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The extra-low minimum wage for US restaurant workers has remained unchanged for over 30 years. Periodic campaigns have brought this wage, and its connection to the perpetuation of inequality and exploitative work, to public attention, but these campaigns have met resistance from both employers and restaurant workers. This article draws on a workplace ethnography in a restaurant front-of-house, and in-depth interviews with tipped food service workers, to examine the tipped labour process and begin to answer a central question: why would any workers oppose a wage increase? It argues that the constituting of tips as a formal wage created for workers a two-employer problem, wherein customers assume the role of secondary, unregulated, employers in the workplace. Ultimately, the tipped wage poses a longer-term strategic obstacle for workers in their position relative to management and ability to organize to shape the terms and conditions of their work.

Purpose – The chapter explores how gendered division of labor shapes gender hierarchal relationships, inequality, social mobility, and labor solidarity of women and men workers in the small-scale restaurant industry in China.

Methodological approach – Thirty-four interviews with restaurant workers were conducted and a survey was taken.

Findings – Small-scale restaurants in China are patriarchal in structure that symbolizes a familial hegemonic regime. Labor is divided by gender, age and, to some extent, class with women concentrated in the lower positions. Most restaurant workers are young migrant women who come to the city to work before marrying and having children. Restaurant work is arduous: the hours are long and the wages are low. Women workers do not advance beyond the position of server, while men make use of social contacts and advance in status and wages. Because of kinship and village ties as well as divisions by age and gender, class solidarity cannot be achieved.

Value of the study – The chapter focuses on a topic that has been little studied. It furthers an understanding of intersectionality and inequality among food service workers in the context of China.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between employee age and intimidation in the workplace. Dysfunctional employee behaviors such as harassment and aggression are harmful to the organizational work environment. Such destructive behaviors have long been viewed as negatively impacting organizational success. Additionally, the age dynamics in organizations are rapidly changing as the “graying of America” progresses, older workers remain in the workforce and younger workers delay employment.

The study utilizes data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which is a national database containing information on crime in the US.NIBRS was used to measure the occurrence of workplace violence overall, and workplace intimidation specifically, in the restaurant industry, as well as the ages of both victims and perpetrators of work-related violence.

Results revealed that younger workers are more likely to perpetrate workplace intimidation than their senior counterparts. As victim age increases, employees are more likely to report intimidation than more serious crimes.

Workplace intimidation prevention programs do not typically include age as a factor. This study may be helpful to managers and HR managers charged with developing workplace training programs.

The results of this study contribute to the shared understanding of dysfunctional workplace dynamics. As the workforce collectively ages, organizations should acknowledge the potential impact age may have on violence in the workplace.

This study was designed to contribute to the extant literature by discovering the perceptions of restaurant employees and managers toward equal opportunities in restaurant labor and working in a diversity-rich restaurant work environment.

A qualitative research approach was utilized. Through in-depth interviews, data were collected purposefully from restaurant workers in different positions (e.g. managers, servers, chefs and cooks) in the USA.

As a result of content analysis, different perspectives emerged on equal employment opportunity and diversity in restaurant labor. While some employees and managers believe that restaurant labor has equal employment opportunities, others think there is a lack of equal employment opportunity and partial equal employment opportunity in the industry. Most participants perceive working in a diversity-rich restaurant work environment as beneficial (an opportunity to learn about different cultures and an opportunity to learn different experiences and approaches).

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to explore employees' and managers' perceptions of equal employment opportunity and diversity in the hospitality labor context, specifically restaurant labor. Therefore, the research findings will create value for scholars to understand the view on equal employment opportunity and diversity in restaurant labor. Further, it will assist practitioners in designing their labor structure regarding equal employment opportunity and diversity management for the future.

Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management, Organizational Change Management.

Postgraduate and undergraduate students.

Restoran Minang Plus is a self-styled family-owned and managed restaurant featuring a gamut of Malaysian Negeri Sembilan and Indonesian Padang dishes. The eatery establishment has sailed the food industry waters successfully since 2004 and currently has five branches. However, there are certain imperatives they have to institute to integrate their entrepreneurial challenges with organizational change management. The nature of the forces in the competitive restaurant landscape requires a continuous rethinking of current strategic actions, organizational change, communication systems, motivation, asset deployment and strategic flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions and thereby develop and maintain a competitive advantage. The question is how do they integrate this organizational change management to their entrepreneurial challenges with a view to achieve and maintain competitive advantage?

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: understanding managing diversity by looking at the different categories of diversity, that is, generic characteristics and learned characteristics that influence work attitudes; explaining how fostering learning and reinforcement can help in increasing job satisfaction; describing the basic motivational needs of the employees and how it can help in increasing job performance; understanding how an entrepreneurial firm can maximize its firm performance through effective change management; and understanding the importance of strategic management in an entrepreneurial firm.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This paper aims to report on a study that used the practice theory lens to understand how Chinese ethnic culture influences restaurant workers' learning through engagement in everyday work practices.

A multiple case study approach was used. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and site observations. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify how workers learnt the sayings, doings and relatings in their workplaces.

The findings show that the ethnic culture of the participants influences and enriches their learning in practice settings such as small Chinese restaurants.

The understandings presented here need to be verified through more research in different regions and nations. In addition, cross-cultural studies on other ethnic restaurants may contribute to deeper understandings of the influences of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The research contributes to understanding the influence of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The understandings gained from the findings of this study form a useful basis for curriculum development and instructional design of training programmes for practice-based as well as work-integrated-learning components of vocational curriculum. Furthermore, awareness of the strengths of the ethnic culture is of interest to owner/managers of small Chinese restaurants to afford supportive learning environments for workers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the harassment of vulnerable women whose lives and experiences remain largely unseen in the era of #MeToo.

The paper draws from the sparse empirical literature as well as the more informal accounts provided by social justice organizations, investigative journalists and legal commentary about four spheres that have largely remained invisible: women in low-income housing, agricultural workers, janitorial workers and restaurant workers. It also reviews the surprising success stories that some of these groups have achieved and invite us to ponder what we can learn from them.

Farm workers, sub-minimum wage restaurant workers, single mothers and janitorial workers are several groups that were not highlighted by the current movement.

Highlighting the experiences of those who remain largely hidden in and from academic discourse and, more largely, the public eye enlarges the scope of knowledge and encourages further scholarly inquiry.

Combining the perspectives of scholar and social justice activist illuminates the depth and breadth of largely invisible classes of harassment victims and the potentially novel remedies they have initiated.

The purpose of this research is to examine how a change in team dynamics impacts an individual's motivation to engage in helping behavior and operational performance.

An online vignette experiment and a hybrid discrete event and agent-based simulation model are used.

Study findings demonstrate how a non-core worker's perception of team dynamics influence engagement in helping behavior and system performance.

This study provides a further understanding on how team members react to changes in team processes. This study theorizes on how an individual team member responds to fairness concerns. This study also advances our understanding of the critical importance of helping behavior in a retail logistics setting. This research illustrates how the theory of strategic core and procedural justice literature can be adopted to explain team dynamics in supply chain management.

This study intends to examine the impact of a fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on workers' career optimism via perceived job insecurity among non-managerial working restaurant employees.

Time-lagged quantitative data were collected in two waves from 316 non-managerial on-job restaurant employees. Structural equation modeling technique was applied to examine the measurement and structural model.

The study showed that workers' fear of COVID-19 positively impacts their job insecurity. Further, the study found that increasing level of job insecurity depletes workers' career optimism—an outlook of their future career prospects.

The study suggests organizations should work to make employees feel secure in terms of their job continuity and career progression. Eventually, this would support employees in shielding themselves against possible resource loss (e.g. career optimism) due to pandemic crises.

Extant literature has tested the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees' workplace attitudes and behaviors such as job satisfaction (e.g. Bajrami et al., 2021) and safety performance (e.g. Kim et al., 2021). However, little has been researched on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees' future career outlook, particularly of non-essential workers in the hospitality industry. To the best of the author's knowledge, an explicit examination of the impact of COVID-19 fear on career optimism has not been conducted previously. Hence, this study will not only be a valuable contribution in the literature of career management, but will also yield important practical implications.

This paper aims to investigate talent management (TM) practices of independent fine dining restaurant (FDR) organizations and explores why employee retention rates in FDRs are higher than other restaurants. This research adds to the TM literature by surfacing attitudes and influences that lead to employee retention.

The present study collects data using McCracken’s (1988) long interview method to provide insights into value similarities and differences between employees and independent restaurant managers. Fourteen interviews at two independent FDRs inform the results. This study employs a grounded theory approach.

Study results show that people take pride in working for the restaurants and the culture within the restaurant inspires a higher level of self-esteem. This independent, family-owned environment helps employees and managers achieve higher work performance and satisfy overall lifestyle needs. Respondents report their employment helps them to do things that bring out the best in them and allows them to accomplish other things that they want in life. The study also suggests that a shared value system between employees and managers creates a more stable workforce and longer tenure.

The current study examines only two independent family-owned FDRs, so generalization is limited. The current study uses grounded theory to expand on research in the TM literature.

If owners and managers of FDR focus on addressing employees’ higher-order motivational needs, they have a better chance of retaining employees. Losing productive employees has high direct and indirect costs, and the restaurant industry is plagued with high turnover. Independent restaurants also need to evaluate their new employee orientations because unstructured training contributes to an environment of uncertainty. Developing a positive culture in an FDR is possible with a focused, family-oriented business. This work culture takes time to develop. Recruiting and selection methods to ensure a fit with the culture and values are a cost-effective method to ensure the continuation of this culture. The consistent values between employees and managers in this study demonstrate that hiring for personal values and not necessarily for skills already developed helps with positive TM in FDR.

The current study extends the knowledge in TM, ecological systems theory and motivational needs-based theory through detailed interviews and value analyses. Long interviews and triangulation of the data surface conscious and nonconscious memories from both employees and managers specifically relating to employee retention factors in FDR.