This article is based on an ethnographic study in the Turkish hospitality sector and examines the employment of simple forms of labor control in hospitality service work from the perspective of labor process analysis. It introduces ethnographic data from two holiday villages on the southern coast of Turkey serving international customers. The two holiday villages were workplaces that employed mostly young workers for low-skill, routine tasks that demanded intense physical and emotional labor, but without due remuneration, career chances, and employment security. Data based on participant observation and in-depth interviews point to an increasing managerial reliance on simple forms of labor control. This happens as a result of intensifying competition among hospitality firms in a market with volatile demand and managerial perceptions regarding employees’ lack of customer service skills due to routinization and simplification of tasks after the introduction of the all-inclusive boarding system. Such market-related developments encourage employers to use simple control mechanisms that help in adjusting staffing levels, imposing loyalty, cutting costs, and ensuring efficiency.

As part of comprehensive research on the ethical climate in the Serbian tourism industry, this study examines the effects of selected predictors (job department, individual values and employees’ perspective) on the perception of ethical climate types as well as the relationship between the type of ethical climate, and job satisfaction. Additionally, this study tests these goals for both managers and their subordinates. Research was conducted in 2013, on a sample of 258 employees in different small and medium tourism organizations in Serbia. The findings revealed new information on both ethical climate and job satisfaction-related factors in small and medium tourism enterprises in a non-Western, transitional economy, where ethical behavior is influenced by constant social and economic changes. Several theoretical and managerial implications and future research opportunities were derived from the findings.