Investigation of waiters' feeling of guilt as a result of customer's food waste in restaurants

Households and consumers are responsible for wasting food that occurs at the consumption stage. When the waste food literature is examined, it is seen that most of the studies focus on waste food created by households. In parallel with this, the number of studies on waste food generated in restaurants, hotels, and catering services is less than in households. Only a few of these studies have investigated the attitudes, intentions, and behaviors of waiters, who play an important role in the accommodation sector, towards waste food in restaurants. Waste food behaviors of waiters working in the accommodation sector affect food and beverage services and waste food behaviors of customers. Therefore, waiters are in an important position in the fight against waste food. Another concept related to wasting food is the feeling of guilt. Guilt is an important determinant and trigger for consumers' intention to reduce wasted food. Consumers feel guilty as a result of the waste they create in their homes and restaurants. Despite the effect of guilt on consumers and waste food, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been found on the waiters' intention to reduce food waste. For this reason, the present study explored the feelings of guilt felt by waiters due to waste food created by customers in restaurants and the themes associated with this emotion; The effects of guilt, waiter's knowledge of waste food, environmental identity, and locus of control variables on waiters' intention to reduce wasted food. The mixed research method was used in the research design consisting of two separate studies. In Study 1, the feelings of guilt felt by the waiters due to the waste of food created by the customers and the themes associated with this emotion were discovered. The data were obtained from 14 participants working as waiters in restaurants by semi-structured interview technique. According to the results of Study 1, it was revealed that waiters feel guilty about the waste of food created by customers in restaurants, and this feeling is related to customer responsibilities and behaviors, restaurant responsibility and management, waiter responsibility, and waste food knowledge, and recycling and culture themes. In Study 2, the effects of the variables of guilt, waste food knowledge, environmental identity, and locus of control on the intention to reduce wasted food were investigated based on the relationships obtained as a result of the literature review and the results of Study 1. Data were obtained from 207 people working as waiters in restaurants through an online questionnaire. The data were analyzed by factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The results show that while environmental identity, guilt, and locus of control variables positively affect waste food reduction intention, waiters' knowledge of waste food has no effect on waste food reduction intention. This study represents a further step toward understanding the guilt and waste food reduction intentions of waiters in restaurants waste food.