Jessica Gutierrez
Soc 176
Intro
The qualitative research paper consists of three important sections which is an ethnography section, interview section and a content analysis section. For this research paper, I observed the employees that worked at a Chinese restaurant to determine how they communicate and act based off of sociological theories. I just did an observation. I took notes while I was sitting in the back of the work environment as well as in the front. I received completely different results. I determined that they act different depending on the definition of the situation. For the interview section, I chose to interview 5 people from my work environment. I chose to do 3 of the interviews at my house. The other two interviews were done at the mall. I made sure to do it around a certain time when it was not busy. I formed questions based off of theories ahead of time. Most of the questions were about theories and the others were just back up questions to keep the interview going. I noticed that a lot of the respondents had similar answers to some of the questions. Finally for the content analysis section, I was required to gather 30 different sources. Many of the sources that I was required to gather had to be based of the company that I chose to do my paper on. Most of the sources that I used were from a simple google search. I was also able to find pictures on google. All of the sources or documents that I found will be used to in relation to theory concepts. I noticed that most of the sources that I was able to gather were mostly reviews about the restaurant or multiple restaurants from the same company.
Literature review
Goffman's concepts on self, can be applied to all of our lives. When dealing with the concept of self as dramatic, our actions are influenced by the nature and demands of the situations in which we interact (Kent, Kathryn, Daniel, and Gary 2013: 108). We basically are who we are, by the interactions that we make with others. For example, a person will act in a certain way based off of the situation in which that someone is in. When dealing with the concept of staging the self in everyday life, it is defined as us acting as actors on stage when interacting with others (Kent, Kathryn, Daniel, and Gary 2013: 108). Basically, we act in ways that others would like to see us so that we receive positive reactions. For example, if my mom expects me to act respectful in front of my family members, I will act the way that she wants me to so that she is happy and everyone else is happy too. When dealing with self as situated identity, it is defined as us figuring out what identities each of us will occupy in relation to one another (Kent, Kathryn, Daniel, and Gary 2013: 113). For example, an identity that someone would occupy with their friends is being a friend. When dealing with parents, someone would be considered a daughter or a son. Goffman also discusses regions of Self-presentation. This is where front stage and back stage is described. You act a certain way towards the audience and when they are gone, you act a different way (Kent, Kathryn, Daniel, and Gary 2013: 112). For example, if you work at a restaurant, you are expected to act professional in front of the customers. If you go towards the back of your workplace such as in the kitchen or the break room, you say or do things that you wouldn't do in front of the customers. We give a good representation of ourselves in front of others because we want good reactions but once that person or those people are gone, we can act like ourselves. For this reason, we tend to act how society wants us to and as a result, society has a huge role in the concept of self.
Another concept that Goffman discusses is establishing the situation. He emphasizes that they way that we define the situation will reflect on the way that we will behave or react (Dollion 2018: 284). If we misunderstand the situation, it can result in negative consequences. We always want to give good first impressions and it is important to give good impressions so that people see us in a positive way. This is not always the case though. In the readings, Goffman uses an example of a job interview. If you attend this job interview and you give a bad first impression, there will be long-term chances of your career being at risk (Dillion 2018:284). Goffman also states that we create the definition of the situation based off of our appearances which is known as the front (Dillion 2018: 284). We have multiples fronts. At work the front will be different compared the front that you portray at school. Appearance and manner are important in because they provide support towards determining the definition of the situation (Dillion 2018: 285). Our appearances are signals of our social statuses. If we are wearing scrubs, then we will automatically assume that you are a nurse or a doctor.
A concept that falls under symbolic interactionism is Socialization. Schubert states that we are not born self-made. Society teaches us how to socialize and how to interpret symbols and language (Dollion 2018: 277). Our families play a huge role in this concept because they have a huge influence on our attitudes. Our parents raise us to act the way that society would like us to act. By socializing, we learn how to perceive and interpret society. The self is developed over time. As time goes by, the different interactions that we make help us develop the person who we are or the person that society wants us to be. This is where the role of the generalized other takes place. We expect a certain behavior by the person who we interact with. If I see someone who has children, I expect them to play the role as a parent which involves for them to take care of the kids such as feeding the children and providing for them. By interacting with other people, society teaches us social conducts that are expected by individuals (Dillion 2018: 277).
Emile Durkheim discusses the concepts of sacred and profane in relationship to religion. Sacred things have a special symbolic significant meaning attached to it (Dillion 2018:108). Profane, on the other hand, does not. Sacred thing are "set apart". Sacred, is defined as something different. They are things that are important to someone. An example can be holidays or church. Religion becomes important to many people because it has the attachment of it being "holy". There are certain things that are sacred and if you disrespect them, you can get into trouble or looked down upon by your community or a certain group of people. An example that Durkheim uses is the nation's flag. It is considered sacred because there is collective representation of the national identity shared among Americans (Dillion 2018: 108). We have the right to burn the flag if we wish to because we have freedom of speech but that would be considered profane. Profane is also defined as something as something "normal". It is an everyday type of occurrence. It is not important. Rituals and beliefs are considered sacred. He mentions that rituals and beliefs are not unique but once applied to the individual, it has meaning towards it (Dillion 2018:108). Church then, becomes an important symbol because it allows people to share the same beliefs and to come together as a whole which is defined as moral community. Durkheim mentions that as human being it is important for us to have a sense of belonging and to come together as one (Dillion 2018:108). Communal gatherings on social integration become significant to one because of the meaning behind the gathering. When we get together with other people, it allows us to realize that it is important for us to have the bonds that we have. We interact because human beings are supposed to be social furthermore, every interaction that we make has meaning behind it.
Marx discusses the importance of everyday life and what is considered to be normal. This is defined as ideology (Dillion 2018:64). When dealing with ideology and the capitalist society in which we live, we see people who content to work for less than what they are worth for. This is seen as normal because society has portrayed it this way. In capitalist societies, experiences and everyday activities are made to be looked at as normal so people work as hard as they do (Dillion 2018:64). Consumption in everyday life is important in any culture (Dillion 2018:64). We live in a consuming society where there are a lot of commodities. Since consumption is a part of our everyday life, it requires people to work for everything in order for them to have what they want or need. A lot of people define their life by the things that they own. If you own a lot of things such as the latest phone or a brand new car from the latest year, it will allow for others to view you with power and obviously money. Money speaks for us and it allows us to buy the things that we want. Marx also discusses alienation. Alienation is defined as the separation of the worker from the products that they produce. It is dehumanizing. A lot of the things that people produce, they can't even afford to purchase. The worker, puts in a lot of effort into the object it is that they are making and they do not get what they deserve in return. All the credit goes to the employer. Work also becomes a great part of the individuals life. Wage earners participate more in work than with other activities or even their family members. Work has become a part of our everyday life and this is because we need to earn a wage somehow, so that we can make a living.
Methods
The ethnography section in qualitative methods is an important part of the research. This section is where the observations are done. The ethnography portion is also known as fieldwork. This is where you go and observe a certain group of people or culture. There are certain procedures that must be followed when doing the ethnography section. When doing observations, it is important that they are done is public places. This is for safety reasons. When doing the observations depending on the place, you should let the people know that you will be observing them or get permission from a supervisor. When conducting observations, they should not all be done in one sitting. To have better and accurate results, the observations should be spread out. When doing the observation portion, you are required to take notes and then those notes become you field notes. Another way of taking notes is also by recording your observations. You speak about what you are observing into a device. It is important to get everything down that you observe even the simplest things. The more in detail the notes are the better. This is known as thick description. It would also help if you take notes on peoples or emotions or certain situations that you see occur. After you are done jotting notes down, you can close your eyes for a few seconds and reflect. There will be things that you did not write down and this will help you remember.
Interviews are an important part of research. When conducting interviews, it is important to do the recording in a public location. This is for safety reasons. Also, it is important to do the interviews in a place where is it quiet. The reason for this is because the interview will be recorded and in order to have a good recording, it is important to be in a quiet place so that only the voices are heard. During the interview, a method that is used is probing. Probing is necessary during an interview because we want to keep the interviewee talking and to go more in into detail. The questions being asked for qualitative interviews are open ended questions. With this being said, there are no right or wrong answers (Warren and Karner, 2010). It is important that you let the interviewee know this so that they feel comfortable speaking freely .Before the interview starts, you should let them know that they can tell you to stop recording if necessary. On the other hand, if they do begin to get to personal or inappropriate, you can stop the recording and let them know that you do not want to hear that in a polite way.
Things can also go wrong with conducting interviews. There could be false information given by the interviewee. Also, depending on the interviewee, the person might be shy therefore, it might be a little more difficult to get them to talk. You need to try to make sure that the people that you will interview will be reliable. After we are done with the interviews, the next step is to transcribe them. When transcribing, it is easier to use an application that with convert the audio for you. In order for the application to pick up all the words from the audio, it is important that during the recording, both people speak clearly.
The content analysis section is a section in qualitative research where you are required to gather documents for the group that you chose to conduct your research on. It is important that your organization or group, is a group that is well known. The reason for this, is so that it is not as hard to find documents about this organization or group. If you do have a difficult time finding sources for the location of your organization, you may look at different locations. More than 30 documents are required for this. It is important to keep in mind that when looking for documents, one must look for good documents. The documents must be valid and that will provide good information towards your research. Documents that could be used are newspaper articles, magazines, journals, pictures, or websites that have reviews. When using images, you could use websites that will transcribe the images for you. If needed, you can scan materials into digital files. I The information that is gathered, must be able to be related to certain theories. After you get all of your documents, you must transcribe them. Some theories that are able to be used for the analysis section of the content analysis are grounds and claims. Different theories are used because you are analyzing documents.
Methods Ethnography
I observed a chinese restaurant in the mall. I chose to go on different days and on certain times because I wanted to get accurate and different results. Two of the days I did my observations in the kitchen. I received permission from the manager to be able to conduct my observations in the kitchen. I was able to observe the cooks and also the girls who worked the counter because they would also go to the back in the kitchen. Another day I observed in the front where the girls work the counter. I was able to see different statuses and roles. I was also able to see different interactions.
The first observation that I did was on November 2, 2018. I was there for about two to three hours because on the day that I went there were times where there was hardly any interaction or anything going on. It was dead silent. The first day of observations I mostly did thick description. I focused on everything that I saw around me when I was in the back in the kitchen. The second day I also focused on thick description but I focused on the workers who were there. There were 4 cooks in the back. In the front, there were 3 employees who worked the counter. On the third day of observations I focused on theory, specifically definition of the situation, as I was doing my field notes.
In my observations I focused on specific theories and also thick description. Thick description was a big part of my observations. I went in great detail with what I was observing. The theories that I focused on were thick description, frontstage/backstage, definition of the situation, status, and roles. The way that I analyzed my data was by using NVivo. It allowed me to create nodes, organize my findings, and complete word queries. I did two word queries one for each day. I ran two frequency word queries. I did the queries on day 1 and day 2 of my observations. On day one, the words that were shown the most were: cook, cooking, cooks,
see, seeing, work, and working. On day 2, the words that were shown the most were: girls, girl, back, and one. I created 5 nodes which were definition of the situation, thick description, statuses, roles, and frontstage/backstage.
Overall, the observation was successful. I did not run through any major issues. I saw and heard a lot of interesting things. Some things I expected to hear and others not. It was easy to d the observation with the group that I chose because I am a part of that group. I did my field notes while I was there but I took more notes after I left the setting that I was at. I was able to create the nodes that I needed without any difficulty. My finding were all well organized.
Methods: Interviews
The first 3 interviews were done at my house. Food and beverages were offered just for courtesy. The first interview was about 12 minutes long. The second interview was about 10 minutes long and the last interview was about 8 minutes long. I felt like the interviews went smoothly. I gave the interviewees an idea of the questions that I was going to ask just so that they can be aware and so they have an idea of what to expect. I interviewed them individually, one by one alone so that they wouldn't feel uncomfortable if the other respondents were staring.
The first 3 interviews were done at my house. Food and beverages were offered just for courtesy. The first interview was about 12 minutes long. The second interview was about 10 minutes long and the last interview was about 8 minutes long. I felt like the interviews went smoothly. I gave the interviewees an idea of the questions that I was going to ask just so that they can be aware and so they have an idea of what to expect. I interviewed them individually, one by one alone so that they wouldn't feel uncomfortable if the other respondents were staring.
For the other two interviews, I chose to do them at the mall in the food court. As I mentioned before, I did it after a certain time because I know that around that time there is hardly any people and it was the easiest place for the respondents to meet at since they do work in the food court. One of the interviews was 9 minutes long and the last about 6 minutes. I feel like these interviews were different. I feel like the girls were very nervous. They also had shorter responses compared to the first 3 interviewees. I did not make that much eye contact with them because I noticed when I would, they would become more nervous and they would forget what they were going to say or they would just stop talking.
Most of the questions that I asked were based of off theory. Some of the questions that I asked were about statuses and roles. Other questions that I asked were about backstage and front stage. I also asked about alienation. This was an interesting question to ask because the question that I asked many of the respondents had a lot to say about that certain question. I recorded the interviews with the recording app that already comes in my cell phone. After I did the recordings, I transcribed them. I analyzed my data by using NVivo. I ran two word frequencies. I created 6 nodes which were frontstage/backstage, statuses, roles, alienation, cues, and definition of the situation.
Methods: Content Analysis
The content analysis section focused on the gatherings of sources which were found online. Most of the sources that were found consisted of comments about the restaurant or other restaurants that were the same company. Some comments that were found were positive while others were negative. Articles were also found on shut downs that occured with the company in different locations.
In the content analysis, I focused on specific theories and also thick description. The theories that I focused on were thick description, frontstage/backstage, definition of the situation, status, and roles. The way that I analyzed my data was by using NVivo. It allowed me to create nodes, organize my findings, and complete word queries. I did a word query frequency. The word that appeared the most was chinese. It appeared 221 times. I also created 5 nodes which were grounds, definition of the situation, thick description, statuses/ roles, and claims. I also used N-capture. This allowed me to upload the source that I needed into Nvivo.
Overall, the content analysis section went well. I did not run through any major issues. A difficulty that I did go through was finding good sources. It was very important to have good sources so that I can conduct good research. I saw a lot of comments that stood out to me. Some things I did not expect to see. It was interesting to see how people compared this chinese food restaurant to other chinese food restaurants. I was able to create the nodes that I needed without any difficulty. My finding were all well organized.
Analysis
Ethnography
Thick Description
On the first day that I began my observation, I started off in the back in the kitchen. The first thing I started to do was to look at my surroundings.
"I am in the back of the restaurant in the kitchen. I see a lot of boxes. Some boxes contain straws, plates, cups and napkins. I see boxes of soda which include coca-cola, sprite, diet coke, pibb xtra, barq's root beer, and fanta orange. The boxes for the sodas are lined up by dates."
On the 3rd day of observation, I went to the front and observed carefully everything that I saw. I looked at the food that was being served.
" I see a variety of food. The chow mein, orange chicken, and broccoli beef are the only ones in long trays. I am assuming that it sells the most and that is the reason why the other food is in small trays. There is a variety of sodas outside as well as snapples."
My next observation was in the back of the kitchen. I talked about the employees.
" In the back in the kitchen towards the side, there are lockers. Those lockers are for the employees. I see four cooks in the kitchen and they are all men. In the front of the restaurant, there are 4 employees that work the counter and they are all women. I noticed that the men did a lot of the heavy work compared to the women. "
Statuses
A status that I saw was being an employee.
" One of their statuses is being an employee. Once the person arrives to work that becomes their status and they leave their other statuses behind"
Another status that I saw was the employees also being students once they left work. I overheard how they had homework and other stuff to do once they left work.
"Another status that the person played was being a student."
Another status that I heard that some girls held were being parents.
"Other statuses would be some of them being parents"
Roles
One of the statuses that I mentioned before was being an employee. Employees have roles that they have to take.
" Their roles are to act professional. Also, they are in uniform. They are required to wear non slip shoes. Also, they wear a purple shirt that belongs to the company. They wear hats and have their hair up so that food does not fall into the food. "
Another status that I had previously mentioned was the status of being a parent. I described the roles that a parents takes on.
" I overheard one of the girls talking about her kids and that is how I knew she was a parent. The roles that correspond to being a parent are taking care of the kids and the family. Parents have to make sure that the children have the necessities and love that they need."
Other statuses that I heard was the status of being a students. Being a student takes certain responsibilities and also roles.
"A student has to manage their time. They have to make time to do homework and learn how to balance their lives with work. The student has certain school supplies such as backpacks,pencils, paper, and more."
The last and final status that the people at these work environment take on is the status of being an employee. They choose to be an employee because they need money. Aside from that, they must take on certain roles in order for them to keep their jobs.
"Their roles are to act professional. Also, they are in uniform. They are required to wear non slip shoes. Also, they wear a purple shirt that belongs to the company. They wear hats and have their hair up so that food does not fall into the food."
Frontstage/Backstage
On the days that I did my observations, I was at two different locations. One location was in the front, where the girls worked the counter. Another location was in the back in the kitchen. In the kitchen is where no one knows what was is going on except for the employees. On the first day of my observation the girls talked about things that they would not say in front of the customers.
"Two of the girls came to the back to drink water. I heard them talk about a customer. The customer wanted more food but they were not able to give them more because they are required to serve by portions. One of the girls said that if they did not like the portions that were serve that they can go eat somewhere else. One of the girls was like " too bad we cannot tell them to their faces". They just laughed about it and went to the front to continue working. In the back in the kitchen towards the side, there are lockers."
When dealing with the frontstage, the employees are required to act professional and obviously do their job which requires to help the employees. In the following quote, it shows how the employees work together and with the customers.
" She seems to not be able to make up her mind on what she wants and the employee looks inpatient because she is alone and she now has a line of customers waiting to order. Finally, the customer made up her mind. She then offers her drinks and rings the customer up. Another employee finally shows up and helps. The line is now moving faster. The employees look like they know how to work together well. Once the people are all gone they do the same thing and begin to restock again."
The employees also have to look for a way to deal with their anger or stress while at work. So what they do that has to deal with the backstage is talk about how they feel. They of course do this while the customers are not around.
" Once the people are all gone they do the same thing and begin to restock again. As they are restocking, I can hear them talking. They were talking about one of the customers from a previous day. I hear one of the girls say how that customer was rude. The girl said that the customer made her very angry because and saying how it's stupid that they charge extra for vegetables."
Definition of the Situation
The employees have to learn how to deal with the situations that they are in. They have to learn how to manage being an employee aside from being parents or students.
"When dealing with the definition of the situation, she has to learn to balance all 3 statuses. If she doesn't know how to manage all 3, she could be put under a lot of stress."
When it comes to dealing with work, there will always be problems. During my observation I witnessed an argument but the situation was dealt with in a professional manner.
" I hear the other cook tell him that he needs to work faster because there is a line of people waiting outside It looks like they both handled the situation good because they did not get mad at eachother. They actually listened to what they had to say to each other."
The employees also face situations where they might get into trouble for not doing things that are supposed to. They must react quickly so that they do not get in trouble if they truly care about keeping their job. In the following statement, the girls reacted differently once the manager walked in. They were facing a situation in which they were going to get into trouble.
The girls were in the front just standing around. I heard them complain about how it is slow and there is nothing to do. Next thing you know the manager walks to the front and they quickly find something to do. One of the girls starts cleaning the counters. The other girl that was with her was stirring the food.
" The girls were in the front just standing around. I heard them complain about how it is slow and there is nothing to do. Next thing you know the manager walks to the front and they quickly find something to do. One of the girls starts cleaning the counters. The other girl that was with her was stirring the food."
Interviews
Statuses
One of the questions that I asked was about some of the statuses that they held.
"umm, I am a daughter. I am an employee, a grandchild, sister, that's pretty much it."
I asked the same question to the next interviewee and she went a little more into detail.
"Some of the statuses are… number 1 I am an employee, I work as a cook/server. I am an elder sister of a family of 5. The other is a girlfriend of 6 years."
I also asked this respondent the same question and I realized that when I asked her this question when she said single mother her voice sounded cracky.
" Some of my statuses are that I am a single mother, a daughter, and an employee"
Roles
After I asked the respondents about their status, I asked them to describe what it means to be a mom, an employee, a student etc. if it applied to them.
"umm, we are supposed to dress how work asks us to...Decent, black pants, the work shirt, black socks, shoes, and your hair back."
When I asked the next respondent about the roles to each of her status she sounded like if she was overwhelmed. It makes sense because it is a lot to handle sometimes.
"I am a mom. I have to always get them ready, feed them, take care of them, and take themm to the babysitter. I am a wife so I have to make time for him, cook for him, cook for him but we always take turns. I am an employee. Obviously I work. I do not enjoy my job."
The following respondent went more into detail with her roles compared to the other respondents.
"As an employee I am expected to cook what needs to be cooked and to serve what needs to be served and make sure everything goes where it should be. As an elder sister, I have to take care of my younger siblings. The baby in the family, I actually do love to spoil him so I like taking him out anywhere he likes to go. As a girlfriend I guess I am expected, but I do it out of love, to support my boyfriend in anything and all things he needs."
Frontstage/Backstage
I asked questions based off of backstage and frontstage. I asked either how they act in the front of the customers or they act when the customers are not around. For this specific question, I asked how they acted when the customers were not around therefore, this would be considered backstage.
"Ummm.. we .. I usually talk to my other coworkers and eat if I have time. Umm.. just go in the back and drink some water."
For frontstage, I asked the respondent how she acts when she is in front of the customers. The way that they act in front of the customers are rules that they are expected to follow.
"I smile. I ask how they are. I tell them hi and what they would like to eat."
I asked this respondent how they act when they are not around the customers. They mentioned how they can act like themselves. Therefore, they do not act as professional as they would be required to if the customers were around.
"When they are not around, I am obviously comfortable and I can be myself. I act like myself when they are not around."
Alienation
When dealing with alienation, I asked the interviewees if they felt like most of their time was consumed by work and if they felt like they did not have a social life.
"Yess. I do work all the time, on the weekends especially. Usually, I have family things like weddings and birthday parties and sometimes I have to miss them because I am usually working and we can't take certain time off of work. It's hard for me because I do miss a lot of family functions because of work and umm.. It's pretty hard but I guess it's part of being an adult."
I asked the following respondent the same question and she answered yes to the answer. She mentioned how she would like have time for her family and friends but work took up most of her time.
"Yes, work does take up a lot of time. Again it's the 8 hours a day of working and 8 hours of sleep so there is only so much time left to do what you need to do. Besides paying bills, I do want to hang out with my family, play games, shop, and I do not have a lot of time for that. But, it does kind of hurt that I do have my siblings who say that they miss hanging out with me. Especially my boyfriend who always says that I do not have time for him. But it is how we work and some days you get this day and then you get the other day."
This respondent mentioned how most of her time was also devoted to work. To make it worse, she always has to close and therefore, she is limited on the things that she can do because it is late by the time that she is off at work.
"Yes because most of the time I close and it's annoying because there are more girls there and I guess she can change the schedule or rotate us with the schedule. I don't spend a lot of time with my mom because she is always working. She works in the morning and I working in the afternoon when she is home. For my boyfriend, I usually see him two times a week and that's if he doesn't work on the weekends. I spend most of my time at work because I close."
Definition of the Situation
One of the questions that I asked the respondents was how they handled rude customers. This is a situation in which all the respondents reacted differently. I noticed that all of the interviewees had a story to say when it came down to this specific question.
"ts hard but in order to umm.. What I deal with ummm.. I try not to umm be rude to them back because if you are they going to be more mean and nothing is going to work out that way. If you just approach them in a respectful way then maybe they will respect you and if not then that is their problem."
This respondent mentioned different ways in which she would have to react based on the situations in which she was in. She provided two scenarios in which she had to react to the situation so that things would not get out of hand.
"Umm… well.. I try to give them what they want but if I can't and it gets out of hand I have to call security, walk away from them, or have someone else help them. Like there was one times when there was a customer who came back and she was angry about something being in her food and she had already ate mostly everything. It turns out that she put something in her plate. She was trying to speak to somebody and she was already speaking to the manager. I was just there and I was not saying anything. She started talking to me and I was just ignoring her because I couldn't really do anything since she was already speaking to the manager. And she started telling me off and cussing me out. I just walked away and went to the back. There is this other customer who always asks people to buy her food and that obviously makes our company look bad so I had to call security on her."
When I asked this interviewee how she reacted to rude customers, I felt like she dealt with the situation in a professional manner. She went into detail on how she would handle the situation.
"When someone is rude to me or say something rude to me I actually just stop for a second and stay quiet. I try my best to smile and pass them on to someone else. Not to be mean but if I get that person out of here as quickly as possible, we do not have to deal with them."
Cues
The question that I asked for this specific theory was based off of gestures. I feel like many of the respondents had similar answers.
" Umm, I try not let it show on my face but my face does turn red. I try not to talk to them in a mean way but my face does turn red. I don't know if it is noticeable but to my coworkers it is noticeable."
This respondent stated that the gestures that she made were very noticable. She described her facial expressions and other gestures.
"You can tell I take deep breaths or when I try to smile you can tell its fake. You can also tell when I am sarcastic."
The interviewee also stated that her facial expressions were very noticable. This is something that all of the interviewees stated.
" Usually, I try to be nice but sometimes my face is like what you know. I try to keep calm but sometimes my face just gives it up."
Content Analysis
Thick description
This customer went to eat at the restaurant at left a review. As you can see, she did not have a good experience. She goes into detail about certain foods.
"Skip..Skip...and Skip this place if you want flavorful Chinese food! The food here is pretty disgusting. I ordered the #1 that comes with chow mein or rice and an entree. I chose beef and broccoli..they give you a small scoop, and about the same amount of chow mein you get at restaurants. The chow mein was disgusting!!! The noodles were not cooked all the way, lacked serious flavor, and it was cold. The beef and broccoli was ok. The vegetable rolls were
disgusting..all I could taste was grease. What a waste of money ...and my time:( I will definitely not be back."
This was another review. The customer did not have a good experience as well. She describes her order and goes into detail about why she didn't like the food.
"There's nothing good going for this place! More like gross, slow service, rude not friendly staff! I ordered 1 item with half & half chinese fried rice & noodles, literally they served a side for a kids menu pretty much, but charge for an adult plate! The item was orange chicken & it was so gross old & hard to bite!"
In one of the restaurants ran by the same company, there was a shit down. A description is given on what the inspectors found.
"Inspectors from the Environmental Health Division of the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services found "moldy broccoli, rotten green onions, [and] boxes of thawed chicken [with] blood leaking onto walk-in refrigerator floor," according to the inspection report."
Statuses/roles
Here, this employee lists the roles that come along with her status of being an employee.
"A typical day at was to clock in serve the customers food, ring them up once the order is complete and take free time to clean serving area, restock shelves with supplies, and hand out samples. I learned how to serve customers, start out with customer service skills, and handle cash effectively."
The status for this employee is front counter cashier. The roles that correspond to her status are then listed in the following statement.
"My position here was as a front counter cashier. Our role was to take orders from customers in an assembly line. We served the customers for seating or for take out. I used the register for check out and cash drops every two hours. We cleaned the food trays, mopped the floors, cleaned the soda machine, and the rice maker daily at closing."
The status for this person is the status of being a manager. The roles of this status are also listed.
"As the manager at …. my duties include hiring employees, Training and development, preparing the schedule, Calculating and verifying payroll amounts, cleaning, stocking, balancing the till, ordering products and produce, assisting in food preparation, wash dishes, and enforced policies to insure sufficient customer service and proper food safety."
Grounds
Grounds are an issue that require action. In the following statement the issue is that the raise needs to be raised if not they will not have good employees.
"If you want better employees, raise the wage. Can't expect someone to work hard getting paid min wage."
The issue stated here is that the restaurant should be clean all the time not only when inspections come around. This is an issue that requires action.
"Make sure that the restaurant is clean and organized at all times, not just during the very day health inspectors are supposed to come in."
Here the issue that requires action is the way that the employees are being treated. They state that they should be listened to when asked for advice instead of being rude to them.
"also if you ask for ideas on how to improve sales from your employees you should listen to them instead of curing them off mid sentence and saying it won't help anything."
Claims
Many times people leave reviews to allow other people to see how they feel about the place. Many of the comments left on the websites will then either convince the viewers to go to the place or vise versa. This person left a good review and for this reason, they could be convincing the person who is reading the comment to consider working here.
"Very kind and fun people in this workplace. This by far is my favorite experience of work i have right now.. Sometimes work gets busier and sometimes its slow. I learned how to cook in hibachi. The most enjoyable would be working with my coworkers."
There was another review left on the experience that this person had while working here. She left a good review therefore, it could be convincing others to want to work here.
"If you are a fun, friendly person then I recommend this job. you learn a lot, people are nice and everyone gets along with one another. and the best part is that it's fun getting to know the customers."
This person described the great experience that she had at this restaurant. When looking at the concept of claims, this fits this concept because this person is leaving a good review and therefore, it is convincing others to want to eat here.
"This place always has fast service, hot delicious food served with a smile. It's usually my 1st choice for lunch when I am at the mall."
Definition of the situation
As a result of the situation that occured which was the company not following the rules for food safety, the restaurant was closed.
"A total of nine violations were identified, and the restaurant will remain closed until those violations have been corrected and the facility inspected. The manager has until Friday to correct the violations."
This person had a bad experience while eating at the restaurant. The way that she handled the situation was by not eating the food that served to her. Also, she handled the situation by leaving a review and letting others see how her experience went.
"I should have walked away when I saw them serving BBQ pork and teriyaki chicken from the same container. They had very little selection and very little amounts of what was left. I was hoping some fresh food would come out but it didn't. Our chow mein tasted burned, which I'm sure it was considering how old the food looked inside the serving area. Overall, everything tasted stale and old. The customer service was poor as well. Very bad experience here. We did not eat the food served to us."
This customer received the wrong order. They had a bad experience. It seems like the employee did not handle the situation in a professional way. As a result, the customers were mad and they had a bad experience.
"My girlfriend went to go get some food. The lady got her order wrong and she went back to ask them and fix it. The lady took her food back but they are taking forever to fix it. My girlfriend was just standing there and waiting when all of a sudden the lady told her "You need to wait!" I don't think it was necessary to give attitude when you were in the wrong! My girlfriend got her food but it was way less than what she gave to other people. They went to go talk to the lady and the lady gave them more attitude!"
Conclusion
Overall, the whole research paper process went well. One thing that I had complications with was with content analysis section. I found it difficult to find documents for the group that I chose. I had no complications when using Nvivo or when transcribing my data. It was interesting to see how people reacted in certain situations or how they responded to certain questions. Being able to relate the data to certain theories was huge important part of this research and it was interesting to see how relatable the data that I collected was were to these theories.
Bibliography
DILLON, M. IC HE LE. 2014. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: Theorists,
Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty... -First Century. S.l.: JOHN WILEY & SONS.
Warren, Carol A. B. and Tracy X. Karner. 2010. Discovering Qualitative Methods: Field
Research, Interviews, and Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
