Abstract

The management within fast food industry has the ability to make their employees’ jobs equal, either enjoyable and rewarding or miserable and boring. Employees are the striking force of an organization, and without them, the organization cannot not function. Therefore, giving employees some forms of autonomy and offering them challenging work can enhance their levels of motivation and satisfaction. Conversely, workers can portray a good mood, emotion and morale if there is positive feedback, good communication and supervision. A case study approach was employed, since the study covered only the fast food industry. Semi-structured interview was utilised to obtain information from senior and store managers, while closed-ended questionnaires were distributed to the rest of the staff members. This research focused on fast food workers that have at least six (6) months of experience to enable the researcher to obtain a valid result. This paper offers managements at fast food outlets in Cape Town insight into how to deal with the psychological problems that (their) employees face, and to prevent potential dangers that these problems are associated with in terms of workers.

Key words: Stress, emotions, mood, anxiety, depression, morale.