Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational Violence
Service industry workers experience challenging labor conditions in the United States, including pay below the minimum wage, expected emotional labor, and harassment. Additionally, in part because they work long shifts in high stress environments in restaurants and bars, many build and form personal...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Behavioral Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/6/184 |
| _version_ | 1797489919125356544 |
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| author | Elizabeth K. Eger Emily Pollard Hannah E. Jones Riki Van Meter |
| author_facet | Elizabeth K. Eger Emily Pollard Hannah E. Jones Riki Van Meter |
| author_sort | Elizabeth K. Eger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Service industry workers experience challenging labor conditions in the United States, including pay below the minimum wage, expected emotional labor, and harassment. Additionally, in part because they work long shifts in high stress environments in restaurants and bars, many build and form personal workplace relationships (PWRs). In 2021, we interviewed 38 service industry workers and managers during the COVID-19 pandemic where we examined occupational challenges they faced in the state of Texas, USA. Through our interpretive research, this essay showcases our inductive findings on how service industry workers and managers utilize communication to create and sustain PWRs. We identified how some PWRs are sustained through a unique form of occupational identification that cultivates a “service industry family”, which we term familial personal workplace relationships (familial PWRs). This extends past organizational communication scholarship on family to consider occupational identification. Furthermore, our research reveals that while PWRs may build communities through care and support, they also perpetuate organizational violence, like sexual harassment and bullying. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:23:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-29434e34e5bd4379a1345327eafe9257 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-328X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:23:31Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Behavioral Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-29434e34e5bd4379a1345327eafe92572023-11-23T15:37:01ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2022-06-0112618410.3390/bs12060184Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational ViolenceElizabeth K. Eger0Emily Pollard1Hannah E. Jones2Riki Van Meter3Department of Communication Studies, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USADepartment of Communication and Journalism, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USADepartment of Communication, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USADepartment of Communication Studies, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USAService industry workers experience challenging labor conditions in the United States, including pay below the minimum wage, expected emotional labor, and harassment. Additionally, in part because they work long shifts in high stress environments in restaurants and bars, many build and form personal workplace relationships (PWRs). In 2021, we interviewed 38 service industry workers and managers during the COVID-19 pandemic where we examined occupational challenges they faced in the state of Texas, USA. Through our interpretive research, this essay showcases our inductive findings on how service industry workers and managers utilize communication to create and sustain PWRs. We identified how some PWRs are sustained through a unique form of occupational identification that cultivates a “service industry family”, which we term familial personal workplace relationships (familial PWRs). This extends past organizational communication scholarship on family to consider occupational identification. Furthermore, our research reveals that while PWRs may build communities through care and support, they also perpetuate organizational violence, like sexual harassment and bullying.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/6/184personal workplace relationshipsservice industryoccupational identificationorganizations as familiesorganizational violenceorganizational communication |
| spellingShingle | Elizabeth K. Eger Emily Pollard Hannah E. Jones Riki Van Meter Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational Violence Behavioral Sciences personal workplace relationships service industry occupational identification organizations as families organizational violence organizational communication |
| title | Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational Violence |
| title_full | Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational Violence |
| title_fullStr | Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational Violence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational Violence |
| title_short | Creating and Sustaining Service Industry Relationships and Families: Theorizing How Personal Workplace Relationships Both Build Community and Perpetuate Organizational Violence |
| title_sort | creating and sustaining service industry relationships and families theorizing how personal workplace relationships both build community and perpetuate organizational violence |
| topic | personal workplace relationships service industry occupational identification organizations as families organizational violence organizational communication |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/6/184 |
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