Explanations of service gratuities and tipping: Evidence from individual differences in tipping motivations and tendencies

Lynn, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.socec.2015.01.002

Cited by 37 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Recently, Lynn (2015a) has theorized that tipping is more common and normative for some service occupations than others because the characteristics of some services more strongly and consistently evoke the motives that underlie tipping. Existing research suggests that tipping is motivated by desires to buy future service, help servers, reward service, and gain or keep social esteem and that it is constrained by a dislike of the power and status inequalities it fosters (Lynn, 2006(Lynn, , 2015a(Lynn, , 2015b. Thus, if Lynn's theory is correct, tipping should be more common for service occupations whose characteristics promote one or more of these pro-tipping motives and should be less common for service occupations whose characteristics promote egalitarian motives.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, not all service occupations are equally likely to be given tips. For example, U.S. consumers rarely if ever tip car mechanics or lawyers, only sometimes tip masseuses and hotel maids, often tip bartenders and taxicab drivers, and almost always tip pizza delivery drivers and restaurant waiters (Azar, 2005a;Lynn, 2004Lynn, , 2015b. What differentiates these services?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why are we more likely to tip some service occupations than others? Theory, evidence, and implications

Lynn

2016

Journal of Economic Psychology

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Ideas about why consumers tip some service occupations more often than others are tested using occupation scores derived from online ratings of 122 service occupations. Results indicate that U.S. consumers are more likely to tip occupations for which (i) workers' performances can be more easily evaluated by consumers than by managers, (ii) workers provide customized service, (iii) workers' income, skill and needed judgment are low, and (iv) workers are less happy than customers during the service encounter. Occupations with greater frequency of customer patronage and/or greater likelihood of encountering the same service provider on multiple service occasions are not more likely than other occupations to be tipped. These findings support some and disconfirm other expectations derived from a theory that occupational differences in tipping are attributable to occupation characteristics that more strongly/consistently evoke motives for tipping. They also identify types of services for which counternormative tipping policies are more or less likely to be successful and suggest sources of resistance that must be overcome if those policies are to succeed.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why are we more likely to tip some service occupations than others? Theory, evidence, and implications

Lynn

2016

Journal of Economic Psychology

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“…From the perspective of both organizations and employees, pay‐for‐performance tends to be the most desired general approach for compensating employees (Heneman & Werner, ; Kepes, Delery, & Gupta, ). Tipping, a particular approach to pay for performance, is especially popular; in fact, it is one of the most popular types of compensation practices in the United States and around the world (Lynn, , ; Lynn, Zinkhan, & Harris, ). Under a tipping system, customers voluntarily give some amount of money, called tips or gratuities, above and beyond the contracted price of a service after that service has been rendered (Lynn & McCall, ).…”

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confidence: 99%

A meta‐analytic review of tipping compensation practices: An agency theory perspective

Banks

Woznyj

Kepes

et al. 2018

Personnel Psychology

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Tipping represents a form of compensation valued at over $50 billion a year in the United States alone. Tipping can be used as an incentive mechanism to reduce a principal–agent problem. An agency problem occurs when the interests of a principal and agent are misaligned, and it is challenging for the principal to monitor or control the activities of the agent. However, past research has been limited in the investigation of the extent to which tipping is effective at addressing this problem. Following an examination of 74 independent studies with 12,271 individuals, meta‐analytic results indicate that there is a small, positive relation between service quality and percentage of a bill tipped (trueρ¯̂ = .15 without outliers). Yet, in support of the idea behind tipping, relative weights analyses illustrate that service quality was a stronger predictor of percentage of the bill tipped than food quality, frequency of patronage, and dining party size. Evidence also suggests that racial minority servers tend to be tipped less than White servers (Cohen's d = .17), and women tend to be tipped more than men (Cohen's d = .15). Still, given the magnitude of the effect, one might question if tipping is an effective compensation practice to reduce the principal–agent problem. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for future research.

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“…The critical review from thirty journals on "generosity" reveals that being generous is motivated by pure altruistic reasons (empathy to help others) (Hur, 2013;Kandul, 2016;Sharp & Randhawa, 2014), intrinsic incentives (the feeling of pleasure, "Warm Glow", and being more connected to humankind) (Declerck et al, 2013;Greenberg, 2014;Hur, 2013;Kandul, 2016;Liu &Hao, 2017;Llamas &Uth, 2016;Lynn, 2015;Natter & Kaufmann, 2015;Sharp & Randhawa, 2014), and extrinsic incentives (hoping for reciprocity, increase reputation, and avoiding social sanction) (Greenberg, 2014;Hur, 2013;Natter & Kaufmann, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hoping to get intrinsic reward is reported by various authors (DeClerck, Boone and Emonds, 2013;Hur, 2013;Greenberg, 2014;Sharp and Randhawa, 2014;Lynn, 2015;Natter and Kaufmann, 2015;Kandul, 2016;Llamas and Uth, 2016;Liu and Hao, 2017). They argue that people doing good to others, such as prosocial acts, tipping, giving money to strangers, and voluntary payment, do so because they can gain the feeling of pleasure, "Warm Glow", and feeling more connected to humankind.…”

Section: What Motivates People To Be Generous and What Makes People Bmentioning

confidence: 97%

Generosity’s antecedents and outcomes - A proposed relationship between Generosity and Intention in Indonesia’s BPJS Kesehatan

Dwidienawati¹,

Abdinagoro²

2018

JBRMR

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Explanations of service gratuities and tipping: Evidence from individual differences in tipping motivations and tendencies

Cited by 37 publications

References 27 publications

Why are we more likely to tip some service occupations than others? Theory, evidence, and implications

Why are we more likely to tip some service occupations than others? Theory, evidence, and implications

A meta‐analytic review of tipping compensation practices: An agency theory perspective

Generosity’s antecedents and outcomes - A proposed relationship between Generosity and Intention in Indonesia’s BPJS Kesehatan

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