Gender, organizational culture and psychosocial risks: three cornerstones of the catering sector

Abstract

Catering is characterized by being one of the main sectors in employment generation in Spain. In this article, and from an organizational and gender perspective, we offer a theoretical approach, critical to the studies that have been developed in the context of commercial catering, the main objective being to know the most characteristic factors and psychosocial elements of this sector. The results reflect that the working conditions inherent to the catering sector (e.g., antisocial hours, precariousness, staff turnover) are psychosocial risk factors for workers, with the main highlights being burnout, work stress and mobbing. In terms of gender, discrimination against women explains wage inequality with respect to their masculine counterparts and the phenomenon of the glass ceiling, or male overrepresentation in positions of responsibility. To conclude, some proposals are presented to subvert the psychosocial risks and the inequality of the sector, with special emphasis on the organizational culture as a source of discomfort.