Where ‘The Rules Don’t Apply’: Organizational Isolation and Misbehaviour in Elite Kitchens

Abstract

In this article we elaborate on the connection between organizational isolation and misbehaviour. Drawing on 47 interviews with elite chefs we make a twofold contribution to the misbehaviour literature. First, we conceptualize misbehaviour amongst chefs as a potentiality engrained into the geography of the kitchens they work in. Drawing on Smith (1987), we call this a geography of deviance. Through this concept we show that misbehaviour can be inscribed into a place, through structures that create feelings of invisibility, alienation and detachment. Second, we make sense of chefs' misbehaviour by using Turner's theory of normative communitas. Via this framing misbehaviour is cast as a ritualized component of an anti-structural way of being, where the kitchen is simultaneously apprehended as an instrument of social withdrawal and a symbol of deviance around which the community pivots. Through these contributions we help to crystalise the relationship between organizational isolation and misbehaviour, particularly in the context of chefs and kitchens.

Dear chef, do you really want a PhD?

“…As chefs, we are not mere technicians behind kitchen doors, but also tacticians who must embody the managerial properties of a CEO (Harrington, 2005) in addition to the specialized skills and creative vision of an artist (K. S. Lee et al, 2020;Stierand & Dörfler, 2012;Stierand et al, 2014). We are thinkers that not only have to reason constantly through challenges, but also maneuver while placed under pressure in stressful environments (Burrow et al, 2022a(Burrow et al, , 2022bMandel, 2022). We are arbiters of tastes, ambassadors of cuisines, and advocates for good and inclusive eating (Lee & Tao, 2022;Matta & García, 2019;McBride & Flore, 2019).…”