Employee Alienation in the Quick Service Restaurant Industry

Abstract

An exploratory study conducted among 595 U.S. quick service restaurant hourly employees and managers for the purpose of measuring their level of work alienation finds that a significant proportion of the respondents expressed feelings of work alienation. The feelings seemed to be more prevalent among hourly employees, males, those younger, those more educated, and African Americans. But most important, the study indicates that employees' alienation was unequally distributed among the restaurants within the sample, therefore possibly suggesting that work alienation is not necessarily caused by the technology employed and/or the nature of the jobs but rather by the managerial styles and practices in each restaurant.