Interactions waiter/customer in Santiago de Chile: expectations of obtaining and normalization tips

Abstract

This article describes the dynamics of tipping and its normativization regarding the waiter/costumer relationship in Chile´s capital city. This research is based in two premises (i) the current normative regulations of the tips, considering the contingency of its delivery and (ii) empirical research that reveals its tangential and individualistic behavior. Methodologically, this study is based on ethnomethodologically systemic principles, with 4 participant observations and 16 in-depth interviews to waiters and costumers. Results present the motivational characteristics of the dynamic -Why is tip given? -
Cognitive characteristics – How tipping is encouraged? - and normativization characteristics –How to understand its constant delivery? -. Findings include the communicative properties of money and how it can help economic communications standardization and expansion, adding new perspectives for money distribution studies. Finally, its limitations include the need for new research that focuses on historical and semantical perspectives explaining tips’
normative route and how these paths may explain and/or deny this research’s conclusions regarding the interactive nature of money.