Hospitableness and eudaimonic virtues: An interpretive single-case study in the hospitality industry

Hospitableness, understood as an individual disposition to welcome and care for others, provides the foundation for the enactment of moral virtues in the hospitality industry. The ethical practice of such virtues contributes to employee happiness (eudaimonia), yet virtue-ethical perspectives remain underdeveloped in hospitality research. This interpretive single-case study is grounded in realistic eudaimonic virtue ethics. It explores the eudaimonic virtuousness of hospitality practitioners to identify the personal qualities, behaviours, and practices that constitute hospitableness as moral excellence. The study was conducted at an international hotel. Staff nominated colleagues whom they perceived as most hospitable. Two staff members were nominated. Subsequent semi-structured interviews with nominators explored the reasoning underpinning their selections. Data were analysed using a content and thematic approach, with codes and categories deductively organised according to five predefined eudaimonic claims. Analysis generated 29 prominent categories consistent with the five claims: (1) Acquired traits – stable and integral to the champion's identity; (2) Emotionally congruent actions – grounded in passion, dedication, and internal coherence; (3) Practical wisdom - an internalised, perceptively attuned quality comprising multiple personal characteristics shaped by education, upbringing, and experience; (4) Motivational orientation - experienced as intrinsically fulfilling and sustaining; and (5) Vice - overdoing hospitality in a way that feels forged and intrusive; underdoing it through neglect and inattentiveness. Hospitableness was described as a stable, embodied disposition rather than a performative behaviour, characterised by fulfilment, passion, perceptively attuned, and vibrancy. It was viewed as intrinsically motivating and linked to happiness, while vice was conceptualised as both excess and deficiency. Although system-bound and based on a small sample, this study contributes to hospitality theory by providing a nuanced account of hospitableness as an identity-embedded eudaimonic virtue, demonstrating how emotionally congruent action and practical wisdom integrate character, ethical practice, and practitioner flourishing beyond instrumental or performative models.