African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (Aug 2019)
Effect of a waitresses’s head scarf (Hijab) on tipping behavior in restaurants.
Abstract
The main aim of this hypothetical study was to clarify the impact of the head scarf (Hijab) of a Muslim waitress on tipping behavior in restaurants and the degree of acceptance the waitress gained based on her image when she is wearing the headscarf (Hijab) or when she is not. also The study also explored the impact of gender, job title and age variables relating to women. The study was conducted on a sample of the staff and members of faculty at Yarmouk University in northern Jordan, and the sample comprised 826 people who responded to an online survey. The study concluded that there is a clear influence of the head scarf (Hijab) on tips where the waitress with a head scarf (hijab) tended to receive greater tips than a waitress without one on. Members of the study sample were more accepting to the image of the head scarfed waitress (with hijab). The study also showed that male members of the teaching staff and the older age groups paid more to the head scarfed waitress (with hijab) and they showed more acceptance to the image of the waitress with hijab, thus showing reasonable acceptable cultural bias. The study recommended that females in Jordanian society need to know that their head scarves will not hinder their work in the restaurant sector and that they will likely be more acceptable and will probably gain a larger share of tips, due to the fact that the Jordanian society have shown attention to the waitress with head scarf (hijab) at the expense of the one without a hijab. The study recommends the necessity for conducting more studies on the Arab environment to investigate other behaviors and variables that have other influences on tips and for expanding the scope of the study.
