Good or bad staff? Hotel employees' core self-evaluations impacting service effort and service sabotage considering leader-member exchange moderation

This research investigates the impact of hotel employees' core self-evaluations on their service effort and service sabotage behaviors. Included is examination of leader-member exchange moderating relationships. The study was conducted with the participation of employees of eight Taiwanese five-star hotels. Convenience sampling was used in obtaining data from 295 employees. Analysis using regression based methods shows that (1) stronger employee core self-evaluations are associated with higher service effort; (2) stronger employee core self-evaluations are negatively related to service sabotage; (3) leader-member exchange moderates the relationship between employee core self-evaluations and service effort; and (4) leader-member exchange moderates the relationship between employee core self-evaluations and service sabotage. Implications for managerial practice, research limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Impact of organizational socialization tactics on newcomer job satisfaction and engagement: Core self-evaluations as moderators

This study proposes and tests a new model in which newcomer core self-evaluations (CSE) moderate the effects of organizational socialization tactics (OST) on job satisfaction and work engagement. Data were collected in nine luxury hotels in China and a total of 161 parent respondents with 5000 bootstraps were analyzed using structural equation modeling technique. The results from this study indicate that newcomer job satisfaction and work engagement each is predicted by institutionalized OST directly and positively. They also indicate that CSE moderates the relationship between OST and job satisfaction, but not the one between OST and work engagement. In particular, hotel newcomers high on CSE are much more adept, than their low CSE counterparts, at translating their organizational advantages of institutionalized OST into job satisfaction. These findings as well as their theoretical and practical implications are discussed within the contexts of organizational socialization research and hotel human resource development practices.     

How do changes in human resource management practices influence employee engagement? A longitudinal study in a hotel chain in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

Drawing from social exchange theory, this study investigates how changes in human resource management practices influence and affect employee engagement in a hotel chain. Changes in human resource management practices were identified, and corresponding changes in the level of employee engagement were observed. One hundred forty-five employees from a hotel chain in the Philippines participated in a longitudinal study. Results show that improvements in human resource management practices, particularly in the areas of reward management and training and development, yielded positive and significant change in the level of employee engagement. Implications for human resource management, particularly in the hospitality and tourism context, are discussed.     

Hospitality employees promotional attitude: Findings from graduates of a twelve-month management training program

Mentoring is considered an important human resources training program but is seldom discussed as an internal marketing tool in the hospitality management literature. This study, using a major hotel company’s formal mentoring program, empirically tested mentoring’s influence on employee’s promotional attitude. Employee psychological contract theory provided the theoretical foundation for the study. The proposed research model was tested using Partial Least Squares (PLS) SEM. The results showed that mentor functions (i.e., career development and psychosocial support) were antecedents of employee promotional attitude. In addition, employee’s psychological contract breach and employee’s affective organizational commitment were mediators between mentor functions and promotional attitude, with affective organizational commitment showing a full mediation effect. These results provide both theoretical and managerial implications and offer opportunities for future research.     

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).     

Considering the role of agritourism co-creation from a service-dominant logic perspective

In recent decades, providing production and service simultaneously has remained an unsolved problem in developing agritourism. This study adopted the concept of service-dominant logic, with a service blueprint to assist entrepreneurs in designing agritourism activities that will enhance the tourists' experience within four working farm field experiments. The results showed that agritourism activities with SDL design (experiment B) did not comprehensively enhance the experience of tourists learning agricultural knowledge. The agricultural activities (i.e., experience of rural culture) (experiment C) and other tourist behaviors (i.e., tourists' mutual engagement) (experiment D) were integrated with SDL agritourism activities in order to more effectively enhance the tourists' experience of agritourism and lead to an increase in tourists' intention to revisit and actual purchase of agricultural products. Based on our findings, rural culture and tourists' mutual engagement were critical for agribusiness to integrate the specific characteristics of internal service (e.g., agritourism activities or service strategy).     

Building the sociomateriality of food service

Global megatrends such as urbanization, climate change and resource scarcity, shift in political and economic power, demographic change, and increasingly disruptive technological breakthroughs are transforming the conventional socio-technical system of food service. This study identifies and discusses key changes already impacting the service concept of food service, with particular focus on service interaction, its structure, and setting. Adopting a LEGO® Serious Play® approach, this study brings together diverse stakeholders to construct and discuss the current state of and future vision for the sector. Findings illustrate how the relative importance of social (i.e., customers, employees) and material (i.e., technology) actors in food service production and delivery is shifting, and will continue to shift, in the coming decades. The study proposes a framework of the new-formed sociomateriality of food service, discusses its theoretical and managerial implications, and finally puts forward a rich agenda for future research.     

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.     

Identity judgements,work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior: The mediating effects based on group engagement model

The group engagement model (Tyler & Blader, 2003) suggests that organizational identification is based on both the individual's evaluation of the status of their group as perceived by outgroups (i.e., pride) and his/her view about their status within the group (i.e., respect). However, prior research has not examined the factors which influence organizational identification, and subsequently lead employees to feel engaged and exhibit positive extra-role behaviors that benefit the organization. Using time-lagged data from both service employees and their supervisors, our findings demonstrate that both pride and respect are positively related to organizational identification, and organizational identification is positively related to work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). More importantly, organizational identification mediates the relationships between the antecedents (i.e., pride and respect) and consequences (work engagement and OCB). Overall, the study provides compelling support for the group engagement model in predicting key job attitudes and behaviors amongst service employees.     

服务失败后自我建构与质量预期对满意和口碑的影响

当顾客遭遇由个别雇员引发的服务失败时,顾客会产生怎样的心理反应?文章基于服务失败情境探讨了顾客的自我建构倾向与服务质量预期对满意度与负面口碑传播的影响。研究运用实验法模拟(餐厅)服务情境,结果发现,当服务失败源于个别雇员的不当行为时,如果顾客对企业的服务持有相对负面的质量预期,那么自我建构类型为互依型的顾客(vs.独立型自我建构)更倾向于认为企业对雇员的服务质量具有可控性,会对企业更不满意;但在负面口碑传播上,独立型自我建构的顾客却反而更有可能通过口碑传播服务失败经历(vs.互依型自我建构)。文章在此基础上主要讨论了自我建构对服务失败研究以及企业实践的启示,并指出未来可进一步研究的内容。     

Customers’ Perceptions of Employee Engagement: Fortifying the Service–Profit Chain

This study investigated the three dimensions of employee engagement: dedication, energy, and absorption from the customer’s perspective. The service–profit chain (SPC) and employee behavior that promotes customer satisfaction and loyalty were examined. The results revealed that certain aspects of employee engagement are more readily perceived by consumers and more likely to promote customer satisfaction and loyalty. Findings showed that energy and dedication combined were most likely to foster feelings of satisfaction and loyalty among hospitality patrons. From a theoretical perspective, the study contributes to the literature by enhancing the SPC, revealing new insight into employee engagement, and linking employee engagement to positive consumer outcomes. Hospitality industry professionals may find that employee engagement benefits the customers’ perceptions of the establishment, ultimately increasing profitability. This study utilizes the SPC in the hospitality context and proposes a new link in the chain: employee engagement.     

Enhancing employee creativity in the Chinese context: The mediating role of employee self-concordance

This study applies the theory of self-concordance and adopts the multi-level analysis approach to examine the mediating effect of employee self-concordance, a core component of intrinsic motivation, on the relationship between social-contextual factors and creativity using hotel industry data obtained from Mainland China. The hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) results from a multisource sample reveal that the three social-contextual variables (i.e., organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and coworkers support and helping) were associated with employee self-concordance, which in turn was associated with employee creativity. Moreover, employee self-concordance fully mediated the three social-contextual variables and creativity. This study shows that organization environment plays a significant role in predicting employee creativity. The implications of the findings for future research and their practical applications in the hotel industry are discussed.     

How leader–member exchange,work engagement and HRM consistency explain Chinese luxury hotel employees’ job performance

This paper provides insights into the relationship between leader–member exchange (LMX) and employee job performance. An integrative model that includes work engagement and human resource management (HRM) consistency, defined as the extent to which various HR practices are viewed as consistent with one other, was developed to explain this relationship. Results from a hierarchical linear model based on 298 employees (survey data) and 54 supervisors in a large luxury hotel in southern China indicated that LMX was positively related to employee job performance. Moreover, as expected, work engagement mediated this relationship and HRM consistency strengthened the influence of LMX on work engagement. Important research and practical implications are discussed.     

Service encounter value and online engagement behaviors

This study investigates the relationships between service encounter values and online customer engagement behaviors in the context of hospitality and tourism services. Given that interactions are contextual in nature, this study examines the service encounter values across four major service sectors, i.e., hotels, restaurants, theme parks, and airlines through 1710 responses from actual service consumers. Multiple structural equation modeling techniques are conducted to test the hypotheses. Various values (i.e., emotional value, social value, functional value, and epistemic value) are identified in different sectors of service encounters that pose significant influences on online customer engagement behaviors such as online rating, online reviewing, online blogging, and online customer-to-customer interactions. Practical and theoretical implications are provided, as well as future research directions.     

Driving employees to serve customers beyond their roles in the Vietnamese hospitality industry: The roles of paternalistic leadership and discretionary HR practices

Our research primarily seeks to assess how paternalistic leadership behaviors – authoritarianism, benevolence, and morality – influence extra-role customer service via employee work engagement as a mediator. The data for our research model were gleaned from four- or five-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. To test the hypotheses of the research model, structural equation modelling was employed. Our research findings cast light on the mediation mechanism of employee work engagement for the positive relationships between benevolence and morality components of paternalistic leadership and extra-role customer service behavior, as well as for the negative relationship between authoritarian behavior and extra-role customer service behavior. Additionally, benevolent and moral behaviors were found to attenuate this negative association between authoritarian behavior and extra-role customer service. Discretionary HR practices were proved to play the moderating role for the relationships between the three paternalistic leadership behaviors and employee work engagement in that discretionary HR practices fortified the positive link between benevolent or moral behavior and work engagement and alleviated the negative link between authoritarian behavior and work engagement.     

Service customization: To upgrade or to downgrade? An investigation of how option framing affects tourists’ choice of package-tour services

Package-tour operators often tailor trips to fit travelers’ personal requirements to create higher customer value. In practice, there are various options available for presenting an identical package tour to potential customers. This research investigates how option framing influences travelers’ decision making in a package-tour customization task. Based on a behavioral study and a logistic regression analysis, our results show that: (1) when both upgrading (i.e., starting from an economic package and customizing upwards) and downgrading (i.e., beginning with a luxury package and customizing downwards) methods are available, more consumers prefer upgrading to downgrading; (2) consumers customize their tour packages to a higher total price in the downgrading condition; (3) after separating peripheral service from core service attributes, our results further reveal that option framing affects peripheral services more than core services; and (4) consumers who are quality conscious and promotion-focused are more likely to choose a downgrading method for package-tour customization. Combined, these findings offer important managerial implications for travel companies.     

The Impact of Internal Branding on Employee Engagement and Outcome Variables in the Hotel Industry

The concept of internal branding is well accepted in the service industry. This study examines how internal branding helps service organizations achieve desirable outcomes such as job satisfaction and employee loyalty. The model is developed based on social exchange theory and considers the relationship among internal branding, employee engagement, job satisfaction, and employee loyalty. The model is tested on service employees of hotels in South Korea using a survey method. The study finds internal branding is critical for employees to be engaged with the job and the organization and employee engagement fully mediates the relationship between internal branding and job satisfaction. Several implications are discussed.     

Physical attractiveness of service employees and customer engagement in tourism industry

As the importance of customer engagement gains more and more recognition, it is critical to study customer engagement strategy in the intensely competitive tourism industry. Answering the call for research on antecedents of tourists' customer engagement in the tourism industry, we consider the role of employees' physical attractiveness. We adopt a mixed-methods approach; using interviews and three scenario-based experiments, we explore, hypothesize, and test the relationship between employees' physical attractiveness and customer engagement of tourists. The results show that (1) physical attractiveness of employees affects tourists' customer engagement, that (2) the main effect of physical attractiveness is mediated by the desire for social interaction, and that (3) the main effect is moderated by tourism service characteristics (i.e., tourism service expertise).     

Promoting innovation in hospitality companies through human resource management practices

In this study, we investigate how hospitality companies can promote incremental and radical innovation through human resource management practices (i.e., selection and training). Data from 196 independent hotels and restaurants operating in the People's Republic of China show that hiring multi-skilled core customer-contact employees and training core customer-contact employees for multiple skills both have significant and positive effects on incremental and radical innovation among hotel and restaurant companies. The two human resource management practices are also found to have a negative joint impact on incremental but not radical innovation. The implications for promoting innovation in hospitality companies are discussed.     

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.