‘A Minute’s a Life-Time in Fast-Food!’: Managerial Job Quality in the Quick Service Restaurant Sector

Abstract

The fast-food sector remains significantly under researched relative to its size and importance. Drawing on qualitative data this article explores the nature of managerial work in a market leading organisation. The research speaks to important contemporary debates visa -vis managerial job quality in routinised service sector work and the compatibility of such jobs with key quality of working life criteria (e.g. opportunities for skills development, decision latitude, voice and meaning). The theoretical contribution of the article lies in the rigor of the analytical lens and exploration of how objective QWL criteria are coloured by subjective expectations and social processes to produce nuanced and unanticipated outcomes e.g. accounts of rewarding, interesting and meaningful work notwithstanding severe structural constraints and bureaucratic rigidities.

‘The circle of life’: The role of life course in understanding job quality

“…Moreover, Kalleberg and Vaisey (2005: 432) note the significance of individual worker differences in shaping their ‘perceptions of what constitutes a “good” or a “bad job”’. The notion that workers can assess a job as good on some criteria but not others is consistent with the concept of ‘compensating differentials’ (Kalleberg, 2016), as captured by the ‘summative view’ of job quality (Butler and Hammer, 2019).…”

“…Overall, our findings highlight that the objective and subjective dimensions of job quality are not necessarily aligned (e.g. Adamson and Roper, 2019; Brown et al, 2012; Butler and Hammer, 2019). Objectively, chefs’ jobs involved a predominance of ‘bad’ job criteria.…”

“…Other studies highlight the importance of subjective indicators, suggesting there may be individual, subjective differences in how workers experience job quality (Handel, 2005; Kalleberg, 2011; Knox et al, 2015). Butler and Hammer (2019: 100) assert that ‘[a]ny credible examination [of job quality] needs to consider the characteristics of the worker . .…”

‘Good’ Jobs and ‘Bad’ Jobs: Contemplating Job Quality in Different Contexts

“…see Clarke, 2015). The emphasis in sociology has been on non-economic aspects of work including well-being, autonomy and control, opportunities for advancement and so on (Kalleberg, 2016;Butler and Hammer, 2019). For instance, Osterman (2013) highlights that the key factors explored in the studies on job quality tend to be the diversity in the substance of work (including skill levels, autonomy, and intensity or stress), compensation (including attention to wage inequality), the ability and extent of control over one's work and the extend of surveillance, stress and intensification of work, and employment terms and conditions, particularly involuntary nonstandard aspects.…”

“…The emphasis in sociology of work and labour studies has been on a complex set of economic and non-economic aspects of work. For instance, Osterman (2013) highlights that key factors explored in the studies on job quality tend to be the diversity in the substance of work (including skill levels, autonomy, and intensity or stress); compensation (including attention to wage inequality); the ability and extent of control over one’s work and the extent of surveillance; stress and intensification of work; and employment terms and conditions (particularly involuntary non-standard aspects) (see also Butler and Hammer, 2019; Kalleberg, 2016). As debates around job quality continue, the papers in this thematic issue illustrate the complexity in understanding what makes good or bad jobs.…”