Institutionalization of tipping as a source of managerial control

This paper explores, investigates and analyses the rationale, approach and outcomes of the attempts by management to control the behaviour of front-line service workers through the institutionalization of customer tipping. It presents evidence generated from an in-depth case study of a highly successful UK restaurant group to suggest that the management of tipping is a way of controlling the behaviour of front-line service workers. However, rather than view such control as purely exploitative and one-sided, it is argued that there is a degree of 'mutual instrumentality', in that the findings suggest that workers voluntarily and consciously submit to subjugation for purely instrumental benefits.