Denny's Restaurant: An Organizational Behavior View
Denny's Restaurant Organizational Behavior: An Introduction
Denny's Restaurant Corporation is one of the largest full-service family restaurant chains in the United States. And it operates over 2,500 restaurants around the world. Denny's is known for its 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year operations, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert around the clock.
During the early 1990s, Denny's was involved in a series of discrimination lawsuits involving several cases of servers denying or providing inferior service to minorities, especially African American customers (Adamson, 2000). According to newspaper reports the following are some of the most notable incidents involving racial discrimination at Denny's:
1. In San Jose, California, several black teenagers were refused service unless they agreed to pay in advance. This was the first recorded incident of such events (Labaton, 1994).
2. Then, Six Asian-American students of Syracuse University visited a local Denny’s restaurant late at night. They waited over 30 minutes as their white patrons were regularly served, seated, and offered more helpings. They began to complain to management and to their server regarding the situation. They were then forced to leave the establishment by two security guards (called upon by Denny’s management). Then, according to the students, a group of white men came out of Denny's and attacked the group, shouting racial epithets. Several of the students were beaten. (“Denny's Franchise Faces Suit Over Discriminatory Action,” 1997)
3. Six African-American Secret Service agents visited a Denny’s restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland. They were forced to wait an hour for service while their white companions were seated immediately upon entering (Guillermo, 1997).
4. One African-American Denny’s customer was told that he and his friends had to pay up front at the counter upon ordering their...
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