The Tip of the Iceberg: A Roadmap for Management Research on Tipping

Abstract

Tipping is a complex phenomenon with wide-ranging impacts on workers and organizations. Prior research has made important contributions to our understanding of why tipping happens and what its impacts are. Yet, we still have much to learn about these topics, particularly when it comes to the emergence, evolution, and diffusion of tipping norms, how organizations approach their decision-making about tipping practices, and the broader individual, organizational, and societal impacts of tipping. Despite management researchers’ limited attention to tipping to date, I argue that they have much to contribute to our understanding of these questions through their conceptual tools and lenses.

Tolls, Schools, and Tips: The Reproduction of Social Inequality Through Day-to-Day Practices

“…While the cultural entrenchment of tipping behavior in Mexico City may be rationalized by considering the economic conditions under which most of the population live, tipping is not an apolitical act. As Pek (2022) observes, tipping has far-reaching effects on the social organization of the communities in which it is practiced. In Mexico City, tipping reinforces paternalistic notions of the benevolent elite financially supporting the impoverished lower-class, yet without calling into question the undergirding social and economic systems that led to the extreme levels of inequality and rendered tipping indispensable for basic subsistence in the first place.…”

A powerful tip: Power's impact on tipping behavior

“…Tipping is considered a complex social phenomenon (Pek, 2022) and is driven by psychological factors which can impact social interaction (Dogru et al, 2019; Han et al, 2023). A fundamental aspect that governs people's social interaction is their temporary state of psychological power (Russell, 2004).…”