The effect of waiters’ occupational identity on employee turnover within the context of Michelin-starred restaurants

Although restaurants employ a high number of employees across the UK, accounting for 4.5% of total UK employment, this figure masks the relatively high degree of employee turnover. There is limited information about work engagement and turnover amongst waitering staff (servers). This study analyzed which antecedents (e.g., employer brand, extraversion and stereotype) impact servers’ occupational identity, and how this relationship affects work engagement and employee turnover within a theoretically-informed conceptual framework. A sample of servers in London based Michelin-starred restaurants was used (N=398). Although extraversion and stereotype reactance were not found to be relevant to occupational identity, employer brand was. The notion that the construction of occupational identity has consequences for work engagement and employee turnover was supported, as positive relationships were found. This research has practical implications for restaurant management strategy, and informs further investigations within the field.

Jerez Jerez MJ, Melewar TC, Foroudi P. The Effect of Waiters’ Occupational Identity on Employee Turnover Within The Context of Michelin-Starred Restaurants. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 47(7), 1215-1243. Copyright © The Author(s) 2021 . DOI: 10.1177/10963480211034903
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)