Food Protection Trends - May/June 2014 - 141

motivating employees to change behavior, attempting to
approach training at a supervisory level through employee
motivation may be more effective. The researchers
indicated that supervisors are vitally important in assuring
that employees are following recommended food safety
practices. In a follow-up study, Arendt et al. (1) used a
mixed methods approach to develop an instrument for
measuring retail foodservice employees' motivational
variables related to following food safety practices. Results
from the administered survey found varying influences of
motivational variables on employees' likelihood to perform
safe food handling practices, depending on demographic
differences (14). Significant differences were found among
demographic characteristics of employees by gender, age,
type of foodservice operation, and status of employment in
their mean levels of agreement to three identified dimensions
of safe food handling performance (communciation,
reward-punishment, and resources). Because supervisors are
responsible for communicating expectations, establishing a
system to recognize or discipline good or bad performance,
and allocating resources, their role clearly is critical. The
supervisor's impact on a workplace culture that fosters safe
food handling practices is being recognized in the literature
(28, 37, 48).
Emotional intelligence
The role of emotional intelligence and its effect on
motivations and ability to apply knowledge are receiving
increased attention in the literature (4, 5, 8, 16, 30). Various
definitions for the term "emotional intelligence" exist.
Behnke and Greenan (8) proposed this synthesis: "A measure
of one's ability to use acquired knowledge, abstract thinking,
and problem solving to interpret and guide personal responses to
significant internal and external situations" (p. 65).
According to Goleman (16), "Emotional intelligence refers to
the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others,
for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in
ourselves and in our relationships" (p. 17). This means being
aware of the emotional cues of others, showing sensitivity to
others' perspectives, and helping other people when they are
in need. Employers are also looking for workers who have
high competence in developing others and who have high
competence in service orientation, which is critical in the
hospitality industry.
Behnke (7) found support for the hypothesis that students
who rated "average high" in emotional-social intelligence have
more positive attitudes toward computer-based instruction
than students categorized as "low average." These findings
suggest that personal attributes will influence employees'
attitudes in the workplace. Attitudes and the motivation to
practice safe food handling could be affected by employees'
personal characteristics and attributes related to interpersonal
communication, intrapersonal communication, adaptability,
and stress management.

The top risks to safety of food prepared and served away
from home - improper temperature holding, poor personal
hygiene, and cross-contamination - cannot be avoided
by training alone. For example, lack of motivation prevents
employees from learning and improving in their jobs and
from being self-disciplined in their work habits. Technical
skills may be less important than the ability to stay motivated
and the desire to practice safe food handling behaviors.
Many risks to the safety of food are preventable if employees
have the knowledge and the resources and motivation to
practice food safety behaviors. The recognition that there
is no one type of foodservice employee and that variations
in demographic characteristics will impact how food safety
messages are received have led to the current study. The
purpose was to determine the barriers and motivational
variables that influence non-supervisory foodservice
employees' decisions to perform safe food handling
behaviors.
MATERIALS AND METHODS

A

bilingual (English and Spanish) mailed questionnaire
was developed to assess nonsupervisory foodservice
employees' perceptions of barriers and motivations
to performing critical food safety behaviors. A pilot
questionnaire was first developed from a review of the
literature, including prior work completed by the research
team (1, 14).
Data collection instrument
A four-page booklet format was used for the questionnaire,
with the cover letter included as page 1 and the return
postage paid mailing information as the last page. The
survey was bilingual, to reach reported high numbers
of Spanish-speaking foodservice workers (25, 38, 39),
with two columns used to present information in both
English and Spanish. Although relatively few responses
were received in Spanish, providing both language options
expanded the representativeness of the participating sample
to include all with functional reading and written literacy
in either language. This format was modeled after the
presentation used in the U.S. Census survey. Participants
were instructed to complete the form in the language most
comfortable to them.
The first section asked respondents to assess on a 5-point
scale (1 = Never; 5 = Always) the frequency with which
they followed each of the listed food safety practices, such as
"wash my hands." Twelve items were listed, identified from
a review of the literature and researchers' own observations
and interviews with foodservice employees (reported in
Arendt et al. (2)). Participants were asked to assess the level
of importance of these listed barriers in keeping them from
handling food safely, such as "can't find my supplies at work"
or "too busy." A 5-point Likert-type scale was used with
1 = Not Important and 5 = Very Important. Using the same

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