Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life / Edition 1

by Robin Leidner

Overview

Attending Hamburger University, Robin Leidner observes how McDonald's trains the managers of its fast-food restaurants to standardize every aspect of service and product. Learning how to sell life insurance at a large midwestern firm, she is coached on exactly what to say, how to stand, when to make eye contact, and how to build up Positive Mental Attitude by chanting "I feel happy! I feel terrific!"

Leidner's fascinating report from the frontlines of two major American corporations uncovers the methods and consequences of regulating workers' language, looks, attitudes, ideas, and demeanor. Her study reveals the complex and often unexpected results that come with the routinization of service work.

Some McDonald's workers resent the constraints of prescribed uniforms and rigid scripts, while others appreciate how routines simplify their jobs and give them psychological protection against unpleasant customers. Combined Insurance goes further than McDonald's in attempting to standardize the workers' very selves, instilling in them adroit maneuvers to overcome customer resistance.

The routinization of service work has both poignant and preposterous consequences. It tends to undermine shared understandings about individuality and social obligations, sharpening the tension between the belief in personal autonomy and the domination of a powerful corporate culture.

Richly anecdotal and accessibly written, Leidner's book charts new territory in the sociology of work. With service sector work becoming increasingly important in American business, her timely study is particularly welcome.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520085008
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/04/1993
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Robin Leidner is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 
1. Working on People 
2. How Can Work on People Be Routinized? 
3· Over the Counter: McDonald's 
4· Orchestrating Optimism: Combined Insurance 
5· Controlling Interests 
6. Meanings of Routinized Work: Authenticity,
Identity, and Gender 
7· Conclusion 
Appendix 1. Researching Routinized Work 
Appendix 2. Revising the Script at Combined
Insurance 
References 

Editorial Reviews

"A detailed, occasionally humorous exploration of employees' highly routinized activities in two work environments: a McDonald's franchise near Chicago and a sales team working door to door for Combined Insurance. . .. Leidner's analysis . . . goes well beyond the traditional parameters of the sociology of work as she explores the implications of this invasion of self, this scripted inauthenticity, for the general nature of interpersonal relations in society."

Social Forces

"Fast Food, Fast Talk makes an important contribution to the literature on the routinization of work. Because her work contrasts the experiences of service workers at Combined Insurance and McDonald's, an organization that pioneered the routinization of service work and another we are all familiar with, Leidner's book should prove useful and interesting for researchers as well as being a teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate courses in the sociology of work and in social psychology. Her descriptive chapters are particularly engaging, providing compelling examples of the effects of routinizing service work for workers and for customers."

American Journal of Sociology

"Leidner's analysis reveals much about the corporations which she was able to investigate, and draws attention to the need to ensure that sociological investigations continue to confront the realities of the modern American workplace."

Journal of American Studies

Leidner (sociology, Univ. of Pennsylvania) uses participant observation to explore aspects of service-industry efforts to insure sameness of effort and routinization of work. The author chooses for examples the ubiquitous McDonald's and the Combined Insurance Company, whose founder, W. Clement Stone, formulated the Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). Both companies achieve service provider-service recipient relationships that are routinized yet acceptable both to the customer and employee. The much-touted ``worker rebellions'' are largely nonexistent; many if not most employees prefer a well-choreographed approach to the point of sale. Leidner's book includes much of interest to students of business and human behavior, but her turgid prose does not lend itself to easy reading. For academic libraries.-- Norman Lederer, Thad deus Stevens State Sch. of Technology, Lancaster, Pa.

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