Organizational Communication in a Family-Owned Sandwich Shop

Introduction

There is a tremendous amount of research on organizational communication, but surprisingly little focus on family-owned businesses. While big business in America may be characterized by an impersonal, corporate environment, small businesses remain a significant force in American economics. Moreover, small businesses are likely to be mom-and-pop establishments run by family members. In these environments, one would naturally expect communications to be somewhat different than in businesses where employees are not related to one another or to management. In fact, one would expect to find a degree of informality in these settings. Many people associate informal settings with better communication; however, that assumption is not necessarily accurate in a workplace. A lack of formal boundary-setting, rules, and structure can actually lead to less adequate workplace communication.

Overview of Sammy's Sammies

The organization examined here is a small, family-owned sandwich shop named Sammy's Sammies. The restaurant is owned by a husband-and-wife partnership. The mission of the organization is to sell great-tasting individual sub-sandwiches in a friendly atmosphere. The sandwiches differ significantly from those found in a chain sandwich shop, largely due to the family's secret sauce. The shop features fresh vegetables, and while the bread, meats, and cheeses are purchased from Sysco rather than made in-house, the pies and soups are homemade.

The shop truly is a family affair. The owner's grandmother works at the shop and brings in the homemade pies sold there. His grandfather also works at the shop on occasion. Three children from the owning family work at the restaurant during some evening hours and on weekends. The non-family employees include two older women and a third woman along with her two daughters, who both work during lunch hours for high-school credit. The third woman's children attended school with the older family children, and she and the wife were friends before she became an employee.

The structure of the shop is a partnership. The husband is the primary sandwich maker. He developed the unique ingredients for all of the shop's signature sandwiches and typically works behind the counter making them. He is also the face of customer relations, largely due to his outgoing, friendly personality. His wife handles inventory and administrative paperwork — paying bills, managing insurance, and filing taxes. Because of this behind-the-scenes role, some customers perceive her as less central to the business, but the restaurant could not function without her. She also manages scheduling and sick-day coverage. The chain of command therefore runs from the wife, then to the husband, with all other employees roughly equal in authority. At times the grandparents may be left in charge of the store, but that authority is temporary. Major decisions appear to be reached by consensus between the two owners, typically made at home rather than on the shop floor.

The owners make a genuine effort to treat their employees like family, and in many ways that effort succeeds. Although they are unable to offer paid vacation or sick time as a small business, they have secured a good group insurance provider and contribute toward insurance premiums for their adult employees. If an employee needs time off for illness or a personal need, arrangements are made to accommodate that need. The restaurant is respectful of employees at all times; if a customer is rude or disrespectful to a staff member, that customer will be asked to leave. The restaurant also honors holidays and family time — it is closed on all major federal holidays, for three days around Christmas, from Good Friday through Easter, and from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the entire Thanksgiving weekend. Because the bulk of business comes from lunchtime patrons and commuters picking up sandwiches on the way home, these closures have not meaningfully affected earnings. The shop does see increased pie sales before each holiday, when customers may pre-order whole pies to take home.

Physically, the restaurant has more character than a typical chain location. Like many chain sandwich shops, it occupies a storefront space; however, it sits at the end of the storefront, allowing for both drive-through and counter service. The interior contains eight four-person booths and eight four-person tables. The décor reflects the owning family's shared hobby: the entire family is enthusiastic about motorcycles, and the interior is decorated with vintage motorcycle memorabilia, including some valuable Indian motorcycle merchandise. Customers walk through the seating area to reach a U-shaped counter that separates the kitchen from the dining space, with two entrance points. A menu board hangs above the counter listing the available sandwiches, soups, fresh-baked pies, chips, and salads. Customers order at a cash register on the right side of the counter and then wait for their order at the other end. The sandwich makers work the space in between. On the left side of the counter is a door to the restrooms. Behind the visible counter and kitchen area, a double-swinging door leads to the kitchen and food storage space.

Organizational Identification

One of the ways that Sammy's Sammies excels in communication is by instilling a real sense of organizational identification in all of its employees. According to Mark Ryckman, "organizations benefit by having committed employees who put more effort into their work and workers benefit by increased morale and an improved sense of satisfaction" (2011). Ryckman identifies several things a business can do to instill this sense of organizational identification: start early, adopt a participative leadership style, promote fairness and ethics, prepare employees for promotion, and design competitive compensation systems (Ryckman, 2011).

With the exception of preparing employees for promotion, Sammy's Sammies has incorporated most of those elements into its business model. Its structure is simply too small to support an increased number of managers, making formal promotion tracks impractical. In fact, not offering meaningless promotions is a sign of organizational health. "A great deal of dysfunctional behavior in organizations comes from having too many or too few levels of work. Too many layers create unnecessary bureaucracy and keep employees feeling suppressed in their decision-making. Too few levels, on the other hand, cause problems in communication and gaps in workflow" (Baker, 2011). Both owners are constantly present in the restaurant and capable of providing direction to employees, with the husband working directly behind the counter alongside his staff. Adding another management layer to such a small operation would create confusion rather than clarity.

The company is very effective at introducing new workers to the organizational culture. Every current employee was either a customer or a family friend before being hired, meaning each brought some prior knowledge of the family and the restaurant's culture. The training process involves shadowing other employees in various roles until the new hire feels comfortable performing any task required — from calling in a supply order to cleaning a bathroom to working the counter. This approach recognizes that orientation is "a critical time in employees' tenure with the organization and it provides an opportunity for management to build organizational identification among these new workers" (Ryckman, 2011).

One potential challenge with this orientation process could arise if the owners were ever to hire someone with no prior connection to the family. The entire atmosphere of the business is built on family and friendship, and it seems unlikely that any standard orientation could fully prepare an outside hire for entry into that culture. The business may therefore want to develop a more formalized orientation process in anticipation of hiring from outside its existing social circle.

Both owners excel at adopting a participative leadership style. They pitch in on any task that needs doing and treat employees with considerable respect, actively seeking their input. "Participative leaders allow employees to have input into the organization's decision-making processes" (Ryckman, 2011). One area that may warrant attention, however, is the treatment of the child-employees. While other employees' opinions are genuinely valued, the owners may be quicker to dismiss their children's input than that of other staff — a blurring of the parent-boss line that is probably inevitable in a family-owned business. At this point it is not seriously detrimental, but it could become more problematic as the children grow older and parental authority becomes less natural.

Sammy's Sammies also excels at promoting fairness and ethics. Employees have very few complaints about decisions being unfair, and none of the non-family employees seemed to feel that the family employees were treated preferentially. "Managers who cultivate a culture of fairness, honesty and sound ethics will have employees who are more likely to identify with the organization, even when an unpopular decision is made" (Ryckman, 2011). One minor area of perceived unfairness is that the child-employees sometimes avoid less pleasant tasks — such as cleaning the restroom — when their parents are not in the restaurant. The other employees, however, feel comfortable telling the children to do their jobs, which suggests the issue is manageable rather than systemic.

The restaurant has also done well at designing a competitive compensation system. During peak hours, all employees work very hard, and rather than hiring an additional employee to distribute that workload, the current staff voted — in an employee meeting — to continue working at a higher pace in exchange for wages significantly above minimum wage. When employees feel overwhelmed, they participate in the decision about when to bring in an additional hire.

Another interesting element is that the restaurant encourages individuality in its employees. One employee has visible facial tattoos and another has bright-pink hair — appearances that might be discouraged in many family restaurant settings. This openness supports organizational identification: "If people can express their personality in their work, and they believe that the work is important in the organization, they may be likely to have a significant sense of organizational identification" (Bell, n.d.).

Research has found differences in organizational culture based on employee and student status (Buckingham, n.d.). However, Sammy's Sammies does not appear to struggle with making all employees — including part-time student workers — feel integrated into the organization. This may be partly because the owning family itself spans multiple generations and includes student-age children, making it easier for part-time student employees to feel at home. "Organizational identification is a level of commitment that even part-time employees can achieve" (Buckingham, n.d.).