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.     

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.     

Effects of employees’ social exchange and the mediating role of customer orientation in the restaurant industry

This study aims to investigate the consequences of customer-employee exchage at work based on the social exchange theory. Moreover, it is to understand how the social exchange leads to employees’ prosocial service behaviors by investigating the mediating role of customer orientation. This study applied quantitative research design using cross-sectional survey approach by targeting frontline employees who had customer interactions in the full-service restaurant industry. The results present that the more employees have social exchange with customers, the more they tend to show customer service behaviors within and beyond their role requirements. In addition, customer-employee exchage leads to employees prosocial service behaviors indirectly by increasing the level of customer orientation. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed in the study.     

Motivational drivers that fuel employees to champion the hospitality brand

Many hospitality organizations have recognized the significance of having strong brands in the marketplace. Given that customers’ brand experiences are greatly affected by frontline service employees, it is crucial that service employees are capable and motivated to transform brand promises into brand realities. This study seeks to build on the emerging Internal Brand Management (IBM) research, by examining employees’ internal drive to go above and beyond their formal job requirement to benefit the brand. Based on motivation theories and the empirical data from 202 hotel employees, we examined the impact of employees’ pro-brand motivation (an internal motivation that is engendered from extrinsic stimuli) and their intrinsic motivation to work on their brand performance. In particular, we identified two significant motivational drivers for employees’ pro-brand motivation namely, employee perceived brand meaningfulness and employee perceived brand value fit. Based on the synergy between employee pro-brand motivation and intrinsic motivation to work, we further proposed an Employee Brand Motivation Matrix reflecting four types of employee motivation that underpins the rationale for employee brand performance. Organizations can use this matrix as a diagnostic tool to segment their workforce, gaining a true appreciation for the extent to which their workforce is willing and able to champion the brand.     

Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) and Frontline Employees’ Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Foodservice Context: Exploring the Moderating Role of Work Status

This study identified the direct and indirect effect of leader–member exchange (LMX) on frontline employees’ service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (SOCB) targeting customers and co-workers in the foodservice context. Service-role ambiguity was proposed as a partial mediator in the conceptual model. The moderating effect of work status was also explored in this study. Data were collected from 452 frontline employees, working in 31 different foodservice establishments. All five proposed hypotheses were supported, highlighting the effect of LMX on service role clarity (or ambiguity) and the SOCB. A multiple-group structural equation modeling analysis showed that the effect of LMX on SOCB was higher among part-time employees, compared to full-time employees. One implication of the study findings is that part-time employees should also be treated as a valuable asset to the foodservice organization.     

How to fuel employees’ prosocial behavior in the hotel service encounter

With mounting customer expectation for excellent service, frontline service employees’ prosocial service behavior is of great importance since it helps enhance customers’ perceived service quality, which is critical for maintaining a hotel’s competitive advantage relative to its comp set. Regardless of the importance of prosocial service behavior, role clarity, perceived organizational support, and psychological empowerment in encouraging employees’ prosocial service behavior has not received much attention. This study examines the effects of the above three predictors on the prosocial service behavior of customer-contact employees. The authors developed a conceptual model of prosocial service behavior and empirically tested it using structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that role clarity and psychological empowerment have a direct influence on prosocial service behavior. Psychological empowerment partially mediates the relationship between role clarity and prosocial service behavior and fully mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and prosocial service behavior.     

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.     

Hospitality service climate,employee service orientation,career aspiration and performance: A moderated mediation model

This study tested a moderated mediation model involving hospitality employees’ service climate perception, service orientation, career aspiration and service performance. Using a sample of 500 frontline service employees in ten restaurants of a hospitality chain company in China, the study found that employees’ service orientation partially mediated the relationship between service climate and self-reported/supervisor-reported service performance. Furthermore, career aspiration moderated the mediation effect of service orientation between service climate and self-reported service performance. However, such a moderating effect was not confirmed when service performance was measured by supervisors’ ratings. The study highlights the importance of employees’ service orientation and career aspiration in hospitality human resource management practices.     

An examination of the progressive effects of hotel frontline employees’ brand perceptions on desirable service outcomes

The present study scrutinizes how hospitality firms’ internal branding influences the service performance of frontline employees in a progressive way. More specifically, based on social influence and social exchange theories, this study examines if organizational commitment mediates the link between hospitality frontline employees’ perceptions of brand authenticity (BA) and brand-value fit (BVF) and their service-related behaviors such as generating ideas for service improvement (GISI) and service-oriented citizenship behavior. With a matched sample of 286 customer-contact frontline employees and 33 of their supervisors from five-star hotels in South Korea, this study found that the higher employees’ perceptions of BA and BVF, the more likely they were to generate ideas for service improvement and engage in service-oriented citizenship behavior, as they were more likely to be committed to the firm. Based on the findings, implications are discussed for hospitality practitioners and researchers alike in terms of internal branding with frontline employees.     

From customers' fingertips to employees’ well-being: The impact of mobile application ordering from a job demand-resource perspective

Service is entering a 2.0 transformation where service no longer simply involves customer-employee interactions, but customer-technology-employee interactions. However, previous literature predominantly focuses on customers from a marketing approach, failing to incorporate employees' perspective in the face of technology-enabled changes in a service encounter. Building on Job demand-resource model, this study proposes mobile applications as a job resource and examines their impact on restaurant employees. This study conducts interviews and qualitative content analysis in Study 1 and further employs a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design in Study 2. The results indicate that mobile orders may assist frontline employees to invest less cognitive and emotional effort, even in the condition of higher order complexity, leading to enhanced employee workplace well-being. This study newly introduces mobile apps as job resources and a potential way to improve employees’ well-being at work. This study contributes both JD-R and the well-being literature with practical implications.     

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 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.     

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.     

Differences Between Management Philosophies Among American and Chinese Hotel Managers: A Cultural Comparison Between Las Vegas and Shanghai

The aim of this study is to ascertain, in an international tourism context, whether there are cultural discrepancies between hotel employees who have been educated and trained in a host country, and guests who have traveled to that country, given that each group is imbued with their own national culture. The findings indicate that not only do Thai frontline hotel employees have different expectations about the behavior of Japanese and Korean customers, but that the expectations of both customer groups concerning their own behavior differ from those of Thai employees. A significant gap was found in perceptions of actual behavior between the international customers and hotel staff, suggesting that cultural discrepancies are indeed present, but also vary by ethnicity. The scale of the discrepancy between Thai employees’ perceptions of Japanese tourists’ behavior, for example, was larger than in the case of the Korean customers. Comparison of the expectations of the two international customer groups also revealed strong differences.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.