Managing the locals: employee relations in South Asian restaurants

This paper examines the management of employee relations in South Asian fir ms in the UK independent restaurant sector. Key working practices pertainin g to the employment relationship are examined in a particular socio-economi c and spatial context. Acknowledging such contexts facilitates an appreciat ion of how ethnicity and employment relations interact, rather than abstrac ting culture from the material context in which it operates. Consistent wit h this analytic focus, a mixed embeddedness perspective (Kloosterman et al. 1999) is adopted which recognizes the importance of both economic and soci al aspects of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. A qualitative methodology, drawing upon 23 case histories (involving both employer and employee perspe ctives) is deployed. The indications from this research suggest that the em ployment relationship is an outcome of the fluid interaction of social, eco nomic and geographical contexts. This renders problematic both culturalist and purely economic approaches to ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Future research should carefully consider how the employment relationship is influ enced by its embeddedness within specific communities.