Group Project- Written Report on Twisted Root Burger Co.

Judit Alphonse, Dan Ho, Ryan Rekieta, Jia Wang, Anna Winnicki
4 April, 2015
OBHR 3310.001

Company Overview
Twisted Roots History: The people that made this company come into fruition were
Jason Boso and Quincy Hart. Meeting each other in culinary school, the two would soon
brainstorm concepts on how to create the most satisfying burger and a successful restaurant.
Jason and Quincy would later on do their best to raise money so they could achieve their dream
restaurant with excellent food and personable service. In the year 2005, after many attempts at
creating a good restaurant, Twisted Root began business in Deep Ellum. Several years later, the
store would gain popularity through the media such as on TV shows like Diners, Drive-Ins, and
Dives and essentially raise their clientele dramatically. From then on, Twisted Root would be
best known for their relaxed and distinct environment, always doing their best to accommodate
and help their customers through high satisfaction of food and service. Through that goal
orientation, and learning off of their failures from starting different restaurants, Twisted Root
Burger Co. became the establishment that would bring their partnership the most success and,
ultimately, stay in business.
Twisted Roots Mission: Twisted Root was founded on the basis that the food would not
be the only thing that was excellent, but also their service and atmosphere. The two latter
qualities would cater to the customer as well as the companys overall image.
Twisted Roots Organizational Structure: Within Twisted Roots internal structure, we
have the founder, CFOs, multi-unit operations figures, accountants, and etc. In regards to the
actual business establishment, the work environment consists of the manager, assistant manager,
bus boys/girls, cooks, and other associates. With all of those positions noted, while there is an
implied job hierarchy, the higher leveled positions like the managements ones still work very
closely alongside the associates, and everyone else. From the observations of this restaurant, a

facilitative style seems to be of best fit due to the fact that there is a higher follower control, yet
some management control. In terms of leadership behaviors, there is a clear demonstration of
initiating structure and consideration. This leads to a success with not only the relationship
between the management and employees, but also to the life cycle theory of leadership. Within
the work environment, there is also work specialization since cooks, bus boys/girls, and
associates are all separate from each other. Each has their own designated job and provides a
segment of the overall performance, in order to serve the customers. For the chain of command,
the manager is obviously the main person to contact; however, as stated above, the manager
works alongside, in an integrated manner, as opposed to being too divided from the general work
force. In regards to formalization, Twisted Roots tendencies are very laid back and the
behaviors of the employees are relaxed and friendly. In the end, Twisted Roots organizational
structure is a combination of, both, mechanistic and a little bit of organic since they not only
have delegated roles that are efficient and standardized, but they also provide some flexibility in
terms of their food choices and the customization factor.
Overall: In the end, Twisted Root Burger Co. is an extremely personable establishment
with its own unique culture. The food continues to provide much satisfaction to customers and,
with that said, Twisted Root has opened more locations throughout the states. Ultimately, their
focus on customer satisfaction, through food, while maintaining a lively and nice ambiance
provides the structure to be successful in the restaurant market.

Job Stress
In regards to our evaluation of the employees, there is a low to medium stress range
within the twisted root work environment. As with most food industries, there are various types
of stressors and challenges that the employees have to overcome on a daily basis. The training

program in the Twisted Root Company has incorporated various methods to assist with these
demands that are brought about by primary appraisal, in other words the significance of the
stressors that are occurring and how to handle them.
The training removes a lot of the possibility for role ambiguity because it provides
information about what is required from each position, and what is needed to be done by the
employees under different circumstances. There was an instance where the training was
mentioned to have not been up to its fullest potential, but overall the training is what establishes
each employees identity for their position. It also enlightens the employees on how to conduct
their duties in a proactive way that is beneficial for the establishment. For Twisted Root, there is
no role conflict, in regards to their position, because everyone knows what they have to do as
their duty. At the location that was visited, it was evident that by working as a team, much of the
stress occurrences were diminished. Team work is vital for a food establishment because nothing
can be fully conducted by one individual alone, and Twisted Root has done a great job by
keeping team work a top priority to reduce stress.
The food process begins at the register with the cashier, and after that moves along to the
kitchen staff to make the orders, and then to the servers who get the food to the customers by
their name cards. One of the possible challenge hindrances that occur within Twisted Root is the
work challenge stressor of time pressure. The time provided to make the designated orders for
the customers might not be fast enough for customers. It is stressful to have a pressure of making
multiple orders within a short amount of time, as well as making sure that the order is correct and
made for the appropriate customer. Especially during the lunch and dinner rush hours, the time
pressure is very high, and it puts a lot of stress of the employees to make sure everyone is being
taken care of and content with the food. In food industry, it is very crucial to make sure all the

customers are content because one person can completely ruin an entire companys image if
something goes wrong. With that, the pressure goes up on the employees to make sure they are
constantly following the rules of their designated duty, and conducting it to their best abilities.
Although Twisted Root has only one register at the front, they are able to keep their line moving
along very quickly, and have a distinguished method to make sure everyone has their order
placed and ready within a reasonable amount of time.
Twisted Root is a very popular, and unique, Burger establishment that receives many
customers during its business hours. Because of its popularity, the maximum occupancy can be a
stress on the employees because it requires them to have to tell the exceeding customers that
there is not enough room for them to eat. The Twisted Root restaurant, itself, is fairly large so it
does not come across this problem too often, but if there are too many people at one point it time,
that can cause a lot of stress for the employees and the company.
After conducting a survey throughout the Twisted Root that was visited, the results made
it clear that there are not too many non-work hindrance stressors within their establishment.
Several of the results mentioned that some of the employees could improve on the aspect of
keeping their work role separate from their family roles. By having the work and home life
intermingling, it could be difficult for employees to carry out the demands necessary of them by
their job. Negative life events, a form of non-work hindrance stressors, can be quite stressful for
employees, especially when they cause a significant change in ones life. In most food industries,
there is not a large focus on stress relief programs to assist their employees in situations like this.
That makes it more difficult for said employees to overcome these types of stressors, but in most
cases, the relationships formed among coworkers is helpful and can provide an emotion-focused
coping method. This method plus cognitive coping are the methods that seem to be the most

common among restaurant employees in regards to the situations mentioned previously. Twisted
Root has encounters of many different situations, including the ones mentioned previously, but
has incorporated an effective system that allows their employees to work together, to gain the
most out of their organization.

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction plays a very significant and distinctive role in ones life because it is
associated with normal life, and it affects our mental and physical health both directly and
indirectly. There are some essential factors that influence job satisfaction. According to our
research and interview in the fast food restaurant, Twisted Root, we found wage, relationship
with co-workers, training and learning experience, career advancement opportunities, bonus,
name recognition, work environment, meeting new people and flexible time are all the factors
that account for the level of job satisfaction. If employees are not satisfied with their job, then
productivity will reduce eventually leading to customer dissatisfaction.
Pay satisfaction:
42% of the employees answered that they are moderately paid well by twisted root. 28%
of the employees said that they are paid very well by their company. 14% of the employees
replied that they are satisfied with their pay extremely. Their basic pay for the line cook is $ 11
to $ 12 hourly depending on their experience.
Relationship with Co-workers:
According to our observation at twisted root, employees are very friendly with their co
workers and their managers. They help each other and work as a team in order to satisfy their
customers in a busy day. Even the manager who was in charge at the particular time also assisted
the other employees and made jokes with them in order to create a pleasant environment and to

help ease their work load. 85% of the employees said that their co workers are very friendly and
helpful. If employees do not have a positive affiliation with co-workers, then their job would not
give job satisfaction. At Twisted Root, employees seem to share a well interpersonal relationship
which is an important aspect for positive work environment.
Training and learning experience
According to twisted root survey, employees acquire their experience by shadowing
incumbents. New employees will get trained by experienced employees and their managers.
According to our observation, twisted root employees seem to have superior customer service
which they learned on their job. Most of the employees agreed that they were trained on how to
deal with different level of customers without making them upset and to make them come back
to their restaurant regularly. Customers happiness and fulfillment add a great deal to the
employees job satisfaction.
Career advancement opportunities
Employees of twisted root have limited career advancement opportunities in their job.
Very few of them agreed that they have opportunities to move up, but majority of the employees
said that they do not have those opportunities. Since they do not have many chances to move up
in their career, most of the employees are unsatisfied with their job in regards to career
advancement.
Meeting new people
Another reason twisted root employees are satisfied with their job is meeting different
cultural people with different background making their job interesting everyday; they get to learn
about different countries and their cultures.

Flexible time
All of the employees of twisted root excitedly agreed that they have flexible working
hours which is 11 am to 9 pm. After the working hours, they can still go out and hang out with
their friends and family which is a plus for them. Flexible hours increase the productivity by
encouraging the employees to finish their shift on time and still carry on with their personal life
which eventually will lead to a greater job satisfaction.

Job Performance
For the job performance within the Twisted Root establishment, it is observed through
the surveys that there isnt much vertical movement in terms of advancing upwards in the
restaurants hierarchy. Although this is the case, most of the employees still exhibit citizenship
behavior by helping the staff, showing courtesy towards each other, voicing to each other how
each person can help, and also perform tasks needed to maintain the clean form of the
establishment. By having the relaxed atmosphere within the work team and the environment,
there are also elements of interpersonal relationships between all of the employees. This
obviously creates a better work environment since the chances of acting counterproductively is
lowered. Through this explication, task interdependence is integrated into working at this
restaurant, especially since there is work specialization involved; furthermore, work
specialization also allows for process gain to happen. This is evident in Twisted Root since they
act with efficiency.
With the individual playing a large part in the team at Twisted Root, one can see that
there is a high follower control. Although the centralization is towards the manager, the manager
acts by facilitating and overseeing how everybody works while working with them. By doing so,
everybody has more equality in terms of who does what tasks.

To expand upon how there is work specialization, the general process of the restaurant is
for people to order their food through an associate, find a seat to sit in, get their food brought out
by the cook, have the order called by an associate, allow the customer to eat the food, and then
have the bus boy/girl clean the table. Each person within Twisted Root has a delegated role and
by having this efficient system, customers are able to receive their food quickly and reach
satisfaction to return to the business if they enjoy the food as well.

Organizational Commitment
The unique culture and friendly environment of Twisted Roots largely contributes to the
employees commitment. The commitment of an employee heavily impacts their behavior in the
organization. A committed and dedicated employee contributes to process gain and is healthy to
the organization. On the other hand, employees that are unattached and lack commitment often
contribute to process loss and will likely quit. Furthermore, these employees typically engage in
counterproductive behavior and production blocking, negatively influencing coworkers. Many
factors can affect the commitment of an individual such as pay, job growth, and work
environment.
The organizational commitment of each individual Twisted Roots employee can be
categorized into the 3 types of commitment: affective, continuance, normative. During our
observation at Twisted Roots, the workers seem to be very committed overall.
For the affective aspect of organizational commitment during work, especially at busy
times, the work can be very exhaustive when employees attempt to process orders effectively
and efficiently. In order to achieve efficiency, high task interdependence is required from each
employee to communicate effectively among each other. Because the orders were served on time
during our observation, it can be concluded that the employees have developed some task

interdependence among each other. Developing task interdependence results in high levels of
trust and bonding in each other, therefore, employees can be committed due to their strong
relationship with their coworkers.
Most employees felt very motivated at work, especially during these busy hours. The
cashier sounded very enthusiastic and was friendly to all customers. Sometimes, funny remarks
or playful jokes would be said. The servers expressed a smile when taking away the meals from
the table. Behind the counter, the cooks and chefs seem to communicate often to deliver the
order on time.
To further conclude our observation on their commitment, we conducted a survey asking
details about their relationship with their coworkers. In our survey, majority of the employees
responded positively when asked about their relationship with their co-workers. Almost all said
their co-workers were very friendly, think and act alike. Since the employees have developed a
strong sense of attachment to their co-workers and therefore, we can conclude that they are
committed. They also responded that they are very engaged into the culture of Twisted Roots in
the survey. These results show the strong emotional attachment and involvement working at
Twisted Roots, displaying high affective commitment.
The erosion model is not present at Twisted Roots due to the attachment that has
developed between most employees, therefore is less likely to have leavers. The social influence
model from what we have observed also is not present because none of the employees are likely
to leave and will not influence other co workers to leave.
For the continuance and normative aspect of commitment, according to our survey most
employees are very or somewhat determined to get a higher position, with only 1 responded
unlikely. Being determined to get a higher position usually means they are wanting to stay at the

organization. Most employees are also moderately satisfied with their pay, which can be another
incentive to continue working at Twisted Roots.
Normative commitment or sense of obligation to continue working at Twisted Roots
cannot be determined.

Organizational Culture
The culture at Twisted Root Burger Co. is extremely evident before a customer even
walks through the door. The environment of the restaurant is inviting and laid back. The
atmosphere gives off a fun and care free vibe. That feeling portrayed by the physical structure of
Twisted Root is reiterated by each of their employees. Twisted Root provides a very unique
experience and culture that customers will not soon forget.
Twisted Root has distinct observable artifacts that are shown through symbols, language,
and physical structures. The restaurant has writing on the windows that are humorous showing
the personality of the organization. Once you enter the restaurant, the walls are covered in signs,
animals, and TVs. The menu has very obscure names for each item, and they offer beer from
local breweries. This shows Twisted Roots commitment to shopping local. Instead of the
customer receiving a number for their order, the customer is given a card with iconic names from
movies and entertainment. Each employee is wearing very casual clothing that includes t shirts
and hats. The language that all employees is fun but not offensive. All of these observable
artifacts add to the intriguing culture of Twisted Root Burger Co.
Every aspect of Twisted Root follows the same views of having a care free environment,
and the espoused values of the company are no different. As stated on the website, Twisted Root
has stuck to their roots and have used a hands-on approach to keep the food great in a unique
atmosphere with tons of personality. The company thrives to make quality food and have an

inviting atmosphere that will keep customers returning. The organization believes that the unique
experience of Twisted Root is just as important to customers as the food is.
Twisted Root employees are a very unique type of individual. Each associate has bought
into the basic underlying assumptions of Twisted Root. They all are engaged in the creative and
outgoing ambiance of Twisted Root. The staff is very down to Earth, and has an inviting vibe
about them. One of the main ingrained beliefs throughout the Twisted Root organization is to
have fun and be yourself even though you are at work. As a customer, you can see that each
employee is genuine, and that they enjoy the freedom allowed at Twisted Root.
Twisted Root Burger Co. would be considered a communal culture. A very high majority
of group members believe that their co-workers are extremely friendly to one another. This high
level of friendliness illustrates high sociability within the organization. Also, the vast majority of
Twisted Root employees believe that their co-workers think and act alike resulting in high
solidarity. All of the employees have a great person-organization fit which leads to a successful
culture throughout the entire organization.
Overall, the culture on Twisted Root Burger Co. is extremely strong. The atmosphere of
the organization gives the company a distinct feel, and each employee echoes that laid back
ambiance within the company. Generally speaking, all of the associates are very similar in
personality and this likeness leads to great process gain within the company. Twisted Root has a
great recipe for burgers as well as a recipe for a unique, intriguing organizational culture. This
culture allows employees and customers to have a great time in a thriving restaurant.

Recommendations to Twisted Root

Overall, Twisted Roots business elements of culture and organizational structure prove
that this establishment is successful in satisfying the customers through both food and service.

Although this is the case, there are a few elements that could be implemented in order to improve
the current situation even more. In the Twisted Root in Richardson, Texas, there were only two
point-of-sale systems. From the observations made when visiting the restaurant, there was a big
line with a moderate to moderate-long wait time. By having another POS system, there would be
less of a wait time so they could be more efficient in satisfying the customer.
Another element that could drastically improve the business is to have a more technical
training program for new employees. As seen from one of the surveys, an anonymous employee
gave the restaurant a tip that there should be a more thorough way to teach somebody how the
POS system works, as well as how to perform the tasks given with the most efficiency. By
having a better training program most, if not all, of the employees will have a better
understanding of the skills used to optimize performance and time for the establishment.
One final element that could help is by having a live entertainment service. By noting that
the restaurant has a relaxed and entertainment based ambiance, there could be weekends that
involve performances from locals or even a karaoke night to increase the customer count. With
that said, this could also mean they would need to make a designated spot for the performance
area; however from our observations, there could be some placement of furniture that could
make this idea come to fruition.

Conclusion
In the end, Twisted Root has an efficient structure while maintaining an outgoing and
positive environment. Through these characteristics, customers are attracted to not only the good
food, but also the good service. The culture behind the art on the walls, pictures, and signs also
makes the place have a laid-back demeanor, resulting in people having casual meetings and
enjoying their stay. The employees also receive the same satisfaction and since the manager does

not act with coerciveness, the work force as a whole can work in a synergetic manner to get their
tasks done with lower stress levels. This, in turn, leads to a high level of commitment which then
also branches out to trustworthy employees with heightened skills. Ultimately, this company
proves success through its stark culture and customer satisfaction, showing that high quality
foods are not sacrificed by giving up high quality service.