The burden of esthetic labor on front-line employees in hospitality industry

Hospitality industry has recently used esthetic labor on front-line employees to provide customers with the experience of quality service. The front-line employees must strive to meet various esthetic requirements and improve their personal esthetic skills, which might create stress for employees and make them feel burdened. Previous studies have not elucidated the burden of esthetic labor and its influence from the employee's perspective. Hence, the purpose of this study is to uncover the sources of burden of esthetic labor on front-line employees in the hospitality industry. Through in-depth interview and content analysis, this study extracted the burden of esthetic labor into three dimensions: organizational esthetic requirements and training, customer service pressures, and burdens in time off work. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed.     

Nonverbal communication in hotels as a medium of experience co-creation

Although the Service-Dominant Logic literature hinted on the importance of nonverbal language for value co-creation, nonverbal communication as an experience co-creation component has not been explicitly addressed in either hospitality and tourism or general management context. Through the constructivist lens, this research focuses on kinesics, which is the most noticeable component of nonverbal communication, in hotels as a medium of experience co-creation in the guest-employee dyad. Four video-elicitation focus groups, with 12 hotel employees and 12 guests, found reciprocity (mutual recognition, insight exchange, expectation formation) and engagement (customized attention, relationship building, a sense of affinity) as two major dimensions of kinesic experience. Furthermore, employees' imperative and guests' complacent cues act as value triggers, contributing to experience co-creation between guests and employees. Based on empirical results and related literature, the framework of experience co-creation centred on kinesics is proposed; practical implications regarding frontline employees’ nonverbal communication competencies are discussed.     

Transformational leadership and service recovery performance: The mediating effect of emotional labor and the influence of culture

The current study examined the relationship between transformational leadership and service recovery performance and the mediating effect of emotional labor. To uncover potential cross-cultural differences, a sample of 217 front-line hospitality employees from the United States (Study 1) and 219 front-line hospitality employees from China (Study 2) were used. The results demonstrate transformational leadership was positively related to deep acting and negatively related to surface acting emotional labor strategies. Additionally, deep acting was positively related to service recovery performance, while surface acting was negatively related to service recovery performance. These findings were consistent between the U.S. and Chinese sample; however, the mechanisms and paths between transformational leadership and service recovery performance differed between the two samples suggesting culture influenced how transformational leadership is related to service recovery performance through deep acting (Study 1) or surface acting (Study 2) emotional labor strategies.     

Disentangling green service innovative behavior among hospitality employees: The role of customer green involvement

Regardless of the role of customers in co-creating value with organizations, how customer involvement drives employees, particularly in the hospitality industry, to engage in green service innovative endeavors has been scarcely examined. This study seeks to uncover how and when customer green involvement nurtures green service innovative behavior among hotel employees. The dataset was formed from the responses from 519 employees and 84 managers working in Vietnam-based hotels and analyzed via multilevel structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated the role of hotel employees’ green information management motivations (i.e., green information proactiveness, transparency, and formality) in mediating the positive relationship between customer green involvement and employee green service innovative behavior. Internal green marketing orientation functioned as an enhancer for the effects of customer green involvement on green information management motivations. This research contributes to the stream of green behavior research by bringing together customer green involvement and green service innovative behavior in the hospitality literature and unraveling the mechanisms behind their relationship.     

How servant leadership and self-efficacy interact to affect service quality in the hospitality industry: A polynomial regression with response surface analysis

This paper aimed to investigate how perceived servant leadership and employees' self-efficacy interact with each other to affect employees' service quality in the hospitality industry. We methodologically employed polynomial regression equation with response surface analysis. There were two studies in this paper. The data of the first study were obtained from front-line employees at a restaurant chain. A total of 673 employees provided valid data. The data of the second study were collected from front-line employees at five-star hotels. The sample consisted of 317 participants. Both studies yielded similar patterns and results. It was demonstrated that self-efficacy moderates the relationship between servant leadership and service quality, and employees' service quality was higher when both perceived level of servant leadership and self-efficacy were higher. The resulted also showed that the larger the difference between perceived level of servant leadership and self-efficacy, the higher employees' service quality.     

Measuring the experience of hospitality: Scale development and validation

This paper identifies what customers experience as hospitality and subsequently presents a novel and compact assessment scale for measuring customers’ experience of hospitality at any kind of service organization. The Experience of Hospitality Scale (EH-Scale) takes a broader perspective compared to existing scales, which predominantly measure hospitable behavior of service employees and are specifically developed for organizations in the hospitality industry. A thorough approach containing two qualitative and two quantitative studies resulted in the thirteen-item EH-Scale. The scale measures three experiential factors of hospitality: the experience of inviting (open, inviting, freedom), the experience of care (servitude, empathy and acknowledgement), and the experience of comfort (feeling at ease, relaxed and comfortable).     

Facial attractiveness and stereotypes of hotel guests: An experimental research

The purpose of this research was to determine social interaction between hospitality employees and their guests, and consequently assess how front-line employees categorize and stereotype hotel guests based on their facial attractiveness with reference to three main characteristics. Social stereotypes represent a means of information transmission in the communication process and can enable a more rapid transfer of information during the service delivery in the hospitality industry. The experimental research was conducted with 113 hospitality employees at seven hospitality organizations on the Slovenian coast. The results showed a correlation between the perception of hotel guests' facial attractiveness with their assumed characteristics that can lead to stereotyping. Hotel employees often link the guest's facial attractiveness with three common perceived characteristics – guests' propensity to spend, guests' predisposition to being demanding and guests' ‘kindness’, and tend to stereotype them on the same basis. These research findings contribute to a better understanding of the complex interactions that occur during a service encounter and show how facial attractiveness of guests plays an important role in the construction of stereotypes by the hospitality employees.     

Job standardization and service quality: The mediating role of prosocial service behaviors

Service quality has been recognized as a major topic in the tourism and hospitality industry. Although previous literature has examined the relationship between job standardization and service quality, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains a black box. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between job standardization and service quality, and to clarify the role of prosocial service behaviors. Survey data from 336 customer-contact employees and 404 customers in Taiwan indicate that job standardization positively affects role-prescribed service behavior and extra-role service behavior of customer-contact employees, in addition to the service-quality perception of their customers. Extra-role service behavior also positively affects service quality. By contrast, the effect of role-prescribed service behavior on service quality is not significant. In addition, prosocial service behaviors mediate the relationship between job standardization and service quality. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed in this study.     

Procedural justice,ethical climate and service outcomes in restaurants

The literature suggests that ethical climate may actually contribute to organizational success by enhancing employee performance. Ethical climate is considered to be highly relevant to the hospitality industry, since it enhances service-providers’ contact with customers. This study reinforces previous researches by exploring the relationships between ethical climate, service, and customer satisfaction in restaurants. We have also examined the relationship between ethical climate and the fair treatment of employees by an organization. The study was conducted in 20 restaurants, with 171 employees and 103 customers. Data were obtained from employees, customers, and “mystery shoppers”. As expected, ethical climate was found to be related to service performance which, in turn, was found to fully mediate the relationship of ethical climate with customer satisfaction. Ethical climate was also found to correlate positively with procedural justice. Our results indicate the benefits of the ethical message conveyed through consistent managerial practices in service organizations.     

Situational and personal factors influencing hospitality employee engagement in value co-creation

This study explores the situational and personal factors affecting hospitality employees’ engagement in the co-creation of value. The concept of value co-creation emerged from the general co-creation literature, and little research has assessed how situational and personal factors enhance our understanding of value creation. To explore these underlying factors, a qualitative study involving in-depth and focus group interviews was conducted at three luxury hotels in Hong Kong and Macao. The research findings indicate five situational factors and five personal factors impact cocreated value for hotel guests in the luxury sector. Insights are provided into the potential use of these factors to better manage employee engagement and the customer experience to facilitate value co-creation. The implications of the study and directions for future research are discussed.     

When and how can organizational punishment stop unethical pro-organizational behaviors in hospitality?

How can hospitality employees be prevented from engaging in unethical behavior toward customers with the intention of helping their organization (i.e., from displaying unethical pro-organizational behavior directed at customers, UPB-C)? Drawing on ethical decision-making (EDM) theory, we propose that organizational punishment for unethical behavior and service climate will jointly inhibit UPB-C via moral disengagement. We test our hypotheses across two studies. In Study 1, using a sample of 122 frontline service employees, we find that, when both organizational punishment for unethical behavior and service climate are higher, UPB-C is lower. In Study 2, we replicate the above findings using a two-wave panel data from a sample of 191 employees who had service roles in the hospitality industry, and further indicate the role of moral disengagement in explaining the interactive effects of organizational punishment and service climate on UPB-C.     

Hospitality co-creation with mobility-impaired people

This study aims to analyze and construct the hospitality value co-creation system of dining services for mobility-impaired persons (MIPs) by using a specific technological platform in small and medium restaurants (SMRs). The hospitality industry should take action to provide improved services to MIPs. The service-dominant logic, the methodology of service experience engineering, and research approaches in ethnography, content analysis, action research, and service design were applied to implement a hospitality co-creation service system. The result is shown in quality function deployment (QFD). The Friendly Restaurant app was developed by a social enterprise working with MIPs and SMR operators to improve the dining experience of MIPs in SMRs guided by QFD. This app comes from the hospitality co-creation system to offer a list of barrier-free restaurants, menu design, information on accessible facilities, and taxi services for various types of MIPs.     

Should I book another hotel? The effects of sickness and ethnicity on customer brand loyalty and positive word of mouth

Sickness presenteeism is working despite feeling sick. Although presenteeism prevails across different job sectors, few studies have focused on how it affects the hospitality sector. This study applied a quasi-experimental method to investigate how sick employees’ presence affects customers’ fear of contagion and, consequently, customer brand loyalty (i.e., return intentions) and positive word of mouth (i.e., recommendation intentions) due to perceived service failure. The effects of ethnicity on customers’ intentions were also explored. Data were collected from 581 participants. The results reveal that, when hospitality employees appear to be sick, customers have weaker recommendation and return intentions compared to when employees do not show any sickness. In addition, our results show that due to perceived ethnic dissimilarity, customers do not tend to withdraw from non-similar sick employees, not showing weaker recommendation and rebooking intentions toward tourist accommodations. This research enriches the very well stablished literature on consumer-brand relationships, sickness presenteeism and social cognition, as well as furthering practice by showing that sickness presenteeism, when correctly managed, can generate organizational advantages.     

Intangible asset value of employee satisfaction in high-contact services

In this study, we utilize the employee online review data from Glassdoor to examine whether stock market capitalizes the intangible asset value of employee satisfaction for high-contact service firms. We hypothesize that in the hospitality and tourism industry, employee satisfaction can efficiently motivate employees to deliver high-quality service and improve the employee retention, thereby leading to greater shareholder value. Our finding is consistent with this prediction that stock market investors indeed incorporate the intangible value of employee satisfaction into the valuation models. In addition, we find that the value of such intangible asset manifests in firm’s subsequent profitability, resulting in improved return on asset (ROA). We further decompose ROA into profit margin and asset turnover to explore the pathways by which employee satisfaction affects shareholder value. We find that employee satisfaction can improve both profit margin and asset turnover for high-contact service firms. Overall, our study suggests that employee satisfaction can be an important intangible asset that contributes to the service firms’ long-term value.     

When enough is enough! Alcohol servers’ refusal styles and key antecedents

While alcohol servers’ play a critical role in managing customers’ intoxication in hospitality settings, there is little research that investigates actual server refusal behaviors within hedonic interactions. This study is an in-depth exploration of the key styles alcohol servers use to refuse alcohol service and the determinants of these behaviors. Fourteen interviews conducted with service staff reveal four styles of alcohol refusal behaviors: assertive, hedonic, avoiding, and compromising refusal. Four determinants of supervisory/organizational support, efficacy in enacting behavior, perceived responsibility, and perceived customer characteristics and behaviors appear to relate to these refusal behaviors. The paper addresses marketing and policy implications for hospitality managers, and concludes with limitations and future research directions.     

Improving employee service levels through identifying sources of customer satisfaction

A major source of satisfaction for customers of hospitality operations is the service employees provide. In order for employees to be trained to perform activities which provide customer satisfaction, it is necessary for the hospitality manager to determine what service actions bring about satisfaction. The major thrust of this article is to describe an objective approach for designing an instrument that may be used to identify components of customer satisfaction. The identification of these specific measurable behaviours will be a great asset to hospitality managers in training and evaluating their employees, ultimately leading to a higher level of customer satisfaction.     

The effects of service climate and internal service quality on frontline hotel employees’ service-oriented behaviors

When employees in a service profit chain receive quality internal services, they provide quality services to external customers, but extant research does not address what connects internal and external services. This study espouses service climate as an integral part of the service profit chain by exploring its role in linking internal service management and external service performance, and the boundary conditions in which it operates. Data collected from 538 employees of 81 department managers in 24 Chinese hotels were examined using hierarchical linear modeling. Results suggest that managers’ commitment to service quality affects service climate through empowering leadership, service climate links empowering leadership and employee service-oriented behaviors, and external departments’ internal service quality strengthens the positive effect of service climate on service-oriented behaviors. This study advances the literature by integrating service climate and internal service quality into the service profit chain, helping hospitality managers understand how to foster service-oriented behaviors.     

Customer co-creation of travel services: The role of company support and customer satisfaction with the co-creation performance

The tourism industry is characterized by high-contact services in which co-creation of customers plays a major role. This paper develops a conceptual model of customer co-creation of tourism services and empirically tests this model in a travel agency context. Applying a SEM-approach, company support for customers is found to significantly affect the degree of customer co-creation. The degree of co-creation further positively affects customer satisfaction with the service company, customer loyalty, and service expenditures. A test of the moderating effect of the customers' satisfaction with their own co-creation performance on satisfaction with the service company and on service expenditures suggests that those customers who are satisfied with their co-creation activities spend more on their travel arrangements, but that they are less satisfied with the company. Important implications for co-creation theory and practice in high-contact service industries can be derived.     

Antecedents of mandatory customer participation in service encounters: An empirical study

The literature on service quality and customer loyalty has long focused on enhancing the work of service providers. This study examined “the other side of the coin” in service co-production or value co-creation in service encounters by investigating how service providers might take a proactive approach to building relationships based on mandatory customer participation (MCP). The research evaluated how such antecedents as role clarity, self-efficacy, purchase importance, and servicescape could influence MCP. Path analysis revealed that these four factors significantly influenced different dimensions of MCP; which in turn had a significant impact on customer loyalty. Using these insights, managers could develop a strategic approach to managing customer roles in the service delivery process. This study adds to the body of knowledge on service quality by demonstrating empirically the determinants and structure of MCP and their relationships with customer loyalty in service co-production processes in a hospitality setting.     

The Effect of Service Climate on Perceived Service Value and Behavioral Intentions: The Mediating Role of Service Quality

The purpose of the current study is to assess the influence of employees’ perceived service climate on customers’ perceived service value and behavioral intention. Furthermore, the paper investigates the extent to which service quality mediates the relationship among employees’ perceived service climate, customers’ perceived service value, and behavioral intention. Data were collected from convenience samples of 400 customers and 375 hotel employees. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) employees’ perceived service climate has a positive and significant influence on service quality, customers’ perceived service value, and behavioral intention and (2) service quality has a positive and significant influence on customers’ perceived service value and behavioral intention. Additionally, this study revealed that the indirect effect of employees’ perceived service climate on customers’ perceived service value and behavioral intention through service quality is more than the direct effect of employees’ perceived service climate, customers’ perceived service value, and behavioral intention.