Extra-role service under pressure in the hospitality industry: The role of mindfulness

Extra-role service is currently the keystone that supports hotels' ability to compete. At the same time, extra-role service depends on the discretionary behavior of some employees who perform their duties in a context of stress. Our study investigates the effect of a stressor such as performance pressure on extra-role service, using employee engagement as a mediator and mindfulness level as a moderating variable. Through structural equation modeling, we analyze data from 300 frontline hospitality employees. The results show a negative effect of increases in performance pressure on employees extra-role service behavior through their engagement. We therefore suggest that performance pressure can turn into a threatening stressor in hospitality work environment. We also confirm that the employee's mindfulness level moderates this relationship, compensating for nearly the entire negative effect of this specific stressor on employee engagement. Managers will find key insights that help them to stimulate high-quality service in hospitality organizations.     

Driving employees to serve customers beyond their roles in the Vietnamese hospitality industry: The roles of paternalistic leadership and discretionary HR practices

Our research primarily seeks to assess how paternalistic leadership behaviors – authoritarianism, benevolence, and morality – influence extra-role customer service via employee work engagement as a mediator. The data for our research model were gleaned from four- or five-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. To test the hypotheses of the research model, structural equation modelling was employed. Our research findings cast light on the mediation mechanism of employee work engagement for the positive relationships between benevolence and morality components of paternalistic leadership and extra-role customer service behavior, as well as for the negative relationship between authoritarian behavior and extra-role customer service behavior. Additionally, benevolent and moral behaviors were found to attenuate this negative association between authoritarian behavior and extra-role customer service. Discretionary HR practices were proved to play the moderating role for the relationships between the three paternalistic leadership behaviors and employee work engagement in that discretionary HR practices fortified the positive link between benevolent or moral behavior and work engagement and alleviated the negative link between authoritarian behavior and work engagement.     

Examining the spillover effect of frontline employees’ work–family conflict on their affective work attitudes and customer satisfaction

This study examines the negative spillover effects of hospitality frontline employees’ work–family conflict on their affective reactions, commitment, and customer satisfaction. A field survey was conducted to obtain a dyadic data set (148 paired employee–customer responses). Our results indicate that frontline employees’ role conflict between work and family results in less positive affective reactions to the job, decreased emotional attachment to the organization, and lower levels of customer satisfaction. These findings suggest that hospitality firms need to understand that factors outside the workplace influence service excellence, thus calling for a family-friendly organizational culture.     

Does work engagement mediate the effects of challenge stressors on job outcomes? Evidence from the hotel industry

Drawing on the transactional theory of stress, a research model investigating whether challenge stressors, as manifested by work overload and job responsibility, heighten work engagement and organizationally valued job outcomes is proposed and tested. Using data gathered from frontline employees with a time lag of two weeks and their supervisors in the five-star hotels in Northern Cyprus, the relationships were assessed through structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, work engagement fully mediates the effects of challenge stressors on affective organizational commitment and job performance. Employees who experience such stressors are engaged in their work, and therefore, display positive job outcomes. Theoretical implications as well as management implications are discussed in the article.     

如何提高饭店业一线员工的服务补救绩效:模型与实证

文章应用巴顾兹(Bagozzi)的态度模型,采用结构方程建模方法,构建并验证了基于饭店业一线员工感知视角的服务补救绩效预测模型。实证结果表明:(1)一线员工对授权、培训、奖励以及对饭店进行顾客抱怨管理的感知正向影响其工作满意度;(2)顾客抱怨管理和授权不仅通过一线员工情感变量(工作满意和情感承诺)的中介作用间接正向影响服务补救绩效,还能够直接预测服务补救绩效;(3)一线员工的情感变量是解释员工培训和奖励正向影响其服务补救绩效的完全中介变量;(4)工作满意直接正向影响一线员工的情感承诺,而在工作满意和服务补救绩效之间的间接正向影响关系中,情感承诺变量起到了全部中介效应。文章最后总结了对服务补救理论和饭店业管理实践的贡献。     

The effects of job and personal resources on hotel employees’ work engagement

Our study developed and tested a research model, which predicted the impacts of job (supervisor support) and personal resources (trait competitiveness and self-efficacy) on work engagement. Respondents were full-time employed frontline employees of the five- and four-star hotels of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. We used path analysis in LISREL 8.30 for testing the study hypotheses. The results demonstrated that trait competitiveness predicted three dimensions of work engagement better than did self-efficacy. That is, trait competitiveness enhanced frontline employees’ feelings of vigor, dedication, and absorption, while self-efficacy significantly and positively influenced only absorption. Unexpectedly, supervisor support had no significant effects on three dimensions of work engagement. The results further revealed that frontline employees who had elevated levels of competitiveness and adequate supervisor support in the workplace had higher self-efficacy beliefs. Implications of the empirical findings and limitations are discussed in our study.     

Identity judgements,work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior: The mediating effects based on group engagement model

The group engagement model (Tyler & Blader, 2003) suggests that organizational identification is based on both the individual's evaluation of the status of their group as perceived by outgroups (i.e., pride) and his/her view about their status within the group (i.e., respect). However, prior research has not examined the factors which influence organizational identification, and subsequently lead employees to feel engaged and exhibit positive extra-role behaviors that benefit the organization. Using time-lagged data from both service employees and their supervisors, our findings demonstrate that both pride and respect are positively related to organizational identification, and organizational identification is positively related to work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). More importantly, organizational identification mediates the relationships between the antecedents (i.e., pride and respect) and consequences (work engagement and OCB). Overall, the study provides compelling support for the group engagement model in predicting key job attitudes and behaviors amongst service employees.     

Fostering employee-customer identification: The impact of relational job design

By integrating insights from the literature on relational job design and relational identification, we provide theoretical and empirical account of whether relational job design can foster employee-customer identification (ECID) and subsequently, enhance service performance. This research suggests that relational job characteristics likely foster service employees’ ECID by relating employees to the positive impact they have on customers as well as by leading employees to gain valuable personal resources from customer interactions. Using time-lagged data collected from 255 frontline service employees matched with 92 supervisors in 47 restaurants, we found that job impact on customers positively influenced service performance, and this influence was mediated by ECID. Results also showed that job contact with customers positively influenced service performance, and this influence was partially mediated by ECID.     

Does customer incivility undermine employees’ service performance?

This study extends the growing body of research on customer incivility by examining its impact on employees’ in-role and extra-role service performance in the hospitality industry. Using a sample of 307 employee–supervisor dyads in nine hotels in Zhuhai City, China, this research examined the impact of customer incivility along with negative affectivity and hostile attribution bias on in-role performance and extra-role performance, particularly proactive customer service performance (PCSP). The results demonstrate that, while customer incivility negatively influenced PCSP, it did not impact in-role performance. Furthermore, the effect of customer incivility on PCSP was mediated by negative affectivity. Additionally, hostile attribution bias significantly moderated the relationship between customer incivility and negative affectivity, as well as the indirect relationship between customer incivility and PCSP through negative affectivity.     

Customer mistreatment and service performance: A self-consistency perspective

The service encounter is an important social context for hospitality service providers who strive to satisfy their need for job competence by delivering excellent customer service. Customer mistreatment may be perceived as a sign of work-related goal failure by hospitality service providers. Building on the literature of goal attainment and failure in the workplace, we propose that hospitality employees, who experience customer mistreatment, undergo diminished organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), decreasing service performance. Moreover, employees’ locus of control is proposed to interact with customer mistreatment and predict service performance through the mediation of OBSE. The results of a multi-wave and multi-source survey, administered to a sample of hotel frontline employees (N = 180) and their direct supervisors (N = 38), show that customer mistreatment has a negative influence on service performance through OBSE, but only among employees with an external locus of control.     

Extra-Role Customer Service: The Roles of Leader–Member Exchange (LMX), Affective Commitment,and Psychological Empowerment

ABSTRACT

Based on the social exchange and job characteristic theories, this study advances a moderated-mediation model that tries to explain the social-psychological processes connecting the leader–member exchange (LMX) and extra-role customer service, and examined it by collecting data from employees and managers employed in tourist hotels operating in Uttarakhand, India. A hierarchical regression analysis determined that LMX was positively related to extra-role customer service where affective commitment mediated this relationship. Further, an analysis of a moderated-mediation path revealed that psychological empowerment strengthened the direct influences of LMX on affective commitment and its indirect influence on extra-role customer service. Based on these findings, important theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Leisure Involvement,Job Satisfaction,and Service Performance among Frontline Restaurant Employees

The importance of employee leisure involvement to employee service performance has been suggested but not tested in the literature. This study closes this research gap by inspecting the direct consequence of leisure involvement on service performance and leisure involvement’s indirect effect on service performance via job satisfaction for frontline service employees. This study uses a sample of 313 restaurant employees collected from Bandung, Indonesia. The proposed model is tested using variance-based SEM-PLS. The results show the importance of leisure involvement as a determinant of frontline service performance. Moreover, this study reveals that the effect of leisure involvement on service performance is partially mediated by job satisfaction. The conceptual and practical significance of these results are reviewed.     

服务认知-行为模式对一线员工服务绩效影响研究——以酒店和旅行社为例

在以往的服务管理研究中,服务绩效的影响因素很多,然而没有文献研究员工对服务的概念性界定对服务绩效的影响.基于行为识别理论,文章提出服务认知-行为模式对一线员工的服务绩效存在影响.该研究利用旅行社业和饭店业402名一线服务员工的问卷调查数据,部分验证了所提出的假设,实证结果发现:(1)对顾客理解型服务认知一行为模式具有最高的角色外服务绩效,对工作规范型服务认知-行为模式具有最低的角色外服务绩效;(2)对工作规范型服务认知-行为模式具有最低的角色内服务绩效,对顾客理解型和手段型服务认知-行为模式具有较高的角色内服务绩效.     

饭店员工心理所有权与跨界行为关系研究

一线服务员工因处于组织的边界位置而表现出服务提供、外部代表和内部影响3类跨边界行为,这些行为能够显著提高组织绩效.心理所有权是一种重要的心理状态,以往的研党证实组织心理所有权与员工角色外行为存在积极的关系.然而,跨边界行为不仅包括角色外行为,而且包括角色内行为,并且非常适合于服务组织背景,因此,研究员工组织心理所有权对跨边界行为的影响具有重要的理论和现实意义.文章通过对旅游饭店企业一线服务员工的研究发现,组织心理所有权对外部代表行为和内部影响行为有直接和间接影响,组织心理所有权对服务提供行为有间接影响.这一结论提醒旅游饭店业要培育和提高一线服务员工的组织心理所有权,促使其表现出跨边界行为进而提高组织竞争力.     

Transformational leadership and employee performance: The role of identification,engagement and proactive personality

This study investigates the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions that explain the relationship between transformational leadership and frontline employee performance. Specifically, it explores the mediating role of organizational identification and work engagement in the relationship between transformational leadership and job performance and organization-directed citizenship behaviors. Additionally, it examines whether proactive personality moderates the effect of transformational leadership on identification and engagement. Data from 323 frontline hotel employees were analyzed using partial least square regression. Results show that identification and engagement fully mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors, whereas engagement partially mediates the link between transformational leadership and job performance. Results indicate a sequential mediation effect of identification and engagement on employee performance. Finally, findings show that proactive personality strengthens the effect of leadership on identification and engagement. The study provides information for hotel managers about why and under what circumstances employees perform the way they do.     

Why is hospitality employees’ psychological capital important? The effects of psychological capital on work engagement and employee morale

This study examines work engagement as a partial mediator of the effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on employee morale in a sample of hotel employees. A survey was carried out with 312 front-line staff from 15 five-star hotels in Seoul, Korea. A one-month time-lag design (Time 1: PsyCap and work engagement; Time 2: employee morale) was used to reduce potential common method bias. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that work engagement partially mediates the effect of PsyCap on job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Specifically, front-line employees with high PsyCap are more engaged with their work and more likely to display job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. The study concludes with a discussion of its empirical findings, strengths, theoretical contributions, and practical implications. Limitations and their implications for future studies are also reviewed.     

Does job passion enhance job embeddedness? A moderated mediation model of work engagement and abusive supervision

Academic and industrial attention has been paid to the job embeddedness as an important predictor of employee actual turnover. Studies have examined the influence of job embeddedness as an antecedent, mediator, and moderator. However, there have been few investigations of antecedents of job embeddedness from the perspective of employee characteristics. Therefore, the current study bridged this research gap and investigated the associations among job passion, work engagement, abusive supervision, and job embeddedness. Data from 278 full-time hotel employees indicated that harmonious passion was not associated with job embeddedness. Moreover, obsessive passion shared a positive relationship with job embeddedness. Both harmonious and obsessive passion had an indirect effect on job embeddedness through work engagement. Abusive supervision moderated only the indirect effect of obsessive passion on job embeddedness via work engagement. A new model is proposed based on our findings to explain factors that contribute to job embeddedness.     

The double-edged sword effect of service recovery awareness of frontline employees: From a job demands-resources perspective

Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines the double-edged sword effect of service recovery awareness (SRA) on post-recovery satisfaction via frontline employees’ (FLEs) emotional responses (including emotional exhaustion and work engagement). The moderating effect of perceived psychological empowerment (PPE) was also assessed. Dyadic and matched responses from 267 five-star hotel FLEs and customers indicated that SRA is appraised as a challenging demand that is positively associated with post-recovery satisfaction through work engagement. However, SRA is also considered a hindrance demand that leads to emotional exhaustion, which is negatively related to post-recovery satisfaction. PPE amplified the impact of SRA on work engagement and buffered the impact of SRA on emotional exhaustion. The theoretical contribution, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research of this study are discussed in detail.     

Job demands–job resources (JD-R) model,work engagement,and well-being of cruise ship employees

This research aims to shed new light on peculiar on-board working conditions by adopting the widely recognized and well-established job demands–job resources theory and extending its model to the work engagement and well-being of cruise ship employees. Cross-sectional survey and partial least squares path modeling tool are used. Results confirm that job demands negatively affect cruise ship employees’ well-being. This finding is important because it demonstrates how the negative effect of job demands on work engagement is buffered by cruise ship employees’ individual strategies such as coping, recovery from work-related effort, and optimization and compensation. By contrast, job resources positively affect work engagement and well-being, and work engagement exerts a positive effect on well-being. This study successfully consolidates the literature on job demands, job resources, work engagement, and well-being to determine the complex essence of the work engagement and well-being of cruise ship employees.     

TOURISM INVOLVEMENT,WORK ENGAGEMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION AMONG FRONTLINE HOTEL EMPLOYEES

This study examined the relationship among tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction in the hotel industry. Data was gathered from 336 frontline employees of 20 international hotels in Taiwan and was analyzed via structural equation modeling. Findings show that tourism involvement is positively related to work engagement, while both tourism involvement and work engagement are positively related to job satisfaction. Work engagement was found to partially mediate the relationship between tourism involvement and job satisfaction. Implications for hotel managers, limitations and future research directions are discussed.