Expatriate Domination and Legitimation over Local Restaurant Workers: Structuration of Worker-Group Communication at Crystal Jade Restaurant

Abstract

This study examines expatriate domination and legitimation over local workers within the structuration of worker-group communication at Crystal Jade Restaurant. It aims to explain how the structures of signification, domination, and legitimation operate in workplace relations and how local workers respond to those relations. The study employed a qualitative case-study approach. Data were collected through interviews and observations involving four local workers. The findings indicate that agents' sociocultural backgrounds, Indonesian labor regulations, company rules, and occupational positions shape structuration practices in the restaurant. Verbal communication plays an important role in reproducing structures of signification, domination, and legitimation between expatriate and local workers.