Can innovative behavior be led by management? A study from the lodging business

This study examined the effects of hotel management leadership on employee innovative behavior in Chinese hotel organizations. Using a dyadic sample of 164 hotel supervisors and 603 service employees at 23 four-star and five-star hotels in 11 Chinese cities, we investigated whether organizational commitment mediated the effects of leadership on employee innovative behavior. We also examined how organizational tenure moderated leadership and innovative behavior through organizational commitment. Findings from our moderated-mediation model revealed that organizational commitment mediated the relationship between leadership and innovative behavior. Similarly, organizational tenure moderated the relationship between leadership and organizational commitment: there was a stronger relationship for long-tenured employees and a weaker relationship for short-tenured employees. However, the effect of higher leadership on organizational commitment was stronger for short-tenured employees than long-tenured employees. Our results spotlight the importance of fostering organizational commitment, which directly affects innovative behavior and through which supervisors can influence individual innovative behavior.     

Being ignored at work: Understanding how and when spiritual leadership curbs workplace ostracism in the hospitality industry

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the present study theorizes that spiritual leadership is negatively related to workplace ostracism, both directly and indirectly via job social support and that employees’ justice orientation moderates the negative relationship between spiritual leadership and workplace ostracism. Based on time-lagged (three waves, two months apart) survey data collected from 252 hospitality employees, our findings reveal that spiritual leadership is negatively associated with workplace ostracism, both directly and indirectly via job social support. We also find that justice orientation strengthens the negative relationship between spiritual leadership and workplace ostracism. These findings not only highlight core theoretical contributions towards the existing literature on spiritual leadership, job social support, justice orientation, and workplace ostracism but also offer useful practical implications for hotel managers concerned about the repercussions of workplace ostracism for employees’ and organizations’ outcomes.     

The importance of human-related factors on service innovation and performance

Firm size, collaboration, foreign ownership and the level of formal training for employees are just some of the key inputs considered to be important in the amount of Service innovation in Tourism firms. However work has called for a greater empirical understanding on service innovation in Tourism and deeper consideration of employment focused practices as front line employees are crucial to innovation. The relationship customers have with service providers is a key determinate of satisfaction and as such the aim of this research is to unpick further the human-related factors associated with this area of study. Data for this research paper were gathered from 201 tourism service firms located throughout Japan. Whilst the results indicate that committed front-line employees and leadership are found to be the primary antecedents of service innovation, knowledge management and instilling creativity through the firm are also key. Our results suggestion that organizations can leverage the benefits associated with human-related factors to enhance service innovation behaviours and increase business performance.     

Can newcomers perform better at hotels? Examining the roles of transformational leadership,supervisor-triggered positive affect,and perceived supervisor support

Tourism literature has presented the effects of leadership style on staff efficiency yet few have examined the causal relationship between leadership style and newcomer outcomes at the hotel workplace context. This study examined the underlying mechanism regarding how transformational leadership can facilitate hotel newcomers to exhibit better performance and retention. Using the structural equation model, this study tested research hypotheses using valid data collected from 234 hotel newcomers with their supervisors from 63 tourist hotels rated above four-star in Taiwan. Based on emotion in feedback system theory, this study noted that hotel newcomers displayed higher supervisor-triggered positive affect due to the transformational leadership of their supervisors. In turn, this led to newcomers' high performance and motivation to continue working. Adapting social exchange theory, this study found that transformational leadership has led to the development of a higher perceived supervisor support, which facilitated better performance among newcomers at hotel organizations.     

Pygmalion leadership: Theory and application to the hotel industry

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the role of Pygmalion leadership and the influences of employees’ trust in a leader, trust in an organization, and job engagement on task performance in the hotel industry. Through examining Pygmalion leadership, trust, and engagement in the literature, this research establishes and tests a model to identify the interrelation among four dimensions of Pygmalion leadership (e.g., climate, output, input, and feedback), trust in a leader, trust in an organization, job engagement, and task performance. Using data collected from hotel employees, this study finds that climate, output, and feedback are critical for nurturing two dimensions of trust that enhance job engagement and task performance.     

An investigation of the relationships between compensation practices and firm performance in the US hotel industry

Drawing on a sample of 1223 US hotels, this paper examines the relationships between compensation (direct and indirect) practices in hotel organizations and their performance. The results show that in the case of management employees, direct compensation fully mediated the relationship between indirect compensation and hotel performance. In the case of non-management employees, however, such relationship was only partially mediated by direct compensation. It is therefore important for hotel industry HR executives to pay greater attention to the nature and level of benefits being offered to non-management employees. For management employees, on the other hand, it is more important to attend to the level of direct compensation in order to ensure higher levels of organizational performance.     

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.     

Voice behavior and performance ratings: The role of political skill

Making changes work in organizations requires that employees voice their suggestions. However, previous research has found inconsistent results regarding the relationship between voice and performance ratings. Using a sample of employees from a hotel, this study confirms the negative perspective of the relationship. In further exploring the role of political skill between such employees, it is found that this skill not only has a strong effect on performance ratings but also moderates the relationship between voice and performance ratings. Finally, the implications and limitations of the findings as well as some methodological issues are discussed and elaborated.     

Empowerment in hospitality organizations: Customer orientation and organizational support

Although empowering employees has often been prescribed as an efficient strategy for hospitality organizations, the strategy alone cannot ensure success. Individual and organizational factors should be considered to increase employees’ perception of empowerment. This study examines the impact of employees’ customer orientation and organizational factors on the employee empowerment perceptions. Our findings, based on a survey of 203 guest contact employees, suggest that organizations should hire customer oriented people, guide them with service training, provide a reward system, and facilitate service standards communication in order to increase perceived empowerment. Implications of these findings for hospitality service managers are discussed.     

Hotels in contexts of uncertainty: Measuring organisational resilience

The tourism industry faces multiple changes (economic crises, climate change, technology innovation…). Because of this vulnerability, as evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the study of hotel resilience is a key issue for the survival and competitiveness of organisations and destinations. Therefore, this paper proposes a holistic model to measure organisational resilience. To that end, it aims to analyse the determinants of organisational resilience, i.e. predictors of resilience (strategy and change), and to assess how they contribute to hotel resilience and performance. Firstly, the hotel context in the Canary Islands is examined to identify the level of impact, frequency and predictability of each type of change. Secondly, scales development and validation were conducted. Finally, the proposed model is validated. Findings confirm that the strategy and change dimensions have a considerable effect on hotel resilience, which positively influences hotel performance. Discussion provides hotel managers with guidelines to improve organisational resilience and performance.     

Why does empowering leadership occur and matter? A multilevel study of Chinese hotels

To address the question of why empowering leadership occurs and matters, this study develops an integrated model including both antecedents and consequences of empowering leadership in hospitality organizations. Drawing on data from 558 employees and 86 department managers in 24 Chinese hotels, results of hierarchical linear modeling support person–situation interactionist theory by suggesting that top-level empowering leadership and middle-level leaders’ self-efficacy have main and interaction effects on middle-level empowering leadership. Main and mediation effect results support service profit chain theory and motivational and exchange-based models by demonstrating that middle-level empowering leadership has positive effects on employees’ service-oriented behaviors directly and indirectly, and employees’ psychological ownership mediates these indirect effects. This study is among the first to explore antecedents of empowering leadership from both personal and contextual perspectives, and mediation by psychological ownership in the relationship between empowering leadership and employee service-oriented behaviors.     

Fostering absorptive capacity and facilitating innovation in hospitality organizations through empowering leadership

Empowering leadership facilitates a high-quality exchange of knowledge among employees. Although existing research highlights important contributions of empowering leadership at an employee level, there is little understanding of organizational mechanisms that benefit from this type of direction. Specifically, this study examined the connection of empowering leadership to the abilities of hospitality organizations to acquire and apply knowledge, namely absorptive capacity. Also, the relationships between absorptive capacity and multidimensional organizational innovation have been scarcely investigated. To bridge the research gap, this study used a time-lagged data collection method and examined a proposed structural model using the R Lavaan package. The results revealed empowering leadership had a positive relationship with potential and realized absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity had a positive relationship with the product, process, and administrative innovation. Also, empowering leadership was indirectly associated with innovation through potential and realized absorptive capacity. Accordingly, contributions and implications of this study were discussed.     

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.     

Anxiety and gratitude toward the organization: Relationships with error management culture and service recovery performance

According to affective events theory (AET), organizational contexts can produce “affective events” that shape individuals’ emotional experiences, subsequently influencing those individuals’ work behaviors. This study hypothesized that every time an error occurs in an error management culture, it is an affective event that can stimulate employees’ gratitude and reduce their anxiety toward their respective organizations. Gratitude and anxiety are positively and negatively associated with employees’ service recovery performance, respectively. Drawing on three waves of data collected from 218 hotel employees, this study found that error management culture was positively associated with gratitude and negatively associated with anxiety. Consequently, gratitude and anxiety influenced employees’ service recovery performance, as rated by the employees’ supervisors. These findings suggest that error management culture can influence employees’ service recovery performance through the culture’s impact on gratitude and anxiety.     

When diversity leads to divided teams: A multi-level moderated mediation model of team faultlines and employee engagement

Team faultlines are hypothetical dividing lines that split a team into two or more subgroups based on individual (diversity) attributes, which negatively influence team process and outcomes. Linking with diversity literature and building on social identity and optimal distinctiveness theories, our study examined a multilevel moderated mediation model on whether, how, and when team faultlines would affect hotel frontline employees’ work engagement using data from 337 Chinese hotel employees nested in 102 work groups, collected at multiple times. The results indicated that team faultlines negatively influenced hotel frontline employees’ work engagement, and that individual perceived psychological safety played a mediating role. Inclusive leadership moderated the indirect relationship between team faultlines and employees’ work engagement via psychological safety, thus providing a more optimistic view that measures can indeed be taken to mitigate the negative impacts of team faultlines.     

人力资本、社会资本及心理资本对酒店员工的协同作用

酒店是劳动密集型的工作场所,员工不仅需要一定的人力资本,而且更需要社会资本与心理资本,研究这3种资本对酒店员工绩效与组织承诺的协同作用具有理论与现实意义。文章通过实地调研,运用逐步回归方法实证探讨这一问题,研究结果表明：酒店员工的人力资本、社会资本和心理资本都与员工绩效、组织承诺显著相关,且心理资本与社会资本、人力资本能对员工绩效、组织承诺产生协同作用。因此,酒店应该重视员工的社会资本与心理资本,并协同开发这3种资本,以便提高员工绩效,减少流失率。     

Leadership Competencies for Hotel General Managers: The Differences in Age,Education, and Hotel Characteristics

This study was designed to explore the leadership competencies necessary for general managers (GM) in Thailand hotels. The exploratory factor analysis extracted six leadership competency components: leadership, motivational/interpersonal skills, strategic orientation, planning and implementation, team building and ethics, communication skills, flexibility, and concern for the community. The results showed that team building and ethics, leadership, and communication skills are the most important factors for the GMs. In contrast, flexibility and strategic orientation were the least important competencies for them. There were significant differences between leadership competency factors and GMs’ age, education, hotel stars, and hotel locations in diverse aspects.     

An expectancy theory model for hotel employee motivation

The purpose of this study is to apply expectancy theory to employee motivation in the hotel setting and confirm the validity of expectancy theory. The proposed expectancy theory model for motivation was tested using data from 289 hotel employees. The results show that a modified expectancy theory with five components (expectancy, extrinsic instrumentality, intrinsic instrumentality, extrinsic valence, and intrinsic valence) best explains the process of motivating hotel employees. This study also indicates that intrinsic motivation factors are more influential than extrinsic factors for hotel employees, suggesting that hotel managers need to focus more on intrinsic factors to better motivate employees.     

Enhancing business performance of hotels: The role of innovation and customer orientation

Innovation management and customer orientation have been widely recognized as key factors in enhancing the business performance of hotels. Our research investigates the interplay between customer orientation, innovation, and business performance in the Alpine hospitality industry. The study contributes to current innovation research by jointly investigating hotel innovativeness and innovation behavior as two distinct dimensions of the innovation concept. Analyzing data from 203 hotel managers, this study shows that the effect of hotels’ customer orientation exceeds the effects of innovativeness and innovation behavior on financial and non financial business performance. Mediation analysis shows that innovation behavior partially mediates the effect of customer orientation on business performance. The results of the study provide hotel management with relevant insights into the customer orientation innovation performance chain.     

Feeling empowered and doing good? A psychological mechanism of empowerment,self-esteem,perceived trust,and OCBs

Building on agency theory and signaling theory, this study investigated the psychological mechanism of how empowerment impacts hotel frontline employees' self-esteem, perceived trust, and OCBs performed toward both internal and external customers. Using a longitudinal research design with data collected via three waves, the results supported that three out of four dimensions of empowerment had significant and positive influence on employees' self-esteem and perceived trust, both of which are significant predictors for three types of OCBs. The study makes important contributions to literature and suggests that hotel employees feeling empowered can enhance their overall wellness while contributing to their OCB performances. Thus, empowerment should be properly used as a strategy to facilitate employees’ contextual performance.