In the hospitality industry, the role of the frontline employee is integral. These employees are the face of the organization and have a strong role in shaping and forming the opinions of consumers by way of their product and service delivery. Therefore, the decisions an employee makes during the product or service delivery is critical in maintaining the relationship with the customer. Employees may be faced with opportunities to better service a customer at the cost of breaking an organizational rule or procedure. When an employee is faced with this dilemma and decides to break the rule on the behalf of the customer knowing the risks involved, this is called prosocial rule breaking. One distinct difference between this concept and general rule breaking is that this is performed as a nonselfish gesture; the employee does not receive any personal benefit. To examine this further, this study investigated the overall propensity to participate in prosocial rule breaking and the impact of the Big Five personality dimensions on prosocial rule breaking. To gain a better understanding of these constructs, a review of literature related to ethical decision making, prosocial behavior, and the five factor theory of personality was conducted. To investigate the research objectives, a purposive sample of frontline employees from a nationally branded restaurant chain completed a four part self-administered questionnaire by answering questions on the five factor personality dimensions through the Big Five Inventory (BFI), a restaurant based scenario followed by Morrison's (2006) prosocial rule breaking scale, a section on demographic information, and an open ended section for qualitative comments. Overall, three-hundred and five (305) usable questionnaires were completed and interpreted. The results demonstrated that this sample of restaurant employees revealed a moderate propensity for prosocial rule breaking. Moreover, the results revealed that the Agreeableness dimension is the most common personality dimension for this group of restaurant employees, but the Conscientiousness domain was the best predictor of one's propensity not to participate in prosocial rule breaking. The implications for managers from this study indicate a need for managers to recognize and encourage prosocial behaviors from their employees. They also need to understand which personality domains contribute to prosocial behavior, which can ultimately have implications for hiring, selection, and training.

Title How do sensory cues and trust affect the customer experience?, A study on the relationships between sensory cues, trust and experience in the Swedish nightclub industry Author Miralem Hasanovic Tutor Soniya Billore Examiner Sarah Philipson Course Marketing Master Programme, Advanced, Spring 2013, Master thesis, 30 ETCS Keywords Experience, Trust, Sensory Marketing, Sensory Cues in Offering Experiences, Nightclubs, Five Senses, Swedish restaurant industry. Purpose Purpose is to investigate the relationships between sensory marketing, trust and experience in nightclubs. Theory Sensory cues in offering experiences, Trust, Experiences. Method Mixed method approach/ Sequenced method 14 observations 7 interviews with companies 102 answers in a survey Findings Visual cues affect the experience mostly positive. Audio cues affect the experience both positive and negative, depending on other aspects as the possibility to escape the loud sound. Touch cues affect the experience mostly negative, which is possible to alter through interior and design. Scent cues are not affecting the industry as for the moment and there is a big gap to fill in here for the industry. Taste cues seem not to matter as much as the other cues. Trust is inflicting experience through expectation and fulfillment of promise. There is a weak (or least enough) correlation of trust and positive experience in nightclubs. Violence does not affect trust considerably towards a nightclub

The Critical Factors of Service Encounter satisfaction: Research on Restaurant Industry Author: Shao-Feng Chao Advisor: Dr. Yi-Heng Chou Abstract According to Directorate-general of Budget Accounting and Statistics Executive Yuan¡¦s survey of commerce and service industries in 1996, the statistics showed that the weight of Taiwan¡¦s restaurant industry became more and more influential in commerce. Its contribution to economic productivity cannot be ignored. However, the smaller business size and the easiness for entry enhance the competition and make it hard for operators to survive. To succeed in operation, the managers of restaurants have to emphasize not only the quality of physical goods but also the excellence of service quality, delivering what customers need and want. Many researchers have studied on service quality in recent years. They mainly use the closed questionnaire to measure how factors influence quality. It helps to understand service quality, but there are still some disadvantages. For example, its measure is closed and customers are no more than attitude accountants. Furthermore, the results can only show a part of service process, expressing no service encounters. To see more details about the service encounter between customers and service providers, this research adopts ¡§Critical Incident Technique¡¨(CIT). Customers¡¦ and service employees¡¦ opinions about the critical incidents which impacts on service encounters of fast-food restaurants and deluxe restaurants were collected, coded, and analyzed under the dramaturgical theory and Bitner¡¦s standard (BBM principle). It is to compare customers¡¦ view with service employees¡¦ and to identify the critical factors to service encounter satisfaction of fast-food restaurants and deluxe restaurants in Taiwan. The finding of the research is as followed. I. The critical factors to service encounter satisfaction of fast-food restaurants are: A. service employees¡¦ attitude and behavior, B. service employees¡¦ professional skills, C. the timely provision of service and the response to unreasonably delay, D. the performance of service processes and systems and the response to core service failure. II. The critical factors to service encounter satisfaction of deluxe restaurants are: A. the allocation of service environment, B. service employees¡¦ attitude and behavior, C. the quality of physical products, D. the timely provision of service and the response to unreasonably delay, E. the performance of service processes and systems and the response to core service failure. III. Service employees¡¦ attitude and behavior, the timely provision of service, and the performance of service processes and systems are all the critical factors to service encounter satisfaction no matter in fast-food restaurants of in deluxe restaurants. V. The factors, service employees¡¦ professional skills and the attention to customers, are only critical to service encounter satisfaction of fast-food restaurants. VI. The factors, the allocation of service environment, the quality of physical products, and the response to customers¡¦ preference, are only critical to service encounter satisfaction of deluxe restaurants. Key words: service quality, service encounter, dramaturgical theory, critical incident technique, restaurant industry

Hotel and restaurant industry have always been seen as an industry with low status and poorworking conditions. Low wages, temporary contracts, illegal work, and sexual harassment are the rule rather than the exception when the employee’s working conditions discusses. By using the right dogmatic approach together with a social science perspective the purpose of the study has been answered. The purpose has been to contribute to a greater understanding of how it is that the hotel and restaurant industry’s poor working conditions can be maintained, the extent to which the working conditions of the employees is ensured and why mostly young people, women and people with foreign backgrounds are employed in the industry. Among people with a foreign background also includes third country nationals who come to Sweden to work. Because the hotel and restaurant industry serves as a steppingstone into the labour market it employs both young people with Swedish background as young people with foreign background. The industry has employed women for a long time and expectations of how staff within the profession should look like has led to it is common that women are employed in the industry. Because of rouge entrepreneurs who, for their own personal gain, indulged in financial crime, illegal work, fiddling with staff ledge and high incidence of temporary contracts, the poor working conditions in the industry successfully have been maintained. The injustices of the industry have over time become a kind of norm and because of this, the labour exploitation continues. The low degree of organization restricts HRFs opportunities to control the collective agreements and it tends to be the authorities who have the greatest responsibility to ensure that employees work on reasonable terms. The problems also become even greater when third-country nationals’ rights and working conditions should be checked. This is because Sweden has not ratified several important conventions about third country nationals labour conditions while statutory regulation opened up for employers to employ third country nationals. Ensuring working conditions are also affected by the individual employees’ tendency to report injustice, an example is sexual harassment from outsiders persons. In summary, conclusion is drawn that ensuring the working conditions in hotel and restaurant industry is problematized by employees’ unwillingness or fear to take action andauthorities, often inadequate, control possibilities.

No description available.

The following bachelor thesis in sociology, written by Dalibor Garic in the spring of 2021 at Linnaeus University in Växjö Sweden, named: Emotional work in the restaurant industry: a qualitative sociological study is focused on the emotional work of an increasing service sector or more determined in the restaurant industry. The main purpose od the study was to identify which regulatory strategies frontline employees use when attending troublesome customers but also what strategies they adopt under ordinary conditions. The choice of method was semi- structured qualitative interviews of elev respondent. The theoretical framwork used was Hochschild`s emotion sociological perspektiv, which laid the foundation for research on emotional work as early as 1983. Goffman`s dramaturgical theory, which is part of the symbolic interactionism, contributed to understanding of the dramaturgical parts of the elements of service. The most important results of the study show highly individual differences in the different regulatory strategies. Despite of the differences it was possible to distinguish the following tendencies: employees whith a higher sense of the professional role and whit greater experience had it easier to use both deep-acting (DA) and surface-acting (SA) as regulatory strategies in combination with decrease, neutralization or masking of inappropriate feelings, depending on how difficult the customer is. Temporary employees with weak professional role identification used surface-acting to a greater extent and they were generally emotionally uninvolved in their work. Other results that the study contributes to the research field are that service emplyees use cognitive regulation strategy in improving satisfaction with their work, including emotional transmission from customer. Altso that perfect professional role adjustment and dramaturgical discipline is sought by organizations, customers and by service prviders.

No description available.

<p>The restaurant industry is one of the largest in the United States, and employees within this industry deal with poor working conditions on a daily basis. Despite this, there has been a surprising dearth of research to understand the mental health needs of these workers. The aims of this study were to establish a prevalence of burnout and depression, and understand the relationships between these two outcomes with the constructs of bullying, perfectionism, and social support. To do so, restaurant workers (N=453) were recruited to complete an on-line survey. Results revealed a high prevalence of depressive symptoms and an overextended profile of burnout. Both bullying and perfectionism displayed significant positive relationships with depression and burnout, while social support demonstrated significant negative relationships with burnout and depression. When analyzed in a three-way interaction, social support failed to significantly moderate the effects of bullying and perfectionism on depression and burnout. Results indicate that depression and burnout are serious concerns among restaurant workers. Additionally, bullying and perfectionism are promising targets to consider in future research as mechanisms leading to depression and burnout among restaurant workers.</p>

<p>Да би се обезбедио жељени квалитет неопходно је константно радити на&nbsp; унапређењу и идентификацији фактора који га детерминишу.&nbsp; Веома је важно&nbsp; утврдити шта представља вредност за госте и спровести потребне мере како би се&nbsp; постигли жељени пословни резултати. Како би се дошло до правог&nbsp; одговора&nbsp; неопходно је имати сазнање о томе шта гост очекује, које су његове потребе, каква&nbsp; понуда је у складу са савременим прехрамбеним трендовима, који је пожељан ниво&nbsp; услуге и на који начин успоставити комуникацију са садашњим и потенцијалним&nbsp; гостима.</p><p>Основни циљ дисертације је био да се&nbsp; идентификују повезаности и узрочни односи&nbsp; између иновативног понашања ресторатера, опаженог квалитета и лојалности&nbsp; гостију.&nbsp;</p><p>Да би се дошло до постављеног циља утврђено је у којој мери су војвођански&nbsp; ресторани иновативни, измерен је&nbsp; квалитет производа, услуге, атмосфере&nbsp; и&nbsp; посебних елемената, а затим се испитала&nbsp; и лојалност гостију. Сагледан је и утицај&nbsp; образовне и квалификационе структуре запослених на степен иновативности и&nbsp; квалитет ресторатерских производа и услуга.</p><p>На основу кабинетског и теренског истраживања, уз примену утврђене научне&nbsp; методологије и коришћењем домаће и иностране литературе дошло се до закључака који су потврдили основну, полазну хипотезу да постоји позитивна корелација&nbsp;између иновативности ресторатера, опаженог квалитета и лојалности гостију. Резултати су потврдили да је зависност између квалификационе и образовне структуре запослених и степена иновативности ресторатера врло значајна, да је веома важно запошљавати квалификовану радну снагу јер се то позитивно одражава на иновационо понашање, али и на квалитет истраживаних елемената.</p> / <p>Da bi se obezbedio željeni kvalitet neophodno je konstantno raditi na&nbsp; unapređenju i identifikaciji faktora koji ga determinišu.&nbsp; Veoma je važno&nbsp; utvrditi šta predstavlja vrednost za goste i sprovesti potrebne mere kako bi se&nbsp; postigli željeni poslovni rezultati. Kako bi se došlo do pravog&nbsp; odgovora&nbsp; neophodno je imati saznanje o tome šta gost očekuje, koje su njegove potrebe, kakva&nbsp; ponuda je u skladu sa savremenim prehrambenim trendovima, koji je poželjan nivo&nbsp; usluge i na koji način uspostaviti komunikaciju sa sadašnjim i potencijalnim&nbsp; gostima.</p><p>Osnovni cilj disertacije je bio da se&nbsp; identifikuju povezanosti i uzročni odnosi&nbsp; između inovativnog ponašanja restoratera, opaženog kvaliteta i lojalnosti&nbsp; gostiju.&nbsp;</p><p>Da bi se došlo do postavljenog cilja utvrđeno je u kojoj meri su vojvođanski&nbsp; restorani inovativni, izmeren je&nbsp; kvalitet proizvoda, usluge, atmosfere&nbsp; i&nbsp; posebnih elemenata, a zatim se ispitala&nbsp; i lojalnost gostiju. Sagledan je i uticaj&nbsp; obrazovne i kvalifikacione strukture zaposlenih na stepen inovativnosti i&nbsp; kvalitet restoraterskih proizvoda i usluga.</p><p>Na osnovu kabinetskog i terenskog istraživanja, uz primenu utvrđene naučne&nbsp; metodologije i korišćenjem domaće i inostrane literature došlo se do zaključaka koji su potvrdili osnovnu, polaznu hipotezu da postoji pozitivna korelacija&nbsp;između inovativnosti restoratera, opaženog kvaliteta i lojalnosti gostiju. Rezultati su potvrdili da je zavisnost između kvalifikacione i obrazovne strukture zaposlenih i stepena inovativnosti restoratera vrlo značajna, da je veoma važno zapošljavati kvalifikovanu radnu snagu jer se to pozitivno odražava na inovaciono ponašanje, ali i na kvalitet istraživanih elemenata.</p> / <p>In order to ensure desired quality, it is necessary to constantly work on the i improvement and identification of the factors which determine it. It is very important to identify what represents a value for guests and implement necessary measures in order&nbsp; to achieve the desired business results. To find the right solution it is necessary to have insights into what a guest expects, what their needs are, what kind of offer is in accordance with modern food trends, what the desired level of service is and how to establish communication&nbsp; with current and potential guests.</p><p>The basic aim of the thesis was to identify relationships and causal relations between&nbsp;innovative behaviour of restaurateurs, observed quality and guest loyalty. The sample&nbsp;consisted of 600 guests from thirty restaurants&nbsp; selected in 19 towns in Vojvodina. The&nbsp;innovation level was defined on the basis of the designed instrument for &nbsp;measuring&nbsp;innovation in the field of products and services, marketing, processes, and socially responsible behavior. For the purpose of achieving the set goal, with the use of selected statistical methods, it was established to what extent restaurants in Vojvodina were innovative, the quality of products, services, atmosphere, and special elements was measured, and guest loyalty was examined. The&nbsp; influence of education and qualification structure of employees on the level of innovation and quality of restaurant products and services was also taken into account.</p><p>On the basis of theoretical and field research, with the use of the defined scientific methodology and local and foreign literature, the conclusions were drawn, which confirmed the basic initial hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between the innovativeness of restaurateurs, observed quality and guest loyalty. The results confirmed that the dependence of qualification and educational structure of employees and the innovation level of restaurateurs is very significant. It is very important to hire qualified work force, because this has positive effects on innovative behaviour as well as on the quality of the examined elements.</p>

Background: Crisis management has become a highly relevant topic due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, restaurants have been forced to implement new business strategies and tactics to mitigate its impact. For restaurants, it quickly became important to adapt and apply the right strategy to survive which created a unique opportunity to form an understanding of what actual strategic choices restaurants have applied during a pandemic.  Purpose: The purpose of this study aims at creating an understanding of how Swedish restaurants in the city of Jönköping have been able to survive the pandemic, more specifically, identify what crisis strategies and tactics restaurant owners have utilized.   Method: The aim of this paper was pursued by a qualitative research method with an inductive approach. In order to investigate the research question, a multiple case study has been conducted. Data have been collected through semi-structured interviews from seven different restaurant owners that form the basis of the empirical data.  Conclusions: The conclusions revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative effect on the restaurants and that they had to make changes in their activities in order to stay in business. The empirical findings demonstrated these changes as three core strategies utilized through different tactics in order to cope with the pandemic. Given that unexpected events can happen in the future at any time, it is crucial for managers to learn from the past and implement different strategies in their business and thereby successfully adjust to the diverse external environment.