How the Occupational Community of Snow Sport Instructors Generates Consent and Effort

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 26: Collaboration, conflict, cohesion

Abstract

This paper examines the teaching of ski and snowboard lessons at a mountain resort in the United States. Snow sport instruction is a nonstandard work arrangement with low hourly pay, uncertain scheduling, unstable earnings, and an initial lack of employer-provided benefits. Through an analysis of the occupational community, I show that instructors are encouraged to prioritize the intangible rewards they derive from teaching. This orientation promotes (temporary) dedication to a complex learning game that aligns employee interests with the profit-making goals of management. The socialization process behind instructors’ consent and effort reveals an important (but underappreciated) aspect for how objectively “bad” jobs can be transformed into a subjectively “good” ones.

Author

• Jeffrey L. Kidder, Northern Illinois University