Boredom at Work and Job Monotony: An Exploratory Case Study within the Catering Sector

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21249
• Author: Chin‐Ju Tsai
• Published date: 01 June 2016
• Date: 01 June 2016

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 27, no. 2, Summer 2016 © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21249 207

Boredom at Work and Job

Monotony: An Exploratory Case

Study within the Catering Sector

Chin-Ju Tsai

This article presents an exploratory study that examines workplace

boredom in monotonous catering-sector jobs. It investigates whether

boredom is associated with monotonous tasks and explores strategies for

minimizing it. Data were collected from multiple sources that included

observation, company documentation, and interviews with management

and unskilled staff engaged in simple, repetitive work in the catering

department of a British university. The findings indicate that there is no

linkage between boredom and monotonous tasks, and that job rotation and

management support are the two key organizational mechanisms used

to support the work of catering personnel. The reasons for the absence of

boredom were found to be related to the workers’ job requirements, their

interest in doing their jobs, the organization ’ s strategies for alleviating

workplace boredom, and the time lag of the tasks. The implications for

human resource development ( HRD ) are discussed.

Key Words: boredom , human resource development ( HRD ) , Investors in

People ( IIP ) monotony , training

Introduction

Boredom at work, an unpleasant emotional state, has received little atten-

tion from contemporary organizational researchers (Fisher, 1998 ; Game,

2007 ; Loukidou, Loan-Clarke, & Daniels, 2009 ; Watt & Hargis, 2010 ),

although research on emotion in the workplace has a long history. Much cur-

rent emotion-related research has focused on concepts such as stress, morale,

happiness, and job satisfaction (see, e.g., Nadiri & Tanova, 2010 ; Pienaar

& Willemse, 2008 ), as these are perhaps considered more central to work

208 Tsai

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

performance than workplace boredom. However, it has been argued that the

neglect of boredom in contemporary organizational studies could hinder theo-

retical developments relating to emotion at work (Loukidou et al., 2009 ).

Research shows that boredom in the workplace is associated with vari-

ous negative consequences. In the short term, bored employees experience

inattention, sleepiness, and accidents (Cox, 1980 ; Drory, 1982 ; Fisher, 1993 ;

O ’ Hanlon, 1981 ). In the longer term, boredom at work becomes associated

with absenteeism (Dyer-Smith & Wesson, 1995 ; Kass, Vodanovich, & Callen-

der, 2001 ), staff turnover (Mann, 2007 ), low self-esteem, depression (Wiesner,

Windle, & Freeman, 2005 ), dissatisfaction with the job and the working

environment (Kass et al., 2001 ; O ’ Hanlon, 1981 ), diminished performance

efficiency, counterproductive work behavior (Bruursema, Kessler, & Spector,

2011 ), and a lack of general life satisfaction (Johansson, Aronsson, & Lind-

strom, 1978 ; R. P. Smith, 1981 ; S. Taylor, 1998 ). These consequences could

have negative impacts not only on the well-being of employees, but also the

operation of organizations. Thus, the causes of boredom and approaches to

alleviate it warrant the attention of organizational researchers.

Boredom has typically been seen as the outcome of monotonous or

repetitive tasks (Hill & Perkins, 1985 ; Loukidou et al., 2009 ; Melamed,

Benavi, Luz, & Green, 1995 ; R. P. Smith, 1981 ; Wyatt, 1929 ). For example,

O ’ Hanlon ( 1981 , p. 54) sees boredom as a “unique psychophysical state that

is somehow produced by prolonged exposure to monotonous stimulation.”

However, most of the research on boredom and jobs, which led to the devel-

opment of this perspective, was conducted in manufacturing settings using

quantitative research methods (Loukidou et al., 2009 ; O ’ Hanlon, 1981 ; R. P.

Smith, 1981 ).

Given the importance of the concept of boredom to the development of

theory about, and the management of, workplace emotion, this study seeks

to answer two research questions: (1) is workplace boredom associated with

monotonous service job tasks, and (2) what approaches can managers use to

reduce workplace boredom? Specifically, the study has the following objec-

tives:

1. To investigate whether the association between boredom and monotonous

tasks found in manufacturing settings also exists in service settings.

2. To explore how organizations alleviate workplace boredom.

Data were collected from multiple sources in a British catering organiza-

tion, through the exploratory case study approach. The catering industry was

chosen because it employs a large number of people and makes a significant

contribution to the national economy. The hospitality and catering industry

in the United Kingdom employs over three million people and is the fourth-

largest employer (British Hospitality Association [BHA], 2015 ). Operational

staff in the industry, such as catering assistants and dishwashers, are generally