Worker perceptions of the fast-food giant : interviews with and class comparisons of teenagers working at McDonalds

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between social class and adolescents conceptions of work. Four major areas of the adolescent's work experience are examined:(1) tasks and training, (2) relations with co-workers and managers, (3) organizational structure and change, and (4) family life and work. Forty female adolescent, nonmanagerial employees who worked part time at McDonald's 2 franchise stores were interviewed. Two groups were formed: one middle class group {n=20), and another working class group {n=20). An item by item content analysis was performed on data tested for rater reliability. No significant results were found with regard to relations with co-workers. However, significant results were found in all four areas. These include: (1) middle class respondents were more likely than working class respondents to adopt a technical approach to training, (2) middle class respondents were more apt than working class respondents to seek positive, affective ties with managers, (3) middle class respondents were more likely than working class respondents to identify efficiency as a rationale forMcDonald's organizational structure, (4) middle class respondents were more likely than working class respondents to deal with perceived unfairness by talking directly with management, and (5) working class respondents were more likely than middle class respondents to identify the principle of the necessity of work as the lesson in their family work experience most helpful in adjusting to service work, whereas middle class adolescents identified abstract capabilities as the most helpful lesson in their family work experience.In addition, in using motivation for employment and age~ exploratory predictors, three significant results appear. First, respondents working for basic needs were more likely than those working for extra money to identify unfairness at work in the form of exploitation. Secondly, respondents working for basic needs were more likely than those working for extras to identify endurance as a means of dealing with unfairness. Finally, adolescents 17 years and older were more likely than 15 and 16 year olds to report some knowledge of workplace mobility. INTRODUCTIONThe steady increase in teenage employment in recent decades has generated considerable controversy about its effects on adolescents' psychosocial development. Early research on adolescence and work was largely confined to the effects of paid work experience on the acquisition of adult attitudes and behaviors (Behn, et al., 1974;Bucknam, 1976;Elder, 1974), school performance (Bateman, 1950;Straus & Holmberg, 1968) and later work aspirations (Behn, et. al., 1974). Adolescent work was also seen as a factor decreasing delinquency (Cloward and Ohlin, 1960;Hirschi, 1969). While some research suggests that paid work may be detrimental to development, e.g., increasing drug abuse or delinquency (Greenberger, Steinberg, and Vaux, 1981;Shannon, 1982), the assumption behind much of this empirical research has been that experience in the "real world" of adu...

Conformity, attitude toward authority, and social class

“…for example, found present class position to be more important in determining work values and orientation than class origin, whereasHamilton (1966) found present class identification and work values to be closely tied to class of origin Hamilton (1966). andKorschgen (1987) l:x>th carmented on the primacy of early socialization of values associated with social class, and that these values are carried over into later occupational socialization. One might anticipate that family socialization would prevail over more recent work experience in an undergraduate college population without an extensive work history, and whose own social class location has not yet stabilized.…”