance practices. It has been determined that there are no large-scale collective resistance practices in the field, but some daily resistance practices have the potential to decelerate exploitation and domination. It has been determined that exploitation and domination practices are reproduced after both obedience and resistance.