Negotiation and autonomy in a fast food restaurant.

摘要

This study is an attempt to apply the negotiated order perspective to the analysis of the lived experience of workers in two franchised fast food restaurants. Drawing primarily on the work of Anselm Strauss (1978) and D. H. J. Morgan (1975), I have examined data taken from auto-ethnographic and overt observation. I found that workers in different negotiation contexts would use implicit and explicit negotiation to achieve internal and external goals. Worker's negotiation strategies depended on the actor's individual proclivities and their interpretation of the negotiation context. Issues subject to negotiation included wages, the schedule, the amount of effort expended, and the definition of deviance. Employees may occupy core or peripheral status within the restaurant, and their status relates to what types of goals may be achieved within the setting. Autonomy may become a bargaining piece in the ongoing negotiations, with employees and franchisees often trading autonomy for wages or number of hours.