The Impact of Perceived Support on Food and Beverage Employee Well-Being
Food and beverage employees are seeking greater workplace treatment and conditions, yet are continuously faced with a stressful working environment and the norm of hustle culture. Many researchers have explored the issues of job burnout and turnover intention within the hospitality industry and have posited organizational support as a strategy to reduce these issues. Additionally, an increasing topic in the literature is focusing on well-being and mental health in the workplace. A gap exists concerning the relationship between perceived support and workplace well-being and mental health for food and beverage employees. These two distinct but related studies will explore how perceived support can increase employee well-being and mental health in the workplace for food and beverage employees. First, the experiences of food and beverage employees regarding their workplace stressors and felt organizational support are explored. Then the interplaying relationships between leadership, perceived support, trust, and workplace well-being are tested. For study one, eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with beverage managers, sommeliers, bartenders, servers, and sales representatives. The interviews were structured to learn about participants' perceptions of their organizations, leadership, well-being and mental health. Content analysis was conducted to analyze the information gathered from the interviews. The data was hand coded, and then the codes were verified by and compared with the output from ATLAS.ti AI coding software. The results illustrate the importance of organizational and leadership support for the well-being of food and beverage employees and uncover how improved support may help reduce stress and increase workplace well-being. Using organizational support theory (OST) as a framework, study two examines the relationships among leadership behavior, perceived support, trust, and workplace well-being. OST assumes that employees develop a general perception concerning the extent to which their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Employee’s perceptions were collected using a self-administered survey via Qualtrics focusing on these key variables. The findings reveal a chain mediation effect of inclusive leadership and workplace well-being from perceived support and trust. Similarly, chain mediation was found for the effect of abusive supervision and workplace well-being through perceived support and trust. This study illustrates the importance of support, organization actions, and leadership behavior for the well-being of food and beverage employees.
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