| This dissertation concerns itself with the production of culture in restaurant organizations. My basic premise is that the restaurant organizations, like other service organizations, live in a perpetual dilemma: restaurants are commercial establishments whose primary reason for being in business is to make profit. However, restaurants, especially the fancy ones, disavow this underlying profit-making structure and try to present themselves as noncommercial establishments. They try to present themselves as if the provision of services, foodstuffs and forging of personalized relationships were their raison d'etre for being in existence. The ability of a restaurant to create culture which appears not to be commercial or consequences of not being able to sustain it, is the central concern of this dissertation. In this context, the culture which surrounds restaurant organization is not only something by which social actors in an organization make their working experience meaningful, but the culture is also utilized as the means to add value and enhance the experiences of the dining public. My thesis is that culture is part of the product. I will regard the specific aspects of this culture as a form of capital. |
