Well on the way: An exploratory study on occupational health in hospitality

This study conducted a comprehensive review of work conditions and health risks/problems for various hospitality workers and summarized the various health and wellness promotion programs available in the workplace with the aim of identifying the key elements of successful employee wellness programs. In this review, physical health problems, such as musculoskeletal disorders, lung diseases, and dermatologic diseases, as well as mental health problems that are common among hospitality employees were discussed. In addition, different types of wellness programs that may help employees to overcome these health problems were included. In the next stage, interviews with hotel staff holding multiple positions were conducted to identify the most significant health challenges and assess their preference for various types of wellness initiatives. Using MAXQDA Pro, health-related categories and themes were extracted from the interviews. Participants believed that the lack of time, physical challenges and stress are the top three wellness challenges in the hospitality industry. In order to tackle the challenges, they stated that hospitality businesses should provide various wellness initiatives including healthy eating and weight management, smoking cessation, stress management, exercise programs, and fitbits or other wellness tracker devices.     

Recruitment and Retention Practices in Independent and Chain Restaurants

Abstract

The management of employees in the restaurant industry is a major challenge that operators must address as companies work to find the best employees in a shrinking labor market. An exploratory study of twenty restaurants (ten independent and ten chain restaurants) investigated similarities and differences in employee recruitment and retention practices. Personal face-to-face interviews with managers disclosed a variety of interesting practices and ideas in the management areas of recruitment, interviewing and hiring, incentives, discipline, and retention. Environmental issues (relating to atmosphere and work environment) were most frequently cited by managers as reasons employees choose to work and remain in restaurants. Compensation and monetary awards were second in importance, followed by work schedule. This analysis provides an understanding from the manager's viewpoint of why employees work in restaurants and offers a perspective in current practices in employee recruitment and retention processes.     

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 nexus between sustainable practices in hotels and future Gen Y hospitality students’ career path decisions

This study explored tertiary hospitality students’ attitudes and overall perceptions about green and sustainable practices; and how these may impact their future career paths in the hotel industry. A thematic analysis with data from 12 semi-structured interviews with students in a hotel management school in Australia was used to identify patterns and interpretive themes. Results revealed positive attitudes among Generation Y hospitality students towards working in a green and sustainable hotel environment. Implications highlight the need for sustainability education in the curriculum of tertiary education providers and strong emphasis on sustainability practices in employee training programs. The results also suggest possible impacts of sustainability practices in recruiting and hiring in the hospitality industry and how this may affect future hospitality employees and leaders.     

酒店分散型激励机制:内涵结构与作用机制研究

酒店分散型激励机制是一种不同于传统模式的新型激励机制。该文章基于定性和定量相结合的混合研究方法对分散型激励机制的内涵体系和作用机制进行了理论总结和实证检验。文章对H酒店的激励机制进行了多阶段调研,并对酒店40位各层级人员进行了非结构式访谈,总结出了分散型激励机制的内涵结构及其成效。文章提出,酒店分散型激励机制是以员工综合工作价值为目标导向,酒店运用多种分散型激励手段激发员工工作动机的一种长期激励机制,具有激励主体分散、激励目标分散、激励方式分散和激励因素分散等基本特征。以此为基础,研究建构了分散型激励机制、激励态度、工作满意度以及工作专注等变量间的融合影响框架,并对H酒店全体270名员工进行了问卷调查。研究发现,酒店的分散型激励机制对员工的工作满意度和工作专注具有显著的正向影响,员工工作满意度在分散型激励机制和员工工作专注间具有部分中介作用,激励态度对酒店分散型激励机制的作用机制具有显著的正向调节作用。     

Why is hospitality employees’ psychological capital important? The effects of psychological capital on work engagement and employee morale

This study examines work engagement as a partial mediator of the effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on employee morale in a sample of hotel employees. A survey was carried out with 312 front-line staff from 15 five-star hotels in Seoul, Korea. A one-month time-lag design (Time 1: PsyCap and work engagement; Time 2: employee morale) was used to reduce potential common method bias. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that work engagement partially mediates the effect of PsyCap on job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Specifically, front-line employees with high PsyCap are more engaged with their work and more likely to display job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. The study concludes with a discussion of its empirical findings, strengths, theoretical contributions, and practical implications. Limitations and their implications for future studies are also reviewed.     

Discretionary effort of regional hospitality small business employees: Impact of non-monetary work factors

This research examines the impact of non-monetary work environment factors on employee discretionary effort within the hospitality sector in the South West Region of Western Australia. Limited qualitative research has previously examined the factors that drive employee discretionary effort especially in the regional hospitality sector. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 hospitality employees using purposive sampling. While the findings are preliminary, they do highlight important aspects of discretionary effort within a regional context. Critically, two previously un-identified factors, employees’ professional identity and perception of the hospitality sector have been found to have important implications for employees’ discretionary effort and need to be further explored. Additionally, the findings support the direct influence of organisational culture, job design, interpersonal relationships, on discretionary effort. Finally, the research confirms that a paternalistic leadership approach has a significant influence on hospitality employees’ discretionary effort. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are outlined.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

When does breach not lead to violation? A dual perspective of psychological contract in hotels in times of crisis

Implicit psychological contract (PC) represents the dynamic employee–employer relationship, and unlike explicit human resource (HR) practices, PC is an underexplored topic in the crisis management literature. By capturing the dual perspective of hotel employers and employees through interviews, this study investigates the content of PCs and breaches of PCs during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The study identifies salient dimensions of employer obligations such as safety assurance and of employee obligations such as personal protection. While employees emphasized the transactional contracts to protect their individual interests, the employers tried to balance the transactional and relational contracts. The study proposes a dynamic PC breach model that indicates contract breaches lead to varied responses through a complex interpretation process. In general, the study suggests that ensuring mutual consideration is the best way for hotel employees and employers to pull through a crisis.     

Leader humility,team humility and employee creative performance: The moderating roles of task dependence and competitive climate

In the unpredictable economic environment, both academics and professionals have been keen to identify effective leadership style that can induce more employee creative performance in work. Prior research has investigated different types of leadership styles and their consequences for employee behavior in work environments. In the recent management literature, humble leadership has been found to generate a number of positive behavioral outcomes among employees. However, relatively little is known about the influences of leader humility on team processes, or about the boundary conditions of these effects. The current study examined first, the relationships among leader humility, team humility and employee creative performance; and second, the moderating role of competitive climate in the moderation effect of task dependence in the relationship between team humility and employee creative performance. Hierarchical linear modeling was applied to analyze the cross-level data with 76 work teams and 531 employees. The results showed that leader humility exerts its impact on team humility, which in turn influences employee creative performance. The effect of team humility on employee creative performance was found to be strongest under high task dependence and high competitive climate. Practical implications regarding how to optimize the positive impact of leader humility are discussed.     

The effect of increasing employee compensation on firm performance: Evidence from the restaurant industry

This study examined the effect of employee compensation on restaurant performance from both short-term and long-term perspectives. The results of this study showed that increasing employee compensation immediately enhances (decreases) restaurant revenue growth (profitability) but decreases (improves) restaurant revenue growth (profitability) after one year. The results suggested that restaurant firms can utilize employee compensation as a management tool to enhance performance in terms of both short-term revenue growth and long-term profitability gains. The results further implied that restaurant firms could consider making small but continuous increases in employee compensation to maintain higher performance outcomes. However, such increases should be implemented with appropriate initiatives to reduce shirking behaviors by overpaid employees.     

Leading by example: A three-wave sequential mixed method food safety study

Foodservice employees that fail to adhere to food safety practices may directly introduce pathogens that can cause illness and death. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore managerial practices that influence employee’s food safety behaviors, using a two-phase sequential mixed-method approach.A total of 642 foodservice employees currently working in the United States participated in a survey about food safety knowledge and food safety behavioral intentions. Among these, 263 were invited to answer a set of open-ended qualitative questions, 36 participants responded to the questions, and two participants were selected for in-depth interviews.The majority of the employees are optimistic about their daily food safety practices. However, cross-analyses noted that the majority of employees failed the quiz regarding basic food safety knowledge. Further analyses documented that time-constraint and lack of managerial role modeling in daily food safety practices can post a considerable threat to maintaining food safety behaviors.     

Inconsistent organizational images of luxury hotels: Exploring employees' perceptions and dealing strategies

This paper explores employees' perceptions regarding the inconsistent images of luxury hotels. Based on individual interviews with 16 employees (front and backline staff), 4 managers, and 2 hospitality experts from Pakistan, the study found that five-star hotels' employees experienced wide inconsistencies between their organizations' external hotel image and internal employer image. This external-internal image inconsistency not only played a major role in forming employees' perceptions towards the attractiveness of their organizations as an employer, but also influenced their organizational attachment levels (e.g., intention to quit) and recommendation behaviors (e.g., referring the organization to others). The paper also explores different ways through which employees deal with these perceived inconsistencies. Three distinct employee clusters were identified, as employees adopted different strategies to deal with these inconsistencies, based on their inclination towards either or both of the external and internal image. Practical implications in terms of hotel branding and talent management are discussed.     

The effect of psychological capital on conflicts in the work–family interface,turnover and absence intentions

Using Conservation of Resources (COR) and congruence theories as the theoretical underpinnings, the present study develops and tests a research model that investigates the impact of psychological capital (PsyCap) on work–family conflict, family–work conflict, and turnover and absence intentions. The model also examines the effects of two directions of conflict on these employee outcomes. Self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience are the components representing PsyCap. Based on data obtained from frontline hotel employees with a time lag of two weeks in three waves in Romania, the results suggest that PsyCap mitigates work–family conflict, family–work conflict, and turnover and absence intentions. The results further suggest that PsyCap influences the aforesaid employee outcomes indirectly through family–work conflict. However, work–family conflict has no bearing on these outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the study.     

Work environment and atmosphere: The role of organizational support in the creativity performance of tourism and hospitality organizations

In this study, we developed and tested a new model of how organizational support affects the organizational work environment and atmosphere that facilitates creativity. A field study of 320 employees showed that organizational support was positively related to the work environment for knowledge sharing, motivation, procedural justice, and promotion. Further, the work environment plays a mediating role between organizational support and employee creativity. These measures of an organization's environment of procedural justice are related to employees’ motivation and knowledge sharing, which predict employees’ promotion.     

Interactive effects of supervisor support,diversity climate,and employee cynicism on work adjustment and performance

This study examined the interactive effects of perceived supervisor support (PSS), diversity climate, and employee cynicism on the work adjustment and performance of temporary migrant workers in the UAE’s hospitality industry. Drawing on the conservation of resources and trait activation theories, we hypothesized a three-way interaction effect of PSS, diversity climate, and employee cynicism on work adjustment. An effect of work adjustment on employees’ in-role performance was also proposed. Using two waves of data collected from 239 hospitality frontline employees and their direct supervisors, we found that PSS impacts more positively on the adjustment of employees with high cynicism when diversity climate is also positive. Employees with low cynicism display high adjustment with PSS even in less positive diversity climates. The indirect effect of PSS on in-role performance (via workplace adjustment) is also significant in inclusive climates for highly cynical employees.     

When and why organizational dehumanization leads to deviant work behaviors in hospitality industry

This study investigates when and why organizational dehumanization leads to deviant work behavior. Accordingly, aims to investigate the impacts of organizational dehumanization on perceived incivility and deviant work behavior. In addition to this, also investigates the psychological capital as moderator between organizational dehumanization and perceived incivility, while perceived incivility as a mediator between organizational dehumanization and deviant work behaviors (employee time theft and knowledge hiding). A time lag approach: with three-time intervals T1, T2 and T3 respectively was used to collect the data from hotel employees. Results indicate that organizational dehumanization leads to perceived incivility and thereof, perceived incivility propels deviant work behaviors amongst employees. Moreover, employee’s psychological capital played a protective role of reducing the detrimental effects of organizational dehumanization on perceived incivility. This research contributes to literature by considering behavioral outcomes of organizational dehumanization. For managers this study provides insights to minimize organizational stressors to buffer employee deviant behaviors. This study also provides new research avenues in hospitality industry.     

Shattered but smiling: Human resource management and the wellbeing of hotel employees during COVID-19

The purpose of this paper is to explore the human resource management (HRM) practices adopted by hotels during COVID-19 and to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the wellbeing of hotel employees using qualitative thematic analysis. This study presents HRM practices that organizations can use to effectively manage employees in uncertain times. There is compelling evidence that employee-centered HRM practices strongly impact employee wellbeing. This paper integrates the insights from an HRM framework for wellbeing using a job demands-resources model. The paper identifies themes that confirm and extend existing theories and models of wellbeing. The findings are important for policy makers by offering guidance for managing people effectively during tough times.