Impact of human resources practices on employee creativity in the hotel industry: The impact of job autonomy

ABSTRACT

This study aims to offer a holistic model for human resource practices, affective commitment, job autonomy, and employee creativity. It examines the factors that create conditions for bringing forth creativity in employees. Data were collected from 440 employees drawn from 35 hotels using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study reveal that affective commitment was acted as a mediator between human resource practices and employee creativity while job autonomy was acting as a moderator between affective commitment and employee creativity. This article contributes to a better understanding of the effect of human resource practices on the commitment level of employees working in the hotel industry and provides evidence that commitment acts as a mediator between the factors of human resources practices and employee creativity.     

Exploring the relationship between employee creativity and job-related motivators in the Hong Kong hotel industry

The purpose of this research is to determine if there is any relationship between employee creativity and job-related motivators, using a case study of hotel employees in Hong Kong. From a sample of 983 employees, canonical correlation indicated there is a relationship between creativity and job-related motivators. Furthermore, the risk-taking dimension under creativity was found to be more correlated to the intrinsic job-related motivators. Intrinsic job-related motivators which include opportunity for advancement and development, loyalty to employees, appreciation and praise of work done, feelings of being involved, sympathetic help with personal problems and interesting work, are found to encourage the hotel employees’ risk-taking behavior. A “See-Saw” model is presented to show the relationship between the two opposing sides: intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators versus creativity and risk-taking factors.     

Contingent work in the hospitality industry: A mediating model of organizational attitudes

It is widely accepted that work status has an impact on emotional attachment to the organization, because of the different ways in which the two categories of workers, contingent and regular, are treated in the same organization. This study aims to investigate the effect of work status on affective commitment and how this relationship is influenced by identification processes.     

Employees' perceived job performance,organizational identification,and pro-environmental behaviors in the hotel industry

Employees' engagement in pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is crucial for greening hotels and improving hotel performance. This paper argues that we can explore employees' PEB motivations from a positive externality/spillover perspective because such voluntary behaviors benefit actors other than the employees, namely, the hotels that employ them and the surrounding natural environment. Accordingly, compensation and internalization could motivate employees' PEBs. This paper attempts to advance research on internalization by focusing on the oneness between employees and organizations and by proposing that organizational identification (OI) is an essential predictor of employees' PEBs and can be improved by increasing their perceived job performance (PJP). Additionally, this paper argues that PJP can affect employees' PEBs through OI. In the context of the positivism research philosophy, the current study utilized a survey method to collect data from employees working in Chinese hotels and performed ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses, which were all supported empirically.     

Ethical contexts and employee job responses in the hotel industry: The roles of work values and perceived organizational support

The hotel industry faces continual ethical dilemmas that present important, interesting and complex challenges. This study had two objectives. The first was to investigate the relationship between ethical context and job satisfaction and to examine the moderating role of work values and the mediating role of perceived organizational support in the relationship between ethical context and job satisfaction. The second objective was to examine the influence of these same variables on turnover intention. A survey of Taiwanese hotel employees showed that ethical context was a significant predictor of job satisfaction and turnover intention and that work values and perceived organizational support moderate and mediate respectively the relationship between an ethical context and job responses. These data suggested ways by which hotels can deal with ethical context, perceived organizational support, and employee work values to increase job satisfaction and decrease the turnover intention of employees.     

Perceived organizational change in the hotel industry: An implication of change schema

A schema, first proposed by Fiske and Taylor (1984), is a cognitive structure that represents organized knowledge on a given concept or type of stimulus. Lau and Woodman (1995) further explained that when an organization experiences changes, its members have various interpretations of and expectations for those changes. The cognitive understanding of change is guided by a mental map that represents the knowledge structures of the attributes of change and relationships between different events of change. This mental map refers to the so-called change schema (Lau and Woodman, 1995). The objectives of this study are to apply this change schema to organizational change in hotels, and to examine the antecedents and consequences of organizational change.     

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.     

Reducing Employee Turnover Intention Through Servant Leadership in the Restaurant Context: A Mediation Study of Affective Organizational Commitment

Building on a social exchange theory, our model explains how an employee’s perception of servant leadership affect frontline restaurant employees’ turnover intention. Data were collected from 213 frontline restaurant employees in United States. The structural equation modeling findings support our hypothesized model and indicate that affective organizational commitment fully mediated the relationship between the employee perception of servant leadership and turnover intention. This article includes discussions of the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.     

The role of loyalty programs in boosting hotel guest loyalty: Impact of switching barriers

This study examines the relationships among the perceived value of a loyalty program, customer satisfaction with a loyalty program, affective commitment, switching barriers, and customer brand loyalty in the hotel context. An online survey method with a quantitative approach was used. Our results from a structural equation model revealed that the perceived value of a loyalty program is essential in the formation of customer brand loyalty. Lastly, findings from an indirect analysis showed that affective commitment and switching barriers mediated the relationship between the perceived value of a loyalty program and customer brand loyalty. Overall, our research will help researchers and practitioners demonstrate to the industry that the loyalty program is a crucial strategy for customer loyalty and helps develop competitive loyalty programs for success.     

Social media friending in building coworker guanxi: A study in the hotel industry

An omnipresent ingredient in personal and professional lives, social media has changed interpersonal relationships in numerous ways. Using the case of Facebook, this paper explores the role of social media use with coworkers in hotels through a mixed method approach. The purpose of the study is twofold. First, in-depth interviews are conducted to develop scales of key factors that influence coworker social media friending. Second, a survey is employed to investigate the consequences of such work-life-crossing behaviors. A framework is tested leading from the motivational/de-motivational factors to workplace guanxi via interaction intensity, workplace fun, and stress. The results indicate that motivations for relationship reinforcement, career advancement, and compliance with peers lead to increasing coworker social media interactions, while negatively-valenced factors do not have a salient impact. Furthermore, while social media interactions induce both workplace fun and stress, the overall impact on coworker guanxi is positive.     

Achieving task and extra-task-related behaviors: A case of gender and position differences in the perceived role of rewards in the hotel industry

The study drew on a sample (n=284) from the hotel industry in Hong Kong to advance our understanding about the perceived effectiveness of various reward instruments in achieving specific task and extra-task performance behaviors. We found that the perceived motivating value of a reward varied according to its type. Non-financial rewards, for example, were found to play a prominent role in achieving extra-task performance dimensions. Employee characteristics also affected the perceived performance implications of various rewards. Nevertheless, caution must be exercised when interpreting the results, as other factors may also influence reward–performance relationships, thus paving the way for future research.     

We are in the same boat: Tourist citizenship behaviors

This paper applies the concept of customer organizational citizenship behaviors (CCB) to the behaviors of tour participants. Tourist citizenship behaviors (TCB) are discretionary and altruistic while efficiently promoting the effective functioning of a tour. This study aims to explore TCB. A qualitative approach and content analysis were conducted, resulting in three categories of TCB: (1) facilitating communication and management to bring harmony and conviviality to the tour; (2) displaying benevolent acts toward fellow tour members; and (3) motivating and supporting service providers. This research contributes to the current knowledge of both citizenship and tour group dynamics. Future research could develop a scale of TCB and explore the antecedents of TCB.     

Service guarantees in the hotel industry: Their effects on consumer risk and service quality perceptions

This work proposes a theoretical model that examines how service guarantees offered by hotels affect the perceived quality and perceived risk of consumers, as well as the moderating effect of corporate reputation. We tested hypotheses with an experiment using a 2 (corporate reputation: good and poor) × 2 (guarantees coverage: unconditional and specific) × 2 (payout: money-back and non-money-back payout) between-subjects design. A total of 222 questionnaires were completed by hotel consumers in Taipei. The results indicate that the type of service guarantee significantly affects the perceived quality and perceived risk of consumers. Furthermore, corporate reputation has a moderating effect on the relationship between service guarantee type and the perceived quality and perceived risk. Some suggestions concerning service guarantee strategies for hotel services are given.     

A study of critical factors of the job involvement for hotel employees—Taking hotels in Taiwan as an example

The selection of staff is always a critical success factor for managers in the hospitality service sector. This work focuses on the front-line employees and supervisors of international tourist hotels as the study subjects to explore the direct effects of the individual guanxi networks and POS (perceived organizational support) of hotel staff on their job involvement, and examines the indirect effects of these via personality characteristics. For this paper, questionnaire surveys were utilized; 246 questionnaires returned, of which 221 were deemed valid samples appropriate for further analysis. Reliability analysis, EFA, CFA, and SEM were used to examine the data.     

Understanding the leadership perceptions of staff in China's hotel industry: Integrating the macro- and micro-aspects of leadership contexts

The objective of this paper is to understand the leadership perceptions of staff in China's hotel industry. This study integrates the macro- and micro-aspects of leadership contexts by identifying the contextual variables that affect leadership perceptions. In leadership research, industry setting, the hierarchical levels of an organization, and national culture are recognized as the contextual constraints that affect leadership perceptions, and these constraints were used in this empirical study. Four factors emerged from the factor analysis of a survey study: professionalism; integrity; masculinity or yang; and femininity or yin. A key finding indicates that both the industry setting and the hierarchical levels of an organization affect professionalism. Implications for the training and development of future international hospitality leaders and local staff are considered.     

Domestic migrant workers in China's hotel industry: An exploratory study of their life satisfaction and job burnout

This study investigated job burnout and life satisfaction among domestic migrant workers in economy hotels in China. The results revealed that two dimensions of job burnout, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, have significant influence on domestic migrant workers’ life satisfaction. Life satisfaction between domestic migrant workers and local workers was different. Theoretical discussion and practical implications were presented.     

Predicting Innovative Information Systems (IS) Behavior of Frontline Employees in Hotels

Although the existing information systems (IS) literature investigated technology acceptance in the early stages of implementation, it is outdated and has a theoretical limitation in its understanding of users as passive recipients of technology. Addressing such limitations, this research focuses on innovative IS behavior as a crucial pattern of IS behavior. To predict innovative IS behaviors of front-office employees at hotels, this research analyzes the personal attitude of commitment to service quality and organizational conditions of psychological empowerment and organizational IS support for employees. The research results emphasize personal attitude, the significance of organizational predictors, and the effect of their interaction on innovative IS behaviors.     

Drivers and resources of customer co-creation: A scenario-based case in the restaurant industry

The aim of this study was to build and test a model that explores customer co-creation by integrating drivers and resources that promote customer co-creation. This study used a scenario-based survey that combines respondents’ personal experiences of dining at a full-service restaurant and their responses to the hypothetical scenario of the co-creation experience. The population of the study was restaurant customers in the United States who visited any full-service restaurant within the previous three months before the survey date. Using convenience sampling, respondents were recruited from the Amazon Mechanical Turk. A total of 501 responses were used for data analysis using a two-step approach of structural equation modeling. This study found that customers with a higher level of knowledge, self-efficacy, and motivation are more likely to participate in the co-creation experience. In addition, the results supported the role of the customer as a resource integrator during the co-creation experience.     

Deterrence and leadership factors: Which are important for information security policy compliance in the hotel industry

Hotels have developed information security policies to deal with information security incidents, and managers are interested in how to enhance employees' compliance with these policies. This study examines how deterrence perception and managers' leadership influence employees' intention to comply with information security policies. Two rounds of surveys were conducted to collect data from Chinese hotel employees. The results show that perceived deterrent certainty has a positive effect. On the other hand, ethical leadership has a significant indirect effect with the second-round compliance intention. Abusive supervision does not have positive effects, even when managers' intent is motivational. Our study is among the first to examine the effect of managers' leadership on information security compliance intentions in the hotel industry. Our study also provides important strategic guidelines for by informing hotel managers that ethical leadership should be practiced as a means of enhancing employees' information security policy compliance.     

Pushing forward high-performance work systems in the hotel industry: A procedural-justice climate to promote higher unit-level outcomes

In this study, we examine how the high-performance work system (HPWS) can be used to promote positive employee behavior leading to higher organizational service performance in the hotel industry. Specifically, we suggest that the collective organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees links the HPWS to organizational service performance, and a stronger procedural-justice climate of a hotel strengthens the relationship between the HPWS and the collective OCB. Using multi-source data drawn from 5290 employees across 180 independent franchise hotels in North America and customer feedback on each surveyed hotel, we found that the collective OCB mediates the relationship between the HPWS and organizational service performance, and when hotels have a stronger procedural-justice climate, the mediating effect is more salient. The implications of these findings for tourism researchers and practitioners are discussed.