Older Restaurant Managers 'More Risk Averse', Study Finds
UFSC study shows prolonged tenure leads managers to favour conservative actions.
Tempo previsto
16/4/2025
British humour success: Philomena Cunk satirizes intellectual frailty, even within serious journalism.
Some years ago, Dr. Cida Stier took me along to a communications training session for Federal Highway Police officers. At the end of one of the theoretical phases, she proposed a roleplay (a kind of "theater" that simulates situations). The "cast" was a police officer and a reporter, with me playing the reporter. The scenario was: "a truck driver died in a rollover, there's a traffic interruption". In front of a large group, we proceeded as follows:
—Good morning, how are you? My name is Vinícius, I'm a reporter. What's your name?
After some back and forth, he gets to the point of telling me:
—A semi-truck rolled over. But we have little information, because we're on our way. — I ask: —Is the driver okay? — To which he responds: —Isn't he dead? — Not even the officer could finish the sentence without a hearty laugh. From then on, everyone laughed because, let's just say, the actors struggled a bit with the script.
I remember this episode when I watch the English character Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan), produced by the BBC. Philomena is an ignorant, yet equipped, documentarian. As a television presenter, her dialogues with interviewees are recorded on video. Her demeanor is absolutely exemplary: voice, clothing, gestures. But despite this, she's as thick as a brick. The episodes are memorable.
In one of them, she confuses King Arthur's "Camelot" with "cum a lot". In another, she films around Michelangelo's David and wonders if, due to its absence in the sculpture, people of that time had anuses. In the following one, she talks about George Orwell's predictions in the book "1984". She emphasizes that such predictions were made in the book using "nothing but words" – laughter.
Despite the BBC being one of the most prominent journalistic brands in the world, alongside ABC in the United States, TV Globo in Brazil, Deutsche Welle in Germany, and Franceinfo in France, Philomena's existence doesn't seem to me to be merely a comedic format. It is, above all, an invitation to learn to laugh at ourselves.
Some years ago, while visiting an advertising agency in Goiânia, the publicist Renato Monteiro told me that the first thing they did when a new ad project arrived was spend days crafting the most obvious interventions. If it was a campaign for funeral insurance, they'd come up with things like, "prices are dying to be seen", "buy before it's too late", or "who's going to worry about the nails in your coffin?" At that time, the job that was supposed to go on TV was selling a health plan for small businesses, with a minimum of seven employees. After the creative process, they had Snow White sign up for the plan. A brilliant piece!
In television journalism, there are many variables, as is common in all jobs subject to enormous pressures and instabilities. I believe that one of the biggest challenges in attracting and retaining talent is the organizational ability of reporters. Someone who can wake up every day at 4:00 am, start preparing for a news program that airs at 6:00 am an hour later, and repeat this activity daily for months or years, has a great chance of occupying the anchor position. For this reason alone, an exemplary employee would have been found. On the other hand, when the order variable is too rigid, creative work can sometimes be diminished. "Journalism is half business, half show", argued journalist Gladimir Nascimento.
Without hardship, without excessive narcissism, without power plays or psychological games out of control, with a sense of humor to laugh at oneself, television journalism can have intellectual survival.
You can watch Philomena on the BBC website and in a series that has just premiered on Netflix. The hashtag #philomenacunk on Instagram has some good clips.
Leia insights sobre a interação de humanos com modelos de linguagem de IA, e sobre os ODS no Brasil. Lab Educação 2050 Ltda, que mantém este site, é signatária do Pacto Global das Nações Unidas.
Cunk inspires lighter, fresher reporting.
Self-deprecation builds rapport in journalistic practice.
UFSC study shows prolonged tenure leads managers to favour conservative actions.
A recent study published in the *Revista Turismo, Visão e Ação* (RTVA) reveals that older managers with longer tenures in restaurants tend to be more risk-averse in their corporate decisions. The research, conducted by researchers at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), analyzed data from over 2,000 restaurants in Europe between 2014 and 2016.
The study, titled "Influence of Management Team Characteristics on Risk Decision-Making: Evidence from the Restaurant Sector," utilized the Amadeus database and employed the least squares method to analyze the relationship between manager characteristics – age, tenure, gender, and team size – and the companies' level of financial leverage, used as a risk-taking indicator.
The results showed a significant negative correlation between the age and tenure of managers and their propensity for risk. Older managers and those who had held the same position for a longer period demonstrated a preference for more conservative decisions, opting to maintain the status quo rather than adopting innovative or risky strategies.
Contrary to some expectations, the study found no significant relationship between the size of the management team or female participation and risk-taking. Although previous research has suggested a possible influence of these factors, the data analyzed did not confirm this hypothesis in the specific context of the restaurant industry.
The authors suggest that the risk aversion demonstrated by more experienced managers may be related to the prioritization of stability and the reputation built throughout their careers. Familiarity with the sector and a concern to preserve accumulated gains may lead them to avoid decisions that represent potential threats to the business.
The study's findings have significant implications for restaurant management. The research suggests that the composition of the management team can directly influence the strategy and performance of companies. Restaurants with younger managers may be more willing to innovate and take risks, while those led by more experienced managers may prioritize stability and financial security.
The researchers highlight the need for further studies to deepen the understanding of the relationship between manager characteristics and decision-making in restaurants. Investigating psychological factors, such as individual risk tolerance, and analyzing data from a longer period could enrich the discussion and provide more precise insights for the sector.
Lack of updates and context erodes reader trust.
A journalistic suite is the continuation of a news story in new articles that update previous ones. Something like: "Two people were injured in an accident"; then, "Men injured in accident undergo surgery"; further, "Men injured in accident discharged from hospital"; and finally, "Company responsible for accident involving injuries fined." All these sensational headlines relate to the same original event.
Not every type of news warrants a continuation. Some events and accomplishments have the momentum for a single appearance. However, to appear once or several times in the newspaper, the "thing" must truly be news, which basically means it's not advertising or propaganda – but that's a topic for another time.
In terms of format, a suite is no different from a new news story. After all, a continuation only exists when a new fact is revealed. But it's in style, from what I've observed, that the "marmita das suítes azedou" – meaning why they've lost momentum in recent years. ("Marmita das suítes azedou" is an idiom meaning roughly that the suites have gone stale or lost their appeal).
Let's take a police investigation as an example. Journalism of both good and poor quality is interested in criminal stories. However, in both types of quality, a flavor of vice remains, perhaps originating from the pleasure of "scooping" (when a journalist is the first to report something). It's a haste that hinders more than it helps: not infrequently, versions are presented that collaborate with a story one wants to tell, which may have nothing to do with what actually happened.
In the case of Armed man threatens Black youth in São Paulo, and police officer refuses to act because she's 'off-duty'; watch video (sense-based translation), for example. This is a story that quickly captured the attention of journalists and the public because a video proves not only the omission of a police officer but also her aggression against a young man. Here, whether the police officer was right or wrong is not under discussion. At the same time, due to the lack of suites, the broader context of the three-minute video was missing.
A story told because of its intriguing nature can yield minutes of viewership and an increase in website visitors. However, without continuity, it's shooting oneself in the foot. In 2023, the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report identified that Brazilians' trust in journalism is 43%, a decrease of 19 percentage points since 2015. Statistically, the downward trend may reach 41% in 2024. In this scenario, all resources of intelligence and integrity are welcome to improve these numbers.
Suites are an opportunity to assure the public that editorial choices represent, even if against the majority view, the vehicle's commitment to a story told from beginning to end, with all its nuances. For this, the editorial line as a whole, and even more so the reporters and editors, must approach investigative activity with the detachment of recounting things as they are, and not as they should be.
