The effects of mentoring on role stress,job attitude,and turnover intention in the hotel industry

In response to a dearth of mentoring studies in the hospitality literature, this study develops and tests a research model to investigate the influence of mentoring functions on role stress, job attitude, and turnover intention in the hotel industry. The data were collected from employees who had experienced mentoring programs at super-deluxe hotels in South Korea. This study conceptualized mentoring activity as having three main functions, including career development, psychosocial support, and role modeling. Structural equation model (SEM) analyses were used to explore the statistical significance of the paths between these functions and the main outcome variables. The psychosocial support function showed a significant relationship with all variables in the model (i.e., a positive effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but a negative effect on role conflict, role ambiguity, and turnover intention). The relationships were not significant between the career development function and role ambiguity, between role modeling and role ambiguity, or between role ambiguity and turnover intention. The results will enable a better understanding of the effects of hotel mentoring programs and indicate directions for improving their outcomes. The findings can help hotel managers in developing more effective mentoring programs.     

Managing language barriers in the workplace: The roles of job demands and resources on turnover intentions

Immigrants are a considerable growing segment of the hospitality workforce, but with an overwhelming majority of immigrant workers having limited English speaking abilities, hospitality managers are often challenged with communication barriers. The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of managers’ communication satisfaction with limited English speaking employees on three work-related outcomes that can be influenced by working with limited English employees: role ambiguity, role conflict, and turnover intentions. A survey was completed by 130 hotel and lodging managers. The results of a mediation model showed that satisfaction with the quality of communication with limited English speaking employees reduced role ambiguity and role conflicts, which led to lower turnover intentions. Managers’ turnover intentions are not necessarily a direct effect of the communication quality with their limited English speaking subordinates, but due to the job demands that manifest in an environment with communication barriers, such as confusion and conflicting misunderstandings.     

Job involvement,commitment, satisfaction and turnover: Evidence from hotel employees in Cyprus

The study of attitudes at work seeks to enhance organizational knowledge and capabilities in developing an ‘ideal’ working environment that delivers exceptional customer service. The current study investigates the causal relationships of job involvement, organizational commitment (normative and affective), and job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic), with the intention of hospitality employees in Cyprus to either remain at or leave their job. Utilizing structural equation modeling, positive associations were found between job involvement, affective and normative commitment, and intrinsic job satisfaction. Positive associations between affective and normative organizational commitment, and intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction were also found. In addition, negative associations between affective organizational commitment, extrinsic job satisfaction and turnover intention were revealed. However, a negative association between intrinsic job satisfaction and turnover intention was not supported. The implications of these results for future research are also discussed.     

Antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction in the hotel industry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents (i.e., role ambiguity and conflict, burnout, socialization, and work autonomy) and consequences (i.e., affective and continuance commitment, absenteeism, and employee turnover intention) of employee job satisfaction. Data obtained from a sample of 671 respondents drawn from 11 international tourist hotels in Taiwan were analyzed with the LISREL program. According to the results, role conflict, burnout, socialization, and work autonomy, but not role ambiguity, significantly predicted job satisfaction. In addition, job satisfaction significantly contributed to psychological outcomes in terms of organizational effectiveness (i.e., greater affective and continuance commitment and lower employee turnover intentions).     

Codes of ethics,corporate philanthropy,and employee responses

Although ethical management would seem to be a must in today's business climate, research and practical applications in the services industry and in developing economies remain scarce. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of codes of ethics and corporate philanthropy on the Korean services industry. The results demonstrate that, overall, a code of ethics directly affects corporate philanthropy and organizational engagement. Corporate philanthropy, in turn, positively relates to employee engagement and turnover intention. Turnover intention is explained by job and organizational engagement. The strategic importance of ethics management and the following philanthropic activities in the hospitality services are illustrated from the findings of this research.     

The effects of psychological capital,social capital,and human capital on hotel employees’ occupational stress and turnover intention

Occupational stress and turnover intention are a growing and costly concern for the hospitality industry. Drawing on Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, the study developed a research model to simultaneously examine the effects of psychological capital, social capital, and human capital on occupational stress and turnover intention. A sample size of 380 hotel employees in China was used to test the proposed model using the PLS-SEM methodology. The results suggest that occupational stress plays a full mediator role between psychological capital and turnover intention, and plays a partial mediator role between relational social capital and turnover intention. Psychological capital and relational social capital were found to have relatively higher effects on occupational stress compared to other types of capital. The study extends JD-R theory by recognizing that occupational stress functions as a mediator between the three types of capital and turnover intention. The study concludes by offering a set of practical implications stemming from this research for hotel practitioners.     

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.     

What factors influence Generation Y’s employee retention in the hospitality industry?: An internal marketing approach

Individuals from Generation Y are entering into the hospitality job market, but little is known about their intention to remain in the hospitality business. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors affect a Generation Y employee’s intention to remain with a hospitality company with respect to internal marketing tactics. Qualtrics, an online survey service company, was used to distribute and collect a self-administered questionnaire survey. A theoretically proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling. The results of this study indicated that “work environment” significantly influence Generation Y employees’ job satisfaction, followed by “empowerment,” “pay,” and “relationships with managers,” which in turn, influences “employee commitment” and “intention to remain in hospitality business.” The implications of the study are discussed.     

Understanding the influence of polychronicity on job satisfaction and turnover intention: A study of non-supervisory hotel employees

The hospitality industry is characterized as a work environment where time use is important and where switching behavior among multiple tasks is frequently required within a given time period. These work environments promote polychronic behavior, which requires employees to deal with two or more activities in the same time block (Bluedorn et al., 1999). The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study examining the interrelationship among polychronicity, job satisfaction, and turnover intention within a hotel context. The sample (n = 609) was collected from non-supervisory employees of two hotels located in the southwestern United States. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to empirically test the proposed hypotheses. Our results provided evidence that polychronicity significantly contributed to job satisfaction and turnover intention. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

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.     

Pay and benefit satisfaction,perceived organizational support,and turnover intentions: The moderating role of job variety

Wages and benefits in the hospitality industry are notoriously low, and tight margins often mean that organizations do not have the resources to increase pay. Existing research has demonstrated that low pay is a large factor in the high rate of turnover in the hospitality industry. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand whether enriching job characteristics such as job variety may attenuate the relationship between pay and benefit satisfaction. Specifically, we hypothesized and found that when pay and benefit satisfaction was low, job variety could reduce employee turnover intentions by improving the employee-organization relationship through the development of perceived organizational support. Our findings demonstrate the value in using creative means to develop the employee-organization relationship when organizations cannot increase pay.     

Examining the impact of artificial intelligence on hotel employees through job insecurity perspectives

Artificial intelligence is another advance in technology for the hotel industry and its role is undetermined at this time. The overarching purpose of this treatise was to examine hotel employees’ perception of AI and its impact by identifying the critical role of job insecurity, job engagement, and turnover intention through a pragmatic approach. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used by conducting a quantitative study with an empirical survey method followed by a qualitative study with a case study method. The results from the quantitative study demonstrated that perceived job insecurity significantly affected perceived job engagement and perceived job insecurity indirectly affected turnover intention through intermediary variable of perceived job engagement. There were no statistical differences between non-managerial positions and managerial positions. These results were fully supported by the qualitative study. The implications from these findings were provided to articulate the influence of AI on hotel employees.     

The extension of the theory of person-organization fit toward hospitality migrant worker

The hospitality and tourism industry is suffering from a labor shortage, and migrant workers are supplying a large portion of labor in the contemporary economic market. This study extends the theory of person-organization fit in the context of hospitality migrant workers. This study also examines the effect of person-organization fit on migrant workers’ turnover intentions via job satisfaction and work adjustment. The results reveal that all three levels of fit, person-supervisor, person-group, and person-job, have a significant influence on work adjustment and job satisfaction, which in turn influence migrant employees’ turnover intentions. Among the three types of fit, person-group fit was the only one to have a direct effect on predicting turnover intentions. The findings imply that HR managers should make good hiring decisions for migrant employees based on the perceived three levels of fit between the applicant and the organization.     

Big Five Personality Traits and Turnover Intention Among Thai Hotel Employees

This study hypothesized that the Big Five personality traits predicted turnover intention, and that hospitality competency and job satisfaction mediated the relationship of the Big Five personality traits to turnover intention among 183 Thai hotel employees. Regression analysis with bootstrapping was used to test the direct and mediation effects. Results supported two hypotheses: the Big Five personality traits negatively predicted turnover intention and job satisfaction mediated the relationship of the Big Five personality traits to turnover intention while hospitality competency did not. Thai hotel employees’ Big Five personality traits were related to their job satisfaction to predict their turnover intention.     

Thinking job embeddedness not turnover: Towards a better understanding of frontline hotel worker retention

This article reports the findings of a study of 327 Australian hotel frontline employees using a survey of job embeddedness. The research provides a novel application of the job embeddedness construct to the hospitality industry, not only validating the factor structure of the job embeddedness scale, but also investigating the relationship between job embeddedness and other job-related attitudes that influence employee turnover. Findings indicated that a six factor solution is the best explanation. Testing a model of the embeddedness-commitment and embeddedness-turnover relationship, the embeddedness dimensions of organizational sacrifice and community links displayed a positive relationship with organizational commitment. A negative relationship was found between organizational sacrifice and intentions to leave, while a positive relationship was found between community links and intentions to leave. One implication for hospitality managers is that there is an opportunity for hotel organizations to increase the job embeddedness of their employees by increasing the perceived costs of leaving.     

Momentary well-being matters: Daily fluctuations in hotel employees’ turnover intention

Drawing on affective events theory and the unfolding model of voluntary turnover, the dynamic nature of emotional dissonance, job autonomy, subjective well-being (SWB), and turnover intention are examined in a daily diary study. The study's design employs an experience sampling method. Participants are full-time employees in guest-facing positions in full-service or luxury hotels in the United States. Sixty-five participants completed a one-time baseline survey and a daily diary study twice per day for at least five working days, resulting in a total of 416 day-level observations. Within-person variance in turnover intention is predicted by day-level within-person SWB and emotional dissonance. This study shows that SWB and turnover intention are not stable phenomena among frontline hotel employees. Moreover, the study emphasizes the important moderating role of daily job autonomy and the moderating effects of person-level trait resilience. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed.     

An examination of the nature of the relationship between Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX) and turnover intent at different organizational levels

The present study investigates the nature of the relationship between Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX) quality and turnover intent in the South Korean hospitality industry. Self-administered survey questionnaires were collected from 232 frontline workers as well as 88 supervisors employed in hotel properties. Prior research has produced mixed results, finding linear relationships between LMX quality and turnover intent in some studies and non-linear relationships in others. Traditional hierarchical regression analyses were performed to test the nature of the relationship in these two samples. We found evidence for a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between LMX and turnover intent for non-supervisory employees, but only a linear relationship for supervisory employees. Conceptual and practical implications and recommendations for future research are provided.     

The Hospitality Culture Scale: A measure organizational culture and personal attributes

The hospitality industry has a unique and specific culture when compared to other industries. Because of this, not everyone will want to make this industry a career, as evidenced by the high turnover. Yet, the hospitality industry needs to attract and keep motivated and dedicated employees. This study set out to discover attributes that are unique to hospitality organizations as well as the characteristics and values of a person who would be successful in a work environment that exhibited this culture. This includes determining if a person is a match to the culture of the hospitality industry. In order to identify the variables of hospitality culture, an extensive review of the literature and a panel of industry experts were consulted. The items identified from both groups were used to establish the constructs for a scale, which is called the Hospitality Culture Scale. Seven hundred and forty one hospitality professionals rated the attributes. Principal component analysis determined the final factors for the organizational culture and personal attributes. These constructs included: management principles, customer relationships, job variety, job satisfaction, principles, propitiousness, leadership, risk taker, accuracy, and composure.     

Work stress and well-being in the hotel industry

Employee stress is a significant issue in the hospitality industry, and it is costly for employers and employees alike. Although addressing and reducing stress is both a noble goal and is capable of resulting in expense reductions for employers, the nature and quantity of hospitality employee stress is not fully understood. The first aim of this study was to identify common work stressors in a sample of 164 managerial and hourly workers employed at 65 different hotels who were each interviewed for eight consecutive days. The two most common stressors were interpersonal tensions at work and overloads (e.g., technology not functioning). The second aim was to determine whether there were differences in the types and frequency of work stressors by job type (i.e., managers versus non-managers), gender, and marital status. Hotel managers reported significantly more stressors than hourly employees. There were no significant differences by gender or marital status. The third aim was to investigate whether the various stressors were linked to hotel employee health and work outcomes. More employee and coworker stressors were linked to more negative physical health symptoms. Also, interpersonal tensions at work were linked to lower job satisfaction and greater turnover intentions.