A Study of Factors Influencing Parental Patronage of Quick Service Restaurants

Summary

This study identified factors influencing parental quick service restaurant patronage. Results indicated that parents are influenced to patronize quick service restaurants most often by speed of service, menus that offered their childrens' favorite food items, and parents' lack of time for meal preparation at home. Children preferred French fries, pizza, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and chicken nuggets at quick service restaurants. French fries, the favorite childrens' fast food menu selection, was ranked by respondents as one of the least healthy food items, while mashed potatoes, one of childrens' least favorite fast food menu selections, was perceived to be one of the healthier food selections by parents. Restaurateurs were encouraged to develop newer, healthier methods of preparing these popular menu items while offering more nutritious menu selections for children.     

Alienation and empowerment: Some ethical imperatives in business

The issue of worker alienation in the context of business ethics is critically examined. From a normative perspective, it is assumed that the minimal ethical requirement in business should include accountability for adverse consequences of management practice for workers in organizations. Using this standard, managerial actions that are responsible for worker alienation are considered unethical. The nature of work alienation and the organizational conditions responsible for it are outlined. Several dealienation measures in the form of empowerment strategies for management are presented as ethical imperatives.Rabindra N. Kanungo, Chaired Professor of Management, McGill University. Concentrating on the basic and applied areas of psychology and management, his publications include eight books and more than 100 articles in professional journals.The preparation of the paper is supported by the Power Corp. International Management Centre. The author is thankful to Manuel Mendonca for his suggestions and critical comments.     

Profitability analysis for table-service restaurants

Here's how to calculate contribution margins for the three meal periods, for different menu categories, and for individual menu items—as well as for the operation as a whole. The procedure is a useful method for analyzing menu items and builds on the portfolio analysis inherent in other menu-analysis methods     

Ontological Security, Existential Anxiety and Workplace Privacy

The relationship of workers to management has traditionally been one of control. However, the introduction of increasingly sophisticated technology as a means of supervision in the modern workplace has dramatically altered the contours of this relationship, giving workers much less privacy and making workers much more visible than previously possible. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of technological control of workers and how it has altered the relationship of worker to organization, through the impact upon self as perceived by the worker.     

Adolescent evening meal practices and attitudes toward the maternal role in evening meal preparation

The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal employment is related to adolescent evening meal practices and to examine the attitudes of adolescents regarding the mother's role in evening meal preparation. A questionnaire was administered to 1,180 high school students in a suburban area of North Texas. Results indicated that maternal employment affects adolescent evening meals in the number of meals (i) offered per week, (ii) fully prepared by mother, and (iii) eaten away from home. Adolescent participation in meal preparation was higher for the employed group. Attitudes are different between the sexes and those with employed and unemployed mothers.     

H‐1B and L‐1 visa‐sponsored guest workers in the USA: An analysis of the strategic impact of Indian and other firms

Organizational sponsors of guest workers to the United States claim foreign‐born workers enhance productivity and innovation. Drawing upon a unique dataset of all organizational sponsors of guest workers in the United States from 1993 to 2008, we find a 10% increase in guest worker sponsorship is associated with a 2.2–3.1% increase in patenting within firms. Furthermore, we examine how organizational industry and country of origin are associated with the effects of guest worker sponsorship on organization‐level measures of innovation and productivity. Despite an overall within‐firm positive association between sponsorship and patenting, higher percentages of a firm's workers on visas are associated with lower patenting, but higher labor productivity. Firm‐level industry and country of origin heterogeneity is significantly related to the relationship between guest work sponsorship and both patent‐related and nonpatent investment in innovation such as research and development (R&D) expenditures. Semiconductor firms and universities spend more on R&D in conjunction with guest worker sponsorship, while semiconductor companies and hardware companies patent less. We discuss theoretical and human resource implications, and offer suggestions for future research.     

Does Service Employees’ Appearance Affect the Healthiness of Food Choice?

Derived from previous research on social influence on food consumption and social comparison theory, this article examines the effect of service employees’ appearance on consumers’ food choice using an experimental study, involving a video manipulation and eye‐tracking technique. The video shows a menu being proffered by a waitress whose degree of apparent healthiness varies (healthy, overweight, unhealthy lifestyle). The menu contains both healthy and unhealthy meal alternatives. The analysis of participants’ eye movements demonstrated that exposure to the overweight employee did not stimulate greater (i.e., earlier or longer) attention to unhealthy meal alternatives, whereas exposure to the employee who displayed an unhealthy lifestyle did. These findings have social and managerial implications: The postulated stigma according to which the presence of overweight others encourages unhealthy eating appears questionable. Service providers that might secretly hire according to body weight have no grounds to do so. In contrast, employees signaling an unhealthy lifestyle through their style choices prompt patrons to pay more attention to unhealthy meal alternatives. Food service providers might want to take this factor into consideration and actively manage the aspects that can be altered by simple measures.     

Attitudes and Work Motivation of Subgroups of Seasonal Hotel Workers

Labour turnover is a strong feature of of hotels in the UK, especially in the seasonal seaside sector. However, the link between job mobility and job satisfaction is complex and cannot be adequately explained by ‘traditional’ theories of motivation. In an attempt to account for the impact of individual worker differences on job attitudes, Hackman and Oldham's [1974, 1980] job diagnostic survey was distributed to 163 hotel workers. The results suggest that hotel workers can be divided into subgroups, characterised by both residential status and work preference. Furthermore, these additional dimensions explain work attitudes and motivation more effectively than Hackman and Oldham's original ‘growth need strength’ dimension.     

Worker Autonomy and the Drama of Digital Networks in Organizations

This essay considers the impact of digital networks in organizations on worker autonomy. Worker autonomy, the control that workers have over their own work situation, is claimed in this essay to be a key determinant for the quality of work, as well as an important moral goal. Digital networks pose significant threats to worker autonomy as well as opportunities for its enhancement. In this essay, the notion of worker autonomy is analyzed and evaluated for its importance and moral relevance. It is then considered how digital networks both threaten worker autonomy and offer opportunities for its enhancement. Three major opportunities (enhanced communicative powers, increased informedness, teleworking) and threats (electronic monitoring, task prestructuring, and dependency creation) are discussed and analyzed. Finally, the dynamics that determine the impact on worker autonomy of the introduction of a digital network in organizations are investigated. A particular model for analyzing these dynamics and their impacts, Bryan Pfaffenberger's model of a technological drama. It will be illustrated how this model illuminates these dynamics by analyzing them as a dialectic of strategies of technological regularization by design constituencies and technological adjustment by impact constituencies. It will also be assessed what role network design has in this process.     

The Effect of Loss Leader Pricing on Restaurant Menus' Product Portfolio Analysis

Abstract

Drawing from economic and consumer behavior theories, this study outlines four theoretical reasons for menu item dependency, asserting that the assumption of item independency is violated in menurelated product portfolio analysis. Acase study of actual restaurant figures from two consecutive periods is analyzed. The data demonstrate how one such item dependency, namely loss leader pricing, affects the way in which the performance of several dishes is portrayed by two types of menu engineering models: the traditional, matrix-based approach and the multidimensional menu mix model. The results underscore theneed for a better menu product portfolio model, one that adequately addresses the interdependent nature of restaurants' product portfolio.     

The role of experience in work and learning among design engineers

Taking an approach to learning in the workplace as a phenomenon situated and accumulated in the course of work activities and everyday practice, the purpose of this study was to investigate how workers (development engineers and designers) themselves perceive the role of experience in work and learning. The empirical material consists of interviews with 18 employees in two enterprises in Finland. Narrative analysis of the holistic core stories yielded four thematic categories. The categories indicate that learning from experience plays an essential part in coping and learning along with other people, in understanding holistic work processes and in creating a personal perception of one's work and the learning that takes place in its course. It is suggested that the essence of learning through experience in everyday practice challenges the employers, first, to pay attention to the maintenance of a collaborative working atmosphere, second, to arrange possibilities for the continuous analysis of tasks within working teams and networks and, third to see their experienced fellow workers as mentors in order to harness the know‐how embedded in teams and organisations to better benefit all workers.     

Education and training as a strategy for improving worker health and safety: a survey of U.S. apparel companies

Maintaining a healthy work force is becoming increasingly important to apparel manufacturers today. The purpose of this study was to examine the issues involved in worker health and safety, particularly that of educating and training production workers. Data were generated from responses to a mailed questionnaire by 134 upper level managers in companies located throughout the United States. Results indicated that educating workers was an important concern for managers, ranking second to controlling workers' compensation costs. Chi-square analysis showed that there was a significant difference between those who used education and training as a cost-reduction strategy and a decrease in workers' compensation costs. Education and training was reported as a component of ergonomics and safety programmes by over three-quarters of those who were developing and implementing such programmes. The findings from this study suggest that apparel manufacturers should seriously consider the importance of education and training programmes as a cost-reduction strategy as well as a means of improving the safety and health of production workers.     

Forget about ‘the ideal worker’: A theoretical contribution to the debate on flexible workplace designs,work/life conflict,and opportunities for gender equality

This study integrates insights from Self-Determination Theory and Boundary Theory to present scenarios on how flexible workplace designs can trigger multiple motivational processes underlying gendered work/nonwork integration behaviors, and how these affect work/life conflict. We disentangle processes underlying work engagement and work/life conflict, explaining the paradoxical outcomes found with regard to gender inequality in terms of work/life performance, satisfaction, and health. Policy makers and organizations need an increased understanding and a reconceptualization of these issues, realizing that the ideal worker does not exist. Instead, a long-term perspective is needed in order to truly realize the potential benefits of flexible workplace designs for all stakeholders. Organizations need to take responsibility for preventing individual workers’ depletion and stimulating the regeneration of workers’ resources.     

企业知识员工可雇佣型建言维度构建的探索性研究

探索企业知识员工可雇佣型建言的维度结构,对拓展相关理论和指导管理实践都十分有益。采用质性研究方法,通过内容分析和聚类分析的途径,对知识员工可雇佣型建言的维度结构进行了探索性研究,认为其包括基于职业发展的建言、基于知识与技能增长的建言、基于物质获利的建言、基于亲和与支持的建言四个构面,归纳出知识员工可雇佣型建言是知识员工为提升其可雇佣性而主动表达与工作相关的建设性言语行为,并基于由可雇佣型建言动机之程度“强—弱”、个人可雇佣性提升之“充分—必要条件”搭建的二维坐标系,探析了知识员工可雇佣型建言分类模型。最后,提出了干预和管理此建言行为的管理启示及未来的研究方向。     

Productivity, wages and intrinsic motivations

There is a long-standing debate in labour economics on the impact of workers’ intrinsic motivations on equilibrium wages. One direction in economic theory suggests that intrinsically motivated workers are willing to accept lower wages and “donate” work, for example, in terms of unpaid overtime (the donative-labour hypothesis). In the other direction, intrinsic motivations are expected to increase worker productivity and, in turn, wages (the intrinsic motivation-productivity hypothesis). Using a new database of a sample of workers in the cooperative non-profit sector, we find that, consistently with the motivation-productivity hypothesis, more motivated workers earn significantly higher wages, which signals higher productivity. Evidence supporting the donative-labour hypothesis is weaker, even though a generally positive connection between motivations and work-donation is confirmed. We interpret these findings by arguing that the impact of the donative-labour effect is dominated by the intrinsic motivation-productivity effect.     

The Consequences of Globalisation: India's Software Industry and Cross‐border Labour Mobility1

The Indian software industry is a prime example of globalisation. The industry has been characterised by large cross‐border mobility of its skilled labour force. Using a unique survey of Indian software firms, our paper quantifies the extent and impact of mobility on firm behaviour and performance. Cross‐border labour mobility in the paper refers to both temporary and permanent labour flows by Indian software professionals. The picture that emerges is of a highly mobile world in which temporary mobility has been an important characteristic of the industry. A significant number of workers have work experience abroad in a developed country. Moreover, the share of skilled workers with such experience has been positively associated with the incidence of skilled migration from the firm. This suggests network effects are at work. In terms of the impact on performance – as measured by the change in turnover per worker and the change in the employment size of the firm – the paper finds little evidence of a robust adverse effect. Further, the evidence suggests that there have been important external effects at work, as through changes in the willingness of workers to acquire skills, as well as through increased provision of educational services. These have further abated the risk of a brain drain. However, the software industry may be rather different from other industries. Our results need to be interpreted as the outcome of a particular case of skilled migration and not one necessarily representative of all types of skilled migration and source sectors.     

From Passive Beneficiary to Active Stakeholder: Workers’ Participation in CSR Movement Against Labor Abuses

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement against labor abuses has gained momentum globally since the 1990s when many corporations adopted codes of conduct to regulate labor practices in their global supply chains. However, workers’ participation in the process is relatively weak until very recently, when new worker empowerment programs are increasingly initiated. Using conceptual tool created by stakeholder theorists, this article examines dynamics and performance of worker participation in implementation process of codes of conduct through a case study of CSR practices of Reebok at one of its footwear supplier factories in south China. Empirical data was collected during 2002–2005 through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document reviews.     

A Brief History of Long Work Time and the Contemporary Sources of Overwork

What are some of the key historical trends in hours of work per worker in US? What economic, social-psychological, organizational and institutional forces determine the length of individuals’ working hours? How much of the trend toward longer working hours among so many workers may be attributable to workers’ preferences, workplace incentives or employers’ constraints? When can work become overwork or workaholism – an unforced addiction to incessant work activity which risk harm to workers, families or even economies? The first part of this article traces the history of the length of working hours and its recent polarization. The second part develops a multi-disciplinary model to identify motivations behind working longer hours. Individuals' desired work hours will stem from the weighted contribution of five sources: (1) current real wage rates; (2) forward-looking, wage trajectories; (3) relative status associated with hours of labor; (4) intrinsic rewards, process benefits or amenities acquired through work; (5) hours demanded by the employer and other structural constraints, to which workers may adapt. Employers and their established conditions of work have influenced the course of long run trends labor supply and in work time structures. The final section suggests policies that might address the persistence of long hours.     

Optimal immigration, education and growth in the long run

The paper extends Manning's model on education and balanced growth to include labour immigration. Each immigration unit is assumed to consist of one skilled worker and some unskilled members. The optimal immigration policy which maximizes the per capita steady-state consumption of the host country is derived. We show that optimal immigration policy can reduce the steady-state skilled labour ratio. More interesting still, contrary to the widespread belief that immigration of skilled workers hurts local skilled workers, it is the unskilled local workers whose interests are threatened by optimal immigration policy.     

提升知识型员工忠诚度的对策研究

知识型人才已经成为企业快速发展的重要的战略性资源,知识型员工的忠诚度问题也得到了越来越多企业的关注。首先阐述了知识型员工及其忠诚度的含义,在此基础上分析了影响知识型员工忠诚度的因素,最后提出了如何提高知识型员工忠诚度的对策。