scholarly journals Communicating Values to Cultivate Sustainable Occupational Identity: How Restaurant Workers Resist Service Work Stigma

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8587
Author(s):  
Kyle A. Hanners ◽  
Shawna Malvini Redden
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Service Work ◽  
Service Workers ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Social Discourses ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Restaurant Work ◽  
Practical Implications

Pre-COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant workers comprised one of the largest workforces in the United States, contributing hundreds of billions of dollars to the national economy. Yet, restaurant workers routinely face customer abuse, meager wages, lack of benefits, sexual harassment, and one of the highest rates of turnover across industries. Given these conditions, this qualitative study investigates how restaurant workers make sense of a contested occupation and manage the stigma associated with their occupation. Specifically, this study examines how food and beverage service workers identify with and navigate a demanding industry while managing the sociocultural assumptions of service work. Using a multi-level discourse analytic framework, we analyze how service workers craft and enact occupational identities. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with 19 restaurant employees, we demonstrate how people foreground the positive attributes of restaurant work while resisting social Discourses that position the work as dirty, demeaning, emotional, and meaningless. We analyze how workers frame the values of working in restaurants and the communicative strategies they use to navigate stigmatized social interactions, including emphasizing flexibility, empathy, emotion management, and teamwork. Theoretical and practical implications offer suggestions to improve workforce sustainability and working conditions for employees.

scholarly journals Beyond Religious Rigidities: Religious Firmness and Religious Flexibility as Complementary Loyalties in Faith Transmission

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Dollahite ◽  
Loren Marks ◽  
Kate Babcock ◽  
Betsy Barrow ◽  
Andrew Rose
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Functioning ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

Research has found that intergenerational transmission of religiosity results in higher family functioning and improved family relationships. Yet the Pew Research Center found that 44% of Americans reported that they had left the religious affiliation of their childhood. And 78% of the expanding group of those who identify as religiously unaffiliated (“Nones”) reported that they were raised in “highly religious families.” We suggest that this may be, in part, associated with religious parents exercising excessive firmness with inadequate flexibility (rigidity). We used a multiphase, systematic, team-based process to code 8000+ pages of in-depth interviews from 198 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families from 17 states in all 8 major religio-cultural regions of the United States. We framed firmness as mainly about loyalty to God and God’s purposes, and flexibility as mainly about loyalty to family members and their needs and circumstances. The reported findings provided a range of examples illustrating (a) religious firmness, (b) religious flexibility, as well as (c) efforts to balance and combine firmness and flexibility. We discuss conceptual and practical implications of treating firmness and flexibility as complementary loyalties in intergenerational faith transmission.

scholarly journals Essential Work in the U.S. during COVID-19: Navigating Vulnerability–Sustainability Tensions

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10665
Author(s):  
Astrid M. Villamil ◽  
Suzy D’Enbeau
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organizational Sustainability ◽  
Essential Work ◽  
Emotional Work ◽  
Constant Comparative Analysis ◽  
Anxiety Depression ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

The COVID-19 pandemic affected every functioning system in the United States. Workers deemed “essential” faced multiple threats to their well-being that quickly led to acute symptoms of anxiety, depression, burnout, and overall exhaustion, and organizations were challenged to devise employee protocols to maintain sustainability. This qualitative study takes a tension-centered approach to discern how “essential workers” in the United States navigated this tenuous work landscape, particularly with regard to emotional work and workplace dignity. We conducted 19 semi-structured in-depth interviews with essential workers during COVID-19. Our constant comparative analysis of the data identified a macro-tension between vulnerability and sustainability that was revealed through two micro-tensions: (a) essential work as instrumental and disposable, and (b) workplace dignity as recognized and transgressed. We unpack the emotional responses enmeshed in these micro-tensions and situate our findings at the intersection of organizational sustainability, emotional work and workplace dignity. We offer theoretical and practical implications for essential workers and organizations.

Emotional costs of service labor: do consumers care?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Moran ◽  
Sigalit Ronen
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
Reducing Power ◽  
Service Work ◽  
Service Workers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
The Status ◽  
Tipping Behavior ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Consumers can provide monetary tips to service employees as a reward for their efforts. However, consumers’ ability to recognize the demands of these jobs could affect tipping behavior. This study aims to examine the difficulty consumers have recognized the emotional toll of service work, and how this affects tipping behavior. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted with US participants to determine how the focus on emotional burdens of service work affects willingness to tip lower level service employees. Findings Results reveal that when consumers hear about the emotional costs of service labor, they report less willingness to tip low-level workers, compared to when they learn about other job costs or contributions. Results further show that reducing power distance between customers and workers can increase willingness to tip when emotional costs are emphasized. Research limitations/implications This research contributes to the services literature by showing how feelings of power affect whether consumers appreciate certain job costs, and, in turn, their tipping behavior. Practical implications This research clarifies how consumers perceive job demands, which has direct consequences for tipping behavior and suggests more strategies to improve tips. Social implications Findings can help advocates looking to advance the status and compensation for lower-level service workers. Originality/value This research is first to explore why the emotional costs of service labor are not recognized in certain cases, and provides insight on how to improve customer treatment of lower-level service labor.

The Impact of Oil Price Fluctuations on Industry Stock Returns: Evidence from International Markets

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Elias Randjbaran ◽  
Reza Tahmoorespour ◽  
Marjan Rezvani ◽  
Meysam Safari
Keyword(s):  
Stock Returns ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oil Price ◽  
Price Variation ◽  
Price Changes ◽  
Price Fluctuations ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of oil price variation on 14 industries in six markets, including Canada, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Panel weekly data were collected from June 1998 to December 2011. The results indicate that price fluctuations primarily affect the Oil and Gas as well as the Mining industries and have the least influence on the Food and Beverage industry. Furthermore, in three out of six of these countries (Canada, France, and the U.K.), oil price changes negatively affect the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industry. One possible reason for the negative relationship between oil price changes and the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries in the above-mentioned countries is that the governments of these countries fund their healthcare systems. Portfolio managers and investors will find the results of this study useful because it enables adjusting portfolios based on knowledge of the industries that are impacted the most or the least by oil price fluctuations.

Mobilized by Injustice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah L. Walker
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Contact ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Depth Interviews

Springing from decades of abuse by law enforcement and an excessive criminal justice system, members of over-policed communities lead the current movement for civil rights in the United States. Activated by injustice, individuals protested police brutality in Ferguson, campaigned to end stop-and-frisk in New York City, and advocated for restorative justice in Washington, D.C. Yet, scholars focused on the negative impact of punitive policy on material resources, and trust in government did not predict these pockets of resistance, arguing instead that marginalizing and demeaning policy teaches individuals to acquiesce and withdraw. Mobilized by Injustice excavates conditions under which, despite otherwise negative outcomes, negative criminal justice experiences catalyze political action. This book argues that when understood as resulting from a system that targets people based on race, class, or other group identifiers, contact can politically mobilize. Negative experiences with democratic institutions predicated on equality under the law, when connected to a larger, group-based struggle, can provoke action from anger. Evidence from several surveys and in-depth interviews reveals that mobilization as result of negative criminal justice experiences is broad, crosses racial boundaries, and extends to the loved ones of custodial citizens. When over half of Blacks and Latinos and a plurality of Whites know someone with personal contact, the mobilizing effect of a sense of injustice promises to have important consequences for American politics.

Consumer value creation through WhatsApp use

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-471
Author(s):  
Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas ◽  
Jorge Guadalupe-Lanas ◽  
Ekaterina Zabelina ◽  
Andrés Palacio-Fierro ◽  
Margarita Velín-Fárez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Role Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Value ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand in-depth how consumers create value in their lives using WhatsApp, the leading mobile instant messaging (MIM) application. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts the perspective of customer-dominant logic (CDL) and uses a qualitative multimethod design involving 3 focus groups and 25 subsequent in-depth interviews. The research setting was Ecuador, a Latin American country. Findings Analysis and interpretation of the participants’ stories made it possible to identify and understand the creation of four types of value: maintaining and strengthening relationships; improving role performance; emotional support; and entertainment and fun. In addition, the present study proposes a conceptual model of consumer value creation as it applies to MIM. Practical implications Understanding the way consumers create value in their lives using MIM is important not only for organizations that offer MIM applications, but also for those companies that develop other applications for mobile phones or for those who wish to use MIM as an electronic word-of-mouth vehicle. Originality/value The current study is one of the first to address the topic of consumer behavior in the use of technologies from the perspective of CDL; this perspective enables an integrated qualitative vision of value creation in which the consumer is the protagonist.

scholarly journals Food Bank Donations in the United States: A Landscape Review of Federal Policies

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3764
Author(s):  
Katelin M. Hudak ◽  
Emily Friedman ◽  
Joelle Johnson ◽  
Sara E. Benjamin-Neelon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nutritional Quality ◽  
Food System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
Food And Beverage

Rates of food insecurity have increased substantially in the United States (US), and more families are turning to the charitable food system to help meet their needs. Prior studies have examined the nutritional quality of foods offered through food banks, but little is known about what government policies may shape the healthy food donation landscape. The purpose of this study was to review US federal policies that impact food and beverage donations to food banks and assess whether policies encourage healthy food donations. In spring 2020, two researchers independently reviewed federal food and beverage donation policies using predefined search terms in two legal databases. We identified six categories of policies based on the existing food donation literature and themes that emerged in the policy review. We identified 42 federal policies spanning six categories that addressed food and beverage donations to food banks. The largest category was “government programs,” with 19 (45%) policies. The next largest category was “donation via schools,” with 12 (29%) policies. However, no policies specifically addressed the nutritional quality of food donations. There is an opportunity for the federal government to strengthen food bank donation policies and improve the nutritional quality of donated foods and beverages.

Low-Wage Women’s Experiences of Workplace Incivilities

2021 ◽  
pp. 193672442110147
Author(s):  
Katherine Tindell ◽  
Irene Padavic
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Food Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Income Loss ◽  
Service Workers ◽  
Bank Teller ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Service Representative ◽  
Research And Policy

Workplace incivility, also called bullying, mobbing, and harassment, is pervasive and takes a high toll on employees. This study draws on 18 in-depth interviews with women in the precarious, low-wage, service sector in jobs such as customer service representative, retail sales, food service, pharmacy technician, and bank teller. Women service workers are a particularly vulnerable group, and yet most research on workplace problems of this type focus on professional women’s experience. We find that in this sample, most incivilities came from supervisors, followed by customers and then coworkers. Among supervisors, women were the most common perpetrators, while customer and coworker perpetrators were largely men. The type of incivility varied depending on role: Disparagement was common on the part of supervisors and customers, while coworkers were far more likely to engage in sexual harassment, which was virtually nonexistent among supervisors. Consequences for targets of these incivilities included anxiety, which most had experienced, and income loss. We offer suggestions for future research and policy.

scholarly journals Gender disparities in opioid treatment progress in methadone versus counseling

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick Guerrero ◽  
Hortensia Amaro ◽  
Yinfei Kong ◽  
Tenie Khachikian ◽  
Jeanne C. Marsh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Treatment Outcomes ◽  
Treatment Plan ◽  
Dropout Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gender Disparities ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Lower Odds ◽  
Male Clients ◽  
Multi Level

Abstract Background In the United States, the high dropout rate (75%) in opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment among women and racial/ethnic minorities calls for understanding factors that contribute to making progress in treatment. Whereas counseling and medication for OUD (MOUD, e.g. methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone) is considered the gold standard of care in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, many individuals with OUD receive either counseling or methadone-only services. This study evaluates gender disparities in treatment plan progress in methadone- compared to counseling-based programs in one of the largest SUD treatment systems in the United States. Methods Multi-year and multi-level (treatment program and client-level) data were analyzed using the Integrated Substance Abuse Treatment to Eliminate Disparities (iSATed) dataset collected in Los Angeles County, California. The sample consisted of 4 waves: 2011 (66 SUD programs, 1035 clients), 2013 (77 SUD programs, 3686 clients), 2015 (75 SUD programs, 4626 clients), and 2017 (69 SUD programs, 4106 clients). We conducted two multi-level negative binomial regressions, one per each outcome (1) making progress towards completing treatment plan, and (2) completing treatment plan. We included outpatient clients discharged on each of the years of the study (over 95% of all clients) and accounted for demographics, wave, homelessness and prior treatment episodes, as well as clients clustered within programs. Results We detected gender differences in two treatment outcomes (progress and completion) considering two outpatient program service types (MOUD-methadone vs. counseling). Clients who received methadone vs. counseling had lower odds of completing their treatment plan (OR = 0.366; 95% CI = 0.163, 0.821). Female clients receiving methadone had lower odds of both making progress (OR = 0.668; 95% CI = 0.481, 0.929) and completing their treatment plan (OR = 0.666; 95% CI = 0.485, 0.916) compared to male clients and receiving counseling. Latina clients had lower odds of completing their treatment plan (OR = 0.617; 95% CI = 0.408, 0.934) compared with non-Latina clients. Conclusions Clients receiving methadone, the most common and highly effective MOUD in reducing opioid use, were less likely to make progress towards or complete their treatment plan than those receiving counseling. Women, and in particular those identified as Latinas, were least likely to benefit from methadone-based programs. These findings have implications for health policy and program design that consider the need for comprehensive and culturally responsive services in methadone-based programs to improve outpatient treatment outcomes among women.

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