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.     

Tourism and hospitality industry job-attainment beliefs and work values among Australian schools leavers

Five hundred and ninety-four Australian high school students were surveyed so as to investigate basic work values and tourism and hospitality industry job-attainment criteria. The most highly ranked work values were self-development, creativity and management, whereas the most highly ranked tourism and hospitality industry job-attainment criteria were motivation, positive attitudes and personal appearance. Females were found to rank highly criteria such as motivation, positive attitudes and a liking for people, whereas males are found to rank highly the contacts of the applicant. Prospective tourism and hospitality industry employees generally associated the work value-self development with a range of tourism and hospitality job-attainment criteria, though not formal education and contacts. The work value regarding management was, however, associated with personal appearance, practical experience, good references and positive attitudes. Implications of these results for prospective tourism and hospitality industry employees, careers counsellors and the industry are examined.     

Turnover intention in the hospitality industry: A meta-analysis

This study meta-analytically examined 35 antecedents of turnover intention in the hospitality industry. Results based on 391 correlations from 144 independent studies indicated that work attitudes, job strains, and role stressors/interrole conflicts showed relatively large effects on turnover intention. Compared to the findings from previous meta-analyses in other industry contexts, burnout, role stressors/interrole conflicts, coworker support had stronger relationships with hospitality employees’ turnover intention. The results also showed some evidence of national cultures and job levels being the potential moderators of the relationships between turnover intention and its antecedents.     

Hotel employees’ fun climate at work: Effects on work-family conflict and employee deep acting through a collectivistic perspective

Although the importance of workplace fun in hospitality organizations has been emphasized by scholars, discussion of the mechanism of a workplace fun climate in collectivistic cultural contexts is still rare in current literature. Therefore, based on a collectivistic perspective, this study aims to examine the effects of a three-component fun climate at work (socializing with coworkers, celebrating at work, and global fun at work) on employee deep acting and work-family conflict. A total of 389 usable survey responses were collected from full-time hotel employees in China. The results of this study reveal that socializing with coworkers and celebrating at work enhance global fun at work. Moreover, global fun at work significantly reduces employees’ work-family conflict and strengthens their deep acting at work. Findings of this study not only contribute to knowledge of understanding workplace fun climate in hospitality literature but also offer valuable practical implications to the hospitality industry.     

Student career prospect and industry commitment: The roles of industry attitude,perceived social status,and salary expectations

This study examines the effects of students' perceptions of the nature and social status of work in the tourism and hospitality industries, and of their salary expectations, on their attitudes toward career prospects and employment intention. Results based on a sample of tourism and hospitality students in a major Asia Pacific travel destination indicated that the perceived nature of the work had no significant relationship with career prospects; however, nature of the work was a significant factor contributing to the perceived social status of the industry. In addition, social status had an effect on the students' perceptions of the career prospects, and perceived career prospects was a significant determinant to students' commitment to the industry. The author further explores the moderating effect of salary expectation and discusses theoretical and practical implications of the results. Findings of this study provide a fuller understanding of industry commitment and its antecedents.     

A diary study of work consequences for hotel employees victimized by supervisor from a demand-resource perspective on employee emotions

How would perceiving oneself as a victim of abusive supervisor behavior affect one’s work attitudes? This study examines the mediating role of emotional change on the detrimental work outcomes caused by hotel employees’ perceived victim identity. It further investigates how emotional exhaustion moderates the relationship between perceived victim identity and two outcome variables, daily job satisfaction and work engagement. The research hypotheses were tested by a multi-level analysis (cf., hierarchical linear modeling) using a sample of 128 hotel employees in China who took surveys twice per day over 14 consecutive days. The findings show that emotional change significantly mediates the negative effect of hotel employees’ perceived victim identity on their work attitudes, and emotional exhaustion moderates this effect such that higher exhaustion exacerbates the negative relationship. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for hospitality researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

The effectiveness of tryvertising in hotels

Advertising has been a common practice to promote products and services in the tourism and hospitality industry. Although ample research has investigated customers’ perceptions of and reactions to advertising visuals, direct experience advertising strategies, such as tryvertising have been ignored. As an emerging direct experience approach, tryvertising has been increasingly used in tourism and hospitality businesses especially in hotels. This study explores the effectiveness of tryvertising practices on customer purchase behaviors in hotel settings. Two real data sets that combine 6858 records of customers’ hotel stays and guestroom products purchase transactions were obtained from a hotel management company that uses tryvertising strategies in China. The results from a Heckit model analysis determine the potential factors that affect hotel guests’ likelihood to buy and the amount of money spent on products promoted through tryvertising. This study fills this void in the current literature that focuses on traditional mass advertisements and behavioral intentions rather than actual purchase behaviors. It contributes to the literature with empirical evidence of the impact of tryvertising strategies on consumer behaviors in a hotel context. Managerial implications are suggested for practitioners to customize their tryvertising strategies.     

Development and validation of a hospitality idiosyncratic deals scale

This study explores middle and senior hotel managers’ perceptions of their own idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) and develops a scale to measure i-deals in the Chinese hospitality industry. The study uses a mixed research method consisting of a questionnaire survey of 675 middle and senior hotel managers and in-depth interviews with 20 knowledge workers in the hotel industry in mainland China. The findings reveal that there are three types of i-deals in the Chinese hospitality industry: (1) career and incentives i-deals; (2) task i-deals; and (3) flexibility i-deals. The study proposes and validates a three-dimensional scale of hotel managers’ i-deals, thereby enriching our understanding of the idiosyncratic terms of employment in the hospitality industry.     

Sales skills in the hospitality industry

Two surveys were conducted with the intention of increasing insight into the nature of sales in today's hospitality industry. One hundred U.S. hotel sales and marketing managers were surveyed about attitudes within the hotel sales community regarding training, salesmanship, qualities of effective salespeople, and related issues. Also, the training directors of fifteen hotel companies were interviewed concerning their training programs for entry-level salespeople. Presentation of the results of these surveys is preceded by commentary from the literature and from selected hotel sales executives regarding the unique nature of sales in the hospitality industry.     

Career satisfaction and future intentions in the hospitality industry: An intrinsic or an extrinsic proposition?

Job satisfaction is probably one of the most researched topics in the hospitality literature and, whereas career satisfaction, defined as the gratification with the accumulation of career-related experiences over time, has received much less attention. With the intention of enhancing our conceptual understanding and adding to this discourse, this study aims to investigate the effects of both intrinsic and extrinsic job traits on the individual's career satisfaction and subsequent intention to remain in the hospitality industry. The study investigates individuals working as full time employees in hotel establishments in Cyprus. Findings, some of which challenge existing theoretical paradigms, are of interest to stakeholders both in the industry and the academic community.     

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.     

Work–leisure conflict and its associations with well-being: The roles of social support,leisure participation and job burnout

In hospitality and tourism industries employees, work–leisure conflict (WLC) resulting from job characteristics can affect work attitudes and personal life. This study revealed that social support has moderating effects on the relationships among work–leisure conflict, leisure participation, job burnout and well-being. Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis of 488 valid questionnaires collected from a sample of employees in the hospitality and tourism industries showed that (1) WLC positively affects job burnout and negatively affects leisure participation and well-being; (2) leisure participation is positively associated with well-being, but burnout is negatively associated with well-being; (3) leisure participation and job burnout have mediating roles in the full model; (4) social support is a moderator in the full model. The analytical results of the study provide a reference for managing employees in the hospitality and tourism industries.     

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 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.     

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.     

Exploring the antecedents of intentions to leave the job: The case of luxury hotel staff

The aim of this study is to assess the antecedents of employee’ intentions to resign from their jobs in luxury hotels in India. Two aspects are considered in this context: firstly, the employees’ enthusiasm for the profession and organisation, the nature of the work and its impact on social and family life. Secondly, their level of satisfaction with the job in terms of organisational loyalty, relationship with supervisors, job security, earnings and additional benefits. A theoretical model (see Fig. 1) and seven hypotheses are tested to indicate whether the employees’ level of agreement with statements about the job and their level of satisfaction with the job will impact their intentions to quit. The study further examines if any current employees intend to leave their job. The term luxury hotel is used to represent 5 star and 4 star hotels of India.Findings from the analyses of 884 responses suggest that, when considering intentions to resign from the job, a negative relationship is found between professional and organisational enthusiasm and perceptions about the work being stimulating. No support was found for a positive relationship between the extent work impacted social and family life and the intention to quit. However, results supported the notion that the employee's organisational loyalty has a negative effect on his/her intention to resign from the job. Our findings contradict several other studies in that they suggest the employee's intention to resign from the job increases as job security and earnings improve. The study is distinctive as it explores intentions luxury hotel employees in India to leave their jobs; three is little evidence in the wider literature of similar attempts in the context of the Indian hotel industry. The outcomes have implications for both theory and practice as this is the first such major study in the context of the hotel industry in India where there is a population of over a billion people and an expanding hotel industry.     

Generation effects on work engagement among U.S. hotel employees

Drawing upon generational differences in work values and attitudes, this article examines work engagement of three generational cohorts using survey data collected from 677 customer contact employees in the hotel industry. Results of ANOVA and a series of moderated regression analyses indicate that levels of work engagement significantly differ depending on the generational membership of the employees. The effects of work engagement on turnover intention were significantly moderated by generational differences. Millennials were found to be a more distinct cohort from Gen Xers and Baby Boomers in terms of their level of work engagement as well as the relationship between work engagement and turnover intention.     

An investigation of the moderating effects of current job position level and hotel work experience between technology readiness and technology acceptance

Rapid technology development has greatly changed the hotel structure in operation or customer relationship management. Most previous studies simply employed either the technology readiness index (TRI) or considered the technology acceptance model (TAM) to predict consumer behavior from the perceptions of consumers. Nonetheless, only limited studies, if ever any, integrated technology readiness (TR) into technology acceptance model in hospitality. Hence, to bridge the aforementioned research gap, the purpose of the present study is to advance and modify TAM by proposing a new research framework which integrates TR into TAM. Online questionnaire survey was conducted with hotel employees through a well-known survey company Qualtrics. Data were then analyzed by structural equation modelling. Findings indicate the direct relationship between technology readiness (TR) and technology acceptance (TA), and reveal the moderating effects of current job position level and hotel work experience on the proposed research framework. Implications are further discussed.     

How Does the Work Status Affect Employees’ Job Attitude and Behavior in the Hotel Industry?

The study focuses on how work status impacts employees’ perception of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance in the hotel industry. Also, it explores whether supervisors perceive employees’ job attitudes and behavior in the same way as they perceive. Data were collected from a self-administered survey for five-star hotel employees and supervisors in Seoul, South Korea. A total of 335 valid responses were collected from 280 employees and 65 supervisors and analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The results of the study indicated that nonstandard employees expressed higher job satisfaction and higher organizational commitment but perceived lower job performance than standard employees did. Work status had no significant moderating effect on the relationships between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance; however, the results of this study indicated that supervisors’ perceptions of nonstandard employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance were quite different from those of the nonstandard employees themselves. This study suggests that hotel operators should develop strategies to fully utilize nonstandard employees who reveal potential for quality service to guests.     

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.