Can proactivity translate to creativity? Examinations at individual and team levels

Building on Trait Activation Theory, this study explored whether, how, and why proactive personality and inclusive leaders can foster creativity at both individual and team levels. Using multi-wave data collected from hotel frontline employees and their supervisors, the study first found that at individual level, proactive personality could influence creativity via psychological safety, with inclusive leadership moderated the indirect relationship. The study further tested at team level, using lab experiment with hospitality majored students, the relationship between proactivity and creativity. The findings at the team level suggested that teams with highly proactive members exhibited higher levels of creativity than teams without highly proactive members. This research revealed the psychological mechanism of how proactivity contributes to individual creativity, and teams can benefit from having proactive members.     

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.     

High-performance work practices and hotel employee performance: The mediation of work engagement

This study proposes and tests a research model that investigates whether work engagement functions as a mediator of the effects of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) on job performance and extra-role customer service. These relationships were assessed through LISREL 8.30 using structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were obtained from full-time frontline hotel employees and their managers in the Poiana Brasov region in Romania. The results suggest that work engagement acts as a full mediator of the effects of HPWPs on job performance and extra-role customer service. Specifically, HPWPs, as manifested by frontline employees’ appraisal of training, empowerment, and rewards, enhance work engagement. Such HPWPs in turn trigger job performance and extra-role customer service. Implications of the results are discussed and avenues for future research are offered.     

Generation effects on work engagement among U.S. hotel employees

Drawing upon generational differences in work values and attitudes, this article examines work engagement of three generational cohorts using survey data collected from 677 customer contact employees in the hotel industry. Results of ANOVA and a series of moderated regression analyses indicate that levels of work engagement significantly differ depending on the generational membership of the employees. The effects of work engagement on turnover intention were significantly moderated by generational differences. Millennials were found to be a more distinct cohort from Gen Xers and Baby Boomers in terms of their level of work engagement as well as the relationship between work engagement and turnover intention.     

Drivers of hotel employee’s voice behavior: A moderated mediation model

This study developed and tested a moderated mediation model for examining the relationships among person-organization fit (P-O fit), employee voice, employees’ perceived nature of the work and employees’ perceived functional quality of their services. Using 265 frontline employees from several 3 star hotels in Taiwan, the analytical results show that P-O fit is positively related to employee voice, and that employees’ perceived nature of the work mediates the positive relationship between these two variables. The analytical results also show that employees’ perceived functional quality of their services moderates the direct effect of P-O fit on employees’ perceived nature of the work, as well as the indirect effect of P-O fit on employee voice via employees’ perceived nature of the work. Theoretical and practical implications for the hospitality literature and hotel practitioners are discussed herein.     

The bright side of work-related deviant behavior for hotel employees themselves: Impacts on recovery level and work engagement

This study examines the immediate positive benefits of work-related deviant behavior on hotel employees’ recovery level and work engagement leveraging conservation of resources (COR) theory as an overarching framework. Using a two-wave daily diary approach, data from 74 hotel employees over 10 consecutive workdays were collected to examine potential immediate benign effects of work-related deviant behavior and whether moral identity can intensify or mitigate the positive consequences of this behavior. Findings suggest that work-related deviant behavior exerts an immediate positive influence on recovery level. Moreover, conducting work-related deviant behavior has a positive indirect effect on work engagement via recovery level. Additionally, the observed effects are moderated by moral identity, such that these effects become stronger among employees with low (vs. high) moral identity. We further interviewed 17 hotel employees to supplement our quantitative results. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

The impacts of leader–member guanxi and its differentiation on hotel employees moderated by Confucian values

This study examines the impacts on hotel employees in China of leader–member guanxi (LMG), an Indigenous concept of the relationship between employees and their supervisor, and LMG differentiation (LMGD), the variance in LMG quality within a work team. Furthermore, a set of Confucian values is used as a cross-level moderator to further explain the effects of LMG and LMGD on employees’ work outcomes at both individual and group levels. Based on social cognitive learning theory and Confucian philosophy, research hypotheses were developed and tested using a sample of 483 employees and 75 of their supervisors from 14 Chinese hotels. The findings show that LMG and LMGD have unique effects on employees’ work outcomes at both individual and group levels, and that Confucian values moderated the impacts of LMG and LMGD. The implications are discussed in terms of unique perspectives towards employees of Eastern background for hospitality researchers and practitioners alike.     

Discrimination of hotel employees: The role of heteronormativity and political exclusion

This study explores customers’ service evaluations based on the service provided by a hotel frontline employee with different sexualities, manipulated as effeminate or masculine. Study participants were randomly assigned to respond to a video with either an effeminate or masculine hotel employee that mimics a hotel check-in experience and after are asked to evaluate check-in service. The results suggest that participants who hold stronger heteronormative beliefs are more likely to discriminate against effeminate hotel employees when evaluating the service they provided. This effect persists for the social conservatism of the participants. The study also identified a joint effect of social conservatism and political exclusion. Without tapping into sexual orientation, this study contributes to the hospitality literature by introducing sexuality and heteronormativity and adds more content to queer studies. It also suggests the need for more protection policies, management awareness, and training regarding hotel frontline employees from a diversity management perspective.     

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.     

The impact of the challenge and hindrance stress on hotel employees interpersonal citizenship behaviors: Psychological capital as a moderator

This study investigates the relationships between challenge and hindrance stressors and hotel employees’ interpersonal citizenship behaviors (ICB). The study also tests the moderating role of hotel employees’ psychological capital (PsyCap) on the aforementioned relationships. Data were collected from 213 U.S. hotel frontline employees. The results showed that both challenge and hindrance stress had a negative relationship with ICB. PsyCap was found to moderate both relationships. Implications for hospitality researchers and industry practitioners are discussed along with the limitations and suggested avenues for future research.     

How virtual reality moderates daily negative mood spillover among hotel frontline employees: A within-person field experiment

This study explores how virtual reality (VR) interventions mitigate daily negative mood spillover among hotel frontline employees through a daily dairy study. A within-subject field experiment was conducted to collect data from 87 hotel employees over ten consecutive workdays (846 daily responses). The multilevel analysis supports daily negative mood spillover by revealing positive relationships between negative moods before work and midday negative moods, and between midday negative moods and turnover intentions. Exposure to virtual natural scenes alleviates these daily positive relationships. Employees with high (vs. low) levels of trait mindfulness are less likely to be influenced by their negative moods before work when exposed to the VR intervention. This study advances our knowledge by integrating spillover theory, stress recovery theory, and mindfulness through a multilevel framework of employees’ daily emotional fluctuations moderated by VR interventions. The study findings provide hotel professionals with meaningful information regarding workplace stress management.     

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.     

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.     

When my pay is lower than my expatriate colleagues: Where do the Hospitality Managers go from here?

Evidence suggests that the failure of expatriate managers has a great impact on MNCs in the hospitality industry. While this mainly stems from poor interrelationships with local subordinates, little is known about ways to ameliorate the detrimental effect. Given this, we examined the moderating roles of trust on compensation gap-work outcomes relationships. The Multilevel approach was used on a sample of 286 local team members and 32 expatriate team leaders from hotel companies in China. Results show that compensation gap between locals and expatriates relates negatively to local employee work outcomes. The negative compensation gap–work outcome relationship is moderated by trust. Affective trust significantly reduces the negative effect of compensation gap on employees’ satisfaction with expatriate managers and altruism towards them while cognitive trust minimizes the effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. We suggest an increase in trust dimensions to reduce perceived injustice in hospitality international management.     

Stay away from fickle supervisor! Supervisors’ behavioral fluctuation diminishing the effect of job embeddedness on employees’ service behavior

This study examined how hotel employees’ job embeddedness influences their in-role and extra-role service behaviors, and under what boundary conditions this influence can be magnified based on the psychological ownership and information-processing theories. Using longitudinal data from a matched sample of 163 hotel employees and their supervisors in China, the moderated mediation analysis revealed that affective commitment mediated the effect of job embeddedness on in-role and extra-role service behaviors, while a supervisr’s behavioral fluctuations moderated the mediation of affective commitment between job embeddedness and in-role and extra-role service behaviors; this mediation effect was stronger for employees with a supervisor exhibiting stable behaviors. These findings provide theoretical and managerial implications for tourism researchers and practitioners.     

Hospitality diversity management and job satisfaction: The mediating role of organizational commitment across individual differences

The present study examines the effects of diversity management on hospitality employees’ organizational commitment and their job satisfaction taking into account individual differences. A representative sample of hotel workers were surveyed in the Canary Island, one of the main tourist destinations in the world, which receives over fifteen million tourists a year. Using moderated mediation analyses, the study confirms our hypothesis that employees’ perceptions of diversity management have a positive and significant direct effect on job satisfaction. In addition, an indirect effect through employees’ organizational commitment was found. Results support the moderating role of age, but not of ethnic origin or gender on the proposed mediation. From a managerial perspective, hoteliers should be encouraged to consider diversity management when they plan their human resource policies due to its positive effects on employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment.     

Improving frontline service employees' innovative behavior using conflict management in the hospitality industry: The mediating role of engagement

Conflict within an organization is inescapable. However when frontline hotel employees can overcome conflicts their levels of engagement can increase and innovative behavior may emerge. The purpose of this study was to verify that the conflict management, as perceived by frontline employees, significantly affects their levels of engagement and innovative behavior. The results support this notion. Further, in the sample of 383, those employees expressing a high level of engagement were more likely to engage in innovative behavior. Also, employee engagement fully mediated the relationship between conflict management climate and innovative behavior. These findings have important implications for managing conflict management in the hospitality industry. Finally, limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

The relationship between purpose of performance appraisal and psychological contract: Generational differences as a moderator

This study aims to explore the relationship between performance appraisal and psychological contract (PC) from the perspective of U.S. hotel employees, as perceived by different generational cohorts. The current study also examines the moderating role of generational difference on the relationship between perceived performance appraisal purpose (PAP) and hotel employees’ PC. A sample of 230 full time frontline U.S.-based hotel employees was employed to investigate these relationships. Hierarchical multiple regressions were used for data analysis and the results indicated that both administrative and developmental PAP were positively associated with PC. The positive relationship between administrative PAP and PC was significantly strengthened for Generation Y employees than for Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. There was no significant moderation effect of generational difference on the positive relationship between developmental PAP and hotel employees’ PC. The research recommended HR management practices related to designing performance appraisal systems for diverse workplace in U.S.-based hotels.     

Abusive supervision and deviance behaviors in the hospitality industry: The role of intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluation

Workplace deviance poses a significant challenge in the hospitality and tourism industries. Based on conservation of resources theory, we develop a model proposing relationships between abusive supervision and frontline employees' deviant behaviors via their intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluation. We validate it with two surveys targeting 200 and 600 hotel frontline employees. Results confirm the detrimental impacts of abusive supervision on frontline employees’ deviant behaviors and the helpful mediating and moderating impacts of their intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluation. Courses of action are proposed to reduce the various human and financial costs at the individual, organizational, social and societal levels.     

The mediating role of psychological distress between ostracism,work engagement,and turnover intentions: An analysis in the Cypriot hospitality context

Drawing on the conservation of resources and job-demands resource theories, this study proposes and tests psychological distress as an underlying mechanism mediating the relationships between workplace ostracism, work engagement, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, it investigates how resilience and perceived external employability condition the aforementioned relationships. Four- and five-star full-time hotel employees provided the data for this study. The findings suggest that psychological distress mediated the relationship between workplace ostracism and turnover intention, but did not mediate the workplace ostracism-work engagement linkage. Also, workplace ostracism plummeted the work engagement of less resilient employees, and surprisingly aroused that of more resilient employees. Finally, the result did not support the argument that employees with perceived high external employability would have stronger turnover intentions compared to those with lower external employability. This study offered new insights into the interface between workplace ostracism, engagement, and turnover intention, and relevant theoretical implications and address to managers are further discussed.