Leader Apology in the Employee–Organization Relationship: The Roles of Subordinate Power Distance Belief and Leader Competence

According to the organizational support theory, leaders' words and deeds are not only the products of their own will but also a reflection of organizations' standpoints. We thus focus on leader apology in the case of organizational transgressions and predict that leaders' apologetic acts are likely to influence employees' organization-oriented attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, leader apology is hypothesized to positively influence employees' perception of organizational support, which in turn, is positively associated with employees' helping and risk taking behavior. Furthermore, drawing upon the organizational support theory that delineates the discretion and value perceived in the employee-organization relationship, we further propose that employees' perceived leader competence and power distance belief serve as two contingencies that influence the relationship between leader apology and employees' perceived organizational support. In particular, this relationship is stronger when employees perceive higher leader competence or hold stronger power distance beliefs. Two multi-wave data collected from hospitality employees support these hypotheses. The findings provide a new perspective to comprehending leader apology within the employee-organization relationship wherein leaders are considered as organizational agents. This research extends the existing literature on leader apology that largely focuses on leader apology following leaders’ transgressions and leader-oriented outcomes.     

Justice and trust’s role in employees’ resilience and business’ continuity: Evidence from Egypt

Resilience is increasingly recognized as a means of reducing the effects of disasters on tourist destinations. However, there is limited understanding of the contextual factors that promote resilient attitudes and behaviors among employees of tourism and hospitality organizations, which in turn lead to business recovery and success. Using a capital-based approach, this study explores the impact of employees' resilience – as manifested by hardiness, resourcefulness and optimism– on two indicators of business continuity: perception of job insecurity and creative performance. The mediating effects of distributive justice and trust in the organization are also tested to establish how they affect this relationship. Data were gathered from 960 employees in tourism and hospitality organizations affected by terrorist attacks in Egypt. Using results obtained through structural equation modeling, we demonstrate a direct relationship between employees' resilience and business continuity, with distributive justice and trust partially functioning as mediators. The implications and limitations are discussed.     

The trickle-down effect of servant leadership on frontline employee service behaviors and performance: A multilevel study of Chinese hotels

This study tests a trickle-down effect regarding how servant leadership flows from top-to middle-level leaders, resulting in frontline employees' service-oriented behaviors and service quality. Using multiple validations, we develop and test a measure of servant leadership at various levels in the hospitality industry. Drawing on data from 325 employee–supervisor pairs of workgroups in 9 Chinese, star-level hotels, results from hierarchical linear modeling support the service profit chain theory and trickle-down model of leadership by demonstrating influence of top- and middle-level servant leadership on frontline employees. Cross-level moderation analysis suggests service climate moderates the effect on service-oriented behaviors, but in an inverse direction.     

Moderating effect of work–family conflict on the relationship between leader–member exchange and relative deprivation: Links to behavioral outcomes

This study intends to explore the moderator of work–family conflict on the relationship between leader–member exchange and relative deprivation, and simultaneously examine the impact of relative deprivation on employees' behavior (including effort behavior and service sabotage). Questionnaire survey was conducted in 14 international tourist hotels in Taipei. Of the returned sample, 379 questionnaires are effective. The result indicates that high quality leader–member exchange relationship has negative impact on employees' relative deprivation. Also, relative deprivation has significant impact on effort behavior, and service sabotage. Furthermore, work–family conflict is found to have moderating effect on the relationship between leader–member exchange and relative deprivation. This study fills the research gap in the hospitality literature regarding the effect of work–family conflict on the relationships among leader–member exchange, employees' relative deprivation, and work behaviors. It also sheds the light on work–family conflict literature by extending leader–member exchange theory to leader–employee relationship.     

Workplace deviance and human resource management relations: A case study of Turkish hotel employees

The main purpose of this study is to examine the negative associations between employees' perception of the effectiveness of performance appraisal practices and deviant workplace behavior. This study also tests the mediating effect of the forms of organizational justice in the relationship between performance appraisal practices and deviant workplace behavior. Moreover, it also investigates how line managers' performance appraisal politics may influence the relationship between perceptions of performance appraisal practices and employee deviant workplace behavior. In order to facilitate this study, the research team employed a survey design. A total of 193 service employees from different service establishments attended the forum where the study was conducted in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara. The results of this study strongly support the premise that effective performance appraisal practices influence employee deviance behavior, and especially that interactional justice is an important predictor of employee violative behavior. Moreover, the findings indicate that there is no evidence regarding the moderating effect of employees' perception of managers' appraisal politics in the negative relationship between performance appraisal effectiveness and employee deviance.     

Inconsistent organizational images of luxury hotels: Exploring employees' perceptions and dealing strategies

This paper explores employees' perceptions regarding the inconsistent images of luxury hotels. Based on individual interviews with 16 employees (front and backline staff), 4 managers, and 2 hospitality experts from Pakistan, the study found that five-star hotels' employees experienced wide inconsistencies between their organizations' external hotel image and internal employer image. This external-internal image inconsistency not only played a major role in forming employees' perceptions towards the attractiveness of their organizations as an employer, but also influenced their organizational attachment levels (e.g., intention to quit) and recommendation behaviors (e.g., referring the organization to others). The paper also explores different ways through which employees deal with these perceived inconsistencies. Three distinct employee clusters were identified, as employees adopted different strategies to deal with these inconsistencies, based on their inclination towards either or both of the external and internal image. Practical implications in terms of hotel branding and talent management are discussed.     

Green and non-green outcomes of green human resource management (GHRM) in the tourism context

Globally, organizational espousal of green and sustainable operations has been critically facilitated by green human resource management (GHRM) initiatives, especially in the tourism and hospitality sector. This research is an effort to examine the nuances of employees' responses to GHRM and contribute to this field by examining how narcissism, an individual trait and boundary condition, influences GHRM's relationship with employees' green (voluntary and task-related practices) and non-green outcomes (task performance and job satisfaction). Our hypotheses, grounded in social identity and trait activation theories, were tested with data obtained through a time-lagged two-wave survey of 219 UK-based hotel employees via the Prolific Academic platform. Analysis revealed significant associations between GHRM and all employee outcomes. Narcissism was shown to have a significant moderating effect on GHRM's associations with both green and non-green (task performance) behaviors. Our results imply important understandings for the advancement of theoretical knowledge and practical implementation of GHRM.     

Assessing the effectiveness of empowerment on service quality: A multi-level study of Chinese tourism firms

This study tests relationships among three levels of empowerment—organizational, departmental, and individual—and simultaneously their cascading effects on frontline employees' service quality. Drawing on data from 1566 employee-supervisor pairs from 123 departments in 53 Chinese hospitality and tourism enterprises, results reveal a cascading mechanism across three levels of empowerment. Organizational empowerment climate influences employees' psychological empowerment through department psychological empowerment, and department psychological empowerment influences employees' service quality through individual psychological empowerment. Cross-level moderation analysis suggests that only within a high degree of organizational empowerment climate and service behavior-based evaluation does employees' psychological empowerment have positive effects on service quality. In response to the debate on the merits of empowerment programs in organizations, this study supports the usefulness of a cascading, contingency model of empowerment, and demonstrates full delineation of how and when empowerment across three levels influence frontline employees’ service quality.     

Abusive supervision and emotional labour on a daily basis: The role of employee mindfulness

This study examined the relationships between abusive supervision, subordinates' work engagement and their emotional labour on a daily basis. Based on an experience sampling study of 95 frontline hospitality employees over 10 working days, the results revealed the complex consequences of abusive supervision on subordinates in the hospitality industry. The results showed that daily abusive supervision was positively related to employees' daily surface acting through their daily work engagement, but it was not significantly related to daily deep acting. In addition, subordinates' mindfulness moderated the relationship between daily abusive supervision and subordinates' daily work engagement. These findings reveal employees’ daily responses to abusive supervision and can help tourism and hospitality managers develop relevant training programmes and policies to reduce the negative impact of abusive supervision and thus protect employee well-being.     

Consumer aggression and frontline employees’ turnover intention: The role of job anxiety,organizational support,and obligation feeling

In the hospitality industry, frontline employees' turnover poses a challenge because it involves immense human and financial costs. This study innovates by investigating the impact of consumer aggression on frontline employees' turnover intention using conservation of resources and social exchange theories. A survey conducted with 300 frontline employees working for 15 hotels confirms that (1) their job anxiety mediates the relationship between their perceived consumer aggression and their intent to quit; (2) their perceived organizational support reduces the positive relationship between their perceived consumer aggression and their job anxiety; and (3) their felt obligation reduces the positive relationship between their job anxiety and their intent to quit. We discuss managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions.     

Managing internal service quality in hotels: Determinants and implications

While internal service quality (ISQ) preconditions organizational service quality management, the tourism and hospitality management literature largely overlooks it. This study developed and tested a comprehensive model to understand the determinants and how they influence ISQ using an exploratory sequential mixed method. In study 1, we conducted 12 focus groups involving 86 hotel employees. ISQ is determined by three primary categories of organizational and personal practice: management systems (i.e., manage process, training and compensation), social systems (i.e., collaborative culture, interdepartmental communication and servant leadership), and personal characteristics (i.e., role stress, empathetic personality and collegial relationships). In study 2, we conducted 332 pairs of employee-supervisor questionnaires and confirmed the effects of these determinants on ISQ through employee's internal service orientation and efficacy. Distinct determinants interrelate to predict employees' internal service orientation and efficacy. This study thus provides hotels with targeted measures to improve their ISQ and competitive advantages.     

Commercial hospitality in destination experiences: McDonald's and tourists' consumption of space

This paper examines the multiple roles that globalised, branded spaces of hospitality can play in tourists' experiences in destinations. It is argued that previous studies have not considered adequately how such commercial hospitality services and spaces interact with and influence tourists' experiences of places. Drawing on a netnographic analysis of online discussions of McDonald's, this study explores how tourists perceive these hospitality venues, and how they use them to engage with foreign destinations and negotiate the ‘work of tourism’. The data show how tourists (re)construct their identities through reflections on consuming McDonald's. The data also demonstrate that tourists critically evaluate discourses of authenticity and the (in)authenticity of consuming McDonald's. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for the marketing and management of McDonald's and similar branded commercial hospitality venues, the marketing and management of destinations, and it outlines avenues for further research.     

Fueling the intrapreneurial spirit: A closer look at how spiritual leadership motivates employee intrapreneurial behaviors

This study enriches the hospitality literature by testing a theoretical model on the direct and indirect (via psychological empowerment) relationships between spiritual leadership and intrapreneurial behaviors among hotels' frontline employees. The study also tests the moderating role of work centrality in these relationships. Using time-lagged data from 204 employees and 48 supervisors in 48 hotels, our results show that spiritual leadership is positively associated with frontline employees' psychological empowerment, which in turn increases intrapreneurial behaviors. We also find evidence that work centrality increases the strength of these positive relationships. Our results thus provide new insights on how spiritual leadership motivates hotels’ frontline employees to depart from customary ways of performing their jobs, towards seeking new opportunities to create value for the organization. We suggest that managers, through their vision, altruistic love and faith, can indeed inspire feelings of empowerment among frontline employees and encourage them to engage in intrapreneurial behaviors.     

Linking customer-employee exchange and employee innovative behavior

Employee innovative behaviors lay the foundation for organizational innovation and are of importance to business success, especially for service firms. Although these innovative behaviors are performed at the individual level, employees still need to have frequent exchanges with others, such as customers. As there is little research investigating customer-employee exchange (CEX) and its influence on employee innovative behavior in services, this study aims to fill this gap in a hotel context. The results of a survey with 180 respondents indicate that both the solidarity and harmonization components of CEX have positive effects on employee innovative behavior, yet the information exchange between customers and employees does not significantly influence employee innovation. Also, higher level of CEX leads to higher level of perceived social psychological climate for innovation. The mediating effect of social psychological climate in the relationship between CEX and employee innovative behavior is partially supported. The findings contribute to the understanding of the role of social exchanges in facilitating employee innovative behavior and provide implications for the management of employee innovative behavior in hospitality firms.     

Will we have the same employees in hospitality after all? The impact of COVID-19 on employees’ work attitudes and turnover intentions

A crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic affected the whole world leaving long-lasting effects on almost every aspect of human lives. The aim of this study was to test how different effects of COVID-19, expressed through job insecurity, employees' health complaints occurred during isolation, risk-taking behavior at workplace and changes in the organization, may impact work-related attitudes (job motivation and job satisfaction) and turnover intentions of the employees in hospitality industry. Based on the data collected from 624 hospitality workers from Serbia, the results indicated that job insecurity and changes in the organization were predictors of all outcomes, in a negative direction, while risk-taking behavior acted as a predictor of job satisfaction only, also in a negative direction. The significance of demographic characteristics, as control variables, showed that age and marital status had significant impact on job motivation and turnover intentions. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed.     

Work Stress Among Casino Industry Supervisors in Macao Casinos

This study explores mid-level supervisors' perceptions of their sources of work stress and ways of coping with it. It reports the results of in-depth interviews with 40 pit supervisors and managers in Macao casinos. The results reveal that role ambiguity, work overload, and a high level of customer demands and unreasonable complaints are the work stressors that are commonly experienced by casino supervisors and employees in other hospitality sectors alike. Additional work stressors experienced by the casino supervisors are also identified, such as the inability or unwillingness of subordinates to perform, surveillance by senior management, overly harsh company policies, and a punitive atmosphere. Like employees in other hospitality settings, casino supervisors are found often to use their personal resources and social networks to cope with stress. This article recommends active managerial actions as a more long-term and effective means of coping with employees' work stress. Suggestions for managerial measures to prevent and reduce stress problems are offered.     

The effect of personality traits and knowledge-sharing on employees' innovative performance: A comparative study of Egypt and Jordan

Employees' positive personality traits are one main enabler of tourism organisations to develop knowledge-sharing culture and promote innovative performance. To achieve the principle of personality-job fit, this study aims to measure the influence of employees' personality traits on their knowledge-sharing behaviour and innovative performance. It also measures the mediation of knowledge-sharing between employees' personality traits – innovative performance relationships. The study employs the quantitative method based on an e-survey to gather data from employees working in travel agencies in Egypt and Jordan. Structural equation modelling was used for testing research causal relationships. Findings revealed that positive personality traits significantly improve employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour and contribute to their innovative performance advancement. The findings of the study provide significant implications for human resources managers in tourism organisations and tourism education policymakers to improve their recruitment procedures of employees and new education entrants (future graduates) to fit tourism career jobs and marketplace duties.     

How does career future time perspective moderate in the relationship between infection anxiety with the COVID-19 and service behavior among hotel employees?

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts on the hospitality industry and its employees. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of infection anxiety with COVID-19 (IAWC) on employee motivation and work behaviors. This study proposes and examines a model predicting that IAWC has indirect effects on service and helping behaviors via intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, we expect that career future time perspective mitigates the harmful effects of IAWC on service and helping behaviors. We tested our moderated mediation model using data collected from multiple time points and multiple resources (i.e., hotel employees and their corresponding supervisors). The results show that IAWC indirectly influences service and helping behaviors via intrinsic motivation. In addition, career future time perspective moderated the effects of IAWC, such that the indirect effects of IAWC were weakened when employees' career future time perspective was high. This study extends our understanding of the impacts of IAWC on hospitality employees and the buffering effects of career future time perspective. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.     

“I have to watch my back”: Exploring Chinese hotel guests’ generalized distrust and coping behavior

The hospitality industry has been suffering from a pervasive climate of suspicion among guests who are concerned about potential hygiene or safety issues. From the perspective of protection motivation theory, this study presents a conceptual model elucidating the underlying mechanism through which generalized distrust shapes hotel guests' defensive coping behavior. Exploratory semi-structured interviews and online posts were combined to identify hotel guests' on-site coping strategies and underlying mechanisms. Then, an online questionnaire was distributed to 532 respondents, and structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed research model. Results provide empirical support for the “cognition–emotion–coping behavior” pattern in cognitive appraisal theory. This study offers valuable insight into the management of hotel guests’ generalized distrust.     

The Effect of Jay-customer Behaviors on Employee Job Stress and Job Satisfaction

Guest-contact employees are often exposed to stressful situations resulting from jay-customer behaviors. The purpose of this study is to examine how jay-customer behaviors (customer incivility and customer aggression) affect employee job stress and job satisfaction. Surveys of 210 participants working as guest-contact employees in hospitality organizations were analyzed. The results show that customer incivility leads to decreased employee job satisfaction, which is fully mediated by increased job stress. The findings of this study suggest that hospitality managers should acknowledge the negative impact of jay-customer behaviors on employees and make efforts to minimize this effect through training, procedures, and supporting systems.