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.     

The influence of service brand orientation on hotel employees’ attitude and behaviors in China

As foreign hotel brands continue to roll out their investment in China, the competitive landscape intensifies. Central to the success of these hotel brands is their ability to offer the unique features of their service offering, as reflected in the brand, in which employees play a key role. However, in the Chinese market, where the introduction of foreign hotel brands is in its initial stages, employee brand knowledge may be limited resulting in service behaviors that are inconsistent with the brand. Therefore, the adoption of a service brand orientation to guide employee attitudes and behavior is considered to be necessary. In an effort to realize productive service employees, this study examines the consequences of adopting a service brand orientation. Results suggest that a service brand orientation is imperative for positive employee brand-oriented behaviors as well as customer-oriented behaviors that are a consequence of an employee customer orientation.     

The influence of service orientation discrepancy between managers and employees on employees’ affective outcomes

This study attempted to relate service orientation discrepancy (SOD) between employees and managers to employees’ affective reactions [role conflict (RC), role ambiguity (RA), job satisfaction (JS), and organizational commitment (OC)] in the restaurant industry. The findings of the study indicate that there is a SOD between managers and employees; employees saw themselves as more enthusiastic and less bureaucratic than managers. When this SOD was correlated with employee outcomes such as RC, RA, JS, and OC, the results indicated that SOD had a direct effect on RC, JS and OC. SOD also had indirect effects on JS, and OC through RC and RA. RC had a direct effect on JS and an indirect effect on OC. RA had a direct effect on JS. Finally, JS had a direct effect on OC.     

Corporate brand strategy: Drivers and outcomes of hotel industry’s brand orientation

The MNC resellers are vastly competitive and capital-intensive. Based on the corporate brand orientation, the objective is to investigate how the individual dimensions of hotel industry’s brand orientation can improve a corporate experience and subsequently create superior hotel performance and retailer preferences. A model of the integration of the hotel industry’s brand orientation was tested in a survey conducted among MNC resellers from hospitality industry. Structural equation modelling was applied to gain insight into the various influences and relationships. The research makes two main contributions. It makes a theoretical contribution by classifying the integration of the hotel industry’s brand orientation for hospitality industry and from this extrapolate key suggestions for further study. The continuous evolution and economic influence of the hospitality industry require the application of innovative marketing practices.     

Does positive affectivity moderate the effect of burnout on job outcomes? An empirical investigation among hotel employees

A conceptual model examining positive affectivity as a moderator of the influence of burnout on extra-role performance and quitting intentions is developed and tested. Data obtained from employees in the hotel industry in Turkey were used to assess the model. As hypothesized, burnout influences extra-role performance deleteriously and exacerbates quitting intentions. The results of the Chow test also reveal that positive affectivity serves as a moderator in reducing the detrimental impact of burnout on extra-role performance and quitting intentions. The findings and their implications are discussed.     

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.     

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on management-level hotel employees’ work behaviors: Moderating effects of working-from-home

This study examines the effects of working-from-home during the COVID-19 pandemic on management-level hotel employees’ work engagement, burnout, and turnover intentions. The study demonstrates that working-from-home tends to be a double-edged blade that leads to both positive and negative employee behavioral outcomes. Findings reveal that while working-from-home is associated with a higher level of vigor, it magnifies the effects of absorption on burnout. In addition, due to work-home interference, working-from-home suppresses the positive effect of dedication and amplifies the negative effect of burnout on turnover intentions. The theoretical contributions and managerial recommendations are provided.     

Effects of recovery experiences on hotel employees’ subjective well-being

This study focuses on the occupational well-being process in the formation of hotel employees’ subjective well-being based on the recovery experience scale (RES). More specifically, the study (1) evaluates the construct validity of the RES in the hotel sector and (2) examines structural relationships between the RES, organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), job dedication (JOD), career satisfaction (CAS), and life satisfaction (LIS) in a heuristic model. To test the hypotheses, a total of 376 hotel employees were considered in an empirical analysis using a two-step SEM approach. The results verify sufficient validity for the four RES factors and reveal that all recovery experiences, namely psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery experiences, and control, predicted OBSE. In addition, OBSE had positive effects on JOD, CAS, and LIS, and JOD and CAS had significant positive effects on LIS. These results have important implications, and the study's limitations provide some interesting avenues for future research.     

The effects of restaurant servers’ perceptions of customers’ tipping behaviors on service discrimination

Scholars have noted that the institution of tipping may encourage restaurant servers to provide discriminate service. The prospect of receiving an excellent tip from a patron, for example, is thought to encourage servers to discriminately provide excellent service. In contrast, the prospect of receiving a poor tip from a patron is thought to encourage servers to extend service that is commensurately poor. The effects of service workers’ a priori assumptions about customers’ tipping behaviors on service discrimination have however not been adequately assessed to-date. This article addresses this gap in the literature by assessing how server sensitivity to demographic tipping differences affects their proclivities to discriminately provide either excellent or poor service in response to the prospect of receiving an excellent or poor tip, respectively. Using a multilevel modeling technique (HLM), findings show that server sensitivity to demographic tipping differences is predictive of servers’ propensities to discriminately allocate excellent service but not poor service. The implications for the management of restaurant operations along with directions for future research are discussed.     

The impact of exploitative leadership on frontline hospitality employees’ service performance: A social exchange perspective

Based on social exchange theory, we investigate the impact of perceived exploitative leadership on frontline hospitality employees’ service performance. A three-phase analysis of 207 supervisor–subordinate dyads from three hotels in China demonstrates that exploitative leadership has a negative effect on frontline hospitality employees’ service performance. Furthermore, leader−member exchange (LMX) plays a mediating role in the relationship between exploitative leadership and employee service performance. Moderated path analyses indicate that traditionality weakens the direct influence of exploitative leadership on LMX and an indirect influence of exploitative leadership on employee service performance through reduced LMX. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Internal marketing practices,genuine emotions and their effects on hotel employees’ customer-oriented behaviors

Drawing on social exchange and conservation of resources theories, this study investigates genuine emotions as a mediator of the effects of internal marketing practices on customer-oriented behaviors. Data collected from customer-contact employees in the four- and five-star hotels in Antalya, one of the most popular tourism destinations in Turkey, were used to assess the aforesaid relationships. The results from structural equation modeling reveal that management’s simultaneous emphasis on internal communication, training, and internal market research as the indicators of internal marketing practices fosters customer-contact employees’ genuine emotions displayed in service encounters. Such internal marketing practices as well as genuine emotions boost employees’ customer-oriented behaviors, as manifested by enjoyment and needs. As hypothesized, genuine emotions partly mediate the effects of internal marketing practices on customer-oriented behaviors. Theoretical and management implications associated with the abovementioned results are discussed.     

How to enhance hotel guests’ acceptance and experience of smart hotel technology: An examination of visiting intentions

Smart hotel is a novel concept in the hospitality industry, and few studies have examined hotel consumers’ intentions to visit smart hotels. This study investigates the relationship between technology readiness (TR) and technology amenities (TA) as antecedents to visiting intentions, using an extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Based on an online survey with 648 valid responses, the results indicate that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are correlated with TA, but not with TR. Furthermore, TR affects intentions to visit smart hotels, but TA does not. The findings enrich the hospitality literature and have practical implications for hospitality marketers designing technology-related marketing strategies to maintain competitiveness. This study contributes to raising awareness of the importance of technological amenities and services for the future visiting intentions of hotel consumers.     

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.     

The effects of Airbnb’s price positioning on hotel performance

This study examined the relationship between the price positioning of Airbnb listings, measured in price difference between a hotel property and the nearby Airbnb listings as well as price dispersion among these Airbnb listings, and the performance of nearby hotels. An exploratory analysis using field data points collected from the Airbnb listings and their hotel counterparts in the metropolitan area of Austin, Texas between Quarter 3, 2008 (debut of Airbnb in Austin) and Quarter 2, 2011 reveals intriguing findings. The entry of Airbnb listings was penetrative to local hotels. However, the price positioning of Airbnb, manifested in higher average price as compared to nearby hotels, as well as larger price dispersion among individual listings, significantly mitigated such penetration. Important theoretical contributions and practical implications for hotels are discussed.     

Job insecurity,work engagement and their effects on hotel employees’ non-green and nonattendance behaviors

The current study investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between job insecurity (JIS) and nonattendance and non-green behaviors. Data were gathered from hotel employees using one-week time lag between the study waves and their direct supervisors in Guangzhou in China. Structural equation modeling as well as bias-corrected bootstrapping method supported the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, JIS is a threat of future job loss eroding work engagement but aggravating absenteeism, intention to be late for work (ILFW), intention to leave work early (ILWE), and non-green behaviors. Work engagement mitigates these nonattendance behaviors and intentions and alleviates non-green behaviors. In addition, work engagement partly mediates the impact of JIS on non-green behaviors, absenteeism, ILFW, and ILWE. Our study proposes several areas for future research about JIS and its potential consequences.     

What is the value of networking? An examination of trade show attendee outcomes

Business events have become a key sector of growth in the events industry. However, there is a paucity of empirical studies that examine the outcomes that participants derive from these events. This study aims to address this by specifically focusing on one objective of business events—networking. A case study approach was used to explore how organizers design events for networking and the outcomes that participants gain from events. Findings revealed that objectives differed based on the type of attendee and attendees typically followed up with 20–30% of contacts after the event, indicating that the use of networking technologies could enable more valuable connections to be made.     

Exploring employees’ perceptions of costs and benefits of unionization in the hospitality industry

There is scant research on the impact of unionization on hospitality employees’ job security, health, and working conditions. This research explores employees’ beliefs of costs and benefits of unionization in hospitality organizations given that previous research has mainly focused on its influence on the firm and the industry. The findings of this study suggest that unionization can present a unique set of challenges both for line-level employees and managers. The ‘it’s not my job’ attitude associated with unionization can have a dampening impact on employees’ future career opportunities. Future research needs to consider the long-term consequences of unionization on employees.     

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.     

Effect of hotel employees’ workplace friendship on workplace deviance behaviour: Moderating role of organisational identification

This study aims to explore the effect of friendships at workplaces (including friendship opportunities and friendship prevalence) on the workplace deviance behaviour (including production deviance, political deviance, property deviance, and personal aggression). This study included an examination of organisational identification for moderating relationships. The surveyees were employees and supervisors in five-star hotels in Taiwan who were willing to cooperate with the survey; each supervisor managed ten employees. A purposive sampling method, a non-probability sampling method, was employed. A total of 600 employee questionnaires were distributed, and the number of valid questionnaires was 357. The results reveal the following: (1) the friendship opportunities and friendship prevalence of hotel employees negatively influenced production deviance and (2) friendship prevalence of hotel employees negatively influenced political deviance, property deviance, and personal aggression. Moreover, organisational identification moderates the relationship between hotel employees’ workplace friendship and deviance behaviour. Management implications and follow-up suggestions are proposed based on the study results.