Exploring the images of hospitality line-level employment: Hotel employees’ perceptions vs. the general public's perceptions

The study explores, compares, and contrasts the image of line-level hotel employment and its underlying dimensions as held by the general public and by hotel employees. Additionally, this study clarifies the images of six specific line-level occupations. A quantitative research approach was adopted. The analysis included 302 hospitality employees and 273 participants representing the general public. The findings revealed that the image of line-level employment is a multifaceted concept, represented by eight factors that were further utilized for the identification of the employment image profiles of the combined two samples. Furthermore, the study found differences in images of six line-level occupations, indicating higher rankings provided by current hospitality employees. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are presented.