From internal brand management to organizational citizenship behaviours: Evidence from frontline employees in the hotel industry

This paper examines the links between internal brand management, organizational identification, work engagement, and organizational citizenship behaviours in the hospitality industry. A model is proposed and tested using a sample of 323 frontline employees from the main hotel chains operating in Spain. This model includes different dimensions of internal brand management and different manifestations of citizenship behaviours. Data are analysed through the use of partial least squares. The findings confirm that transformational leadership leverages organizational identification and work engagement. However, brand training and brand communications do not directly raise positive emotions in the workplace. The results also suggest that work engagement is a better predictor of citizenship behaviours than organizational identification. Identification influences citizenship behaviours towards the organization. However, this variable does not explain extra-role supportive behaviours towards customers and other employees. These results extend previous research by empirically analysing the effects of internal brand management from the employees' perspective.     

Both angel and devil: The suppressing effect of transformational leadership on proactive employee’s career satisfaction

This paper empirically examined the effect of hotel employees’ proactive personality on career satisfaction and the suppressing moderation effect of transformational leadership on this relationship.Results of multisource and time lagged data from 75 team supervisors and 464 subordinates showed that proactive personality positively predicted career satisfaction. Moreover, the bright side of transformational leadership had direct positive moderation effect on the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction, while the dark side had indirect negative moderation effect on such relationship through its influence on LLX (i.e., leader–leader exchange). With the opposite effects of these two sides counteracting each other, the total moderation effect of transformational leadership became nonsignificant, that is, the suppressing effect happened to transformational leadership. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.     

In pursuit of service excellence: Investigating the role of psychological contracts and organizational identification of frontline hotel employees

Research in tourism management is yet to examine the role of psychological contracts in shaping organizational identification and influencing service-oriented behaviors of frontline employees. Drawing upon psychological contract and social identity theories, we propose a theoretical model that links the two types of psychological contracts (relational vs. transactional psychological contracts) with organizational identification and service employees' in-role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Data collected from 199 matched frontline employee-coworker-supervisor triads in hotels show that while transactional psychological contracts were directly and negatively associated with supervisor-reported in-role performance and co-worker reported service-oriented citizenship behaviors, the relationship between relational psychological contracts and both types of service-oriented behaviors were positive and partially mediated by organizational identification. Our findings have important implications for tourism operators by highlighting the important role of different types of psychological contracts in the delivery of high quality service.     

Can innovative behavior be led by management? A study from the lodging business

This study examined the effects of hotel management leadership on employee innovative behavior in Chinese hotel organizations. Using a dyadic sample of 164 hotel supervisors and 603 service employees at 23 four-star and five-star hotels in 11 Chinese cities, we investigated whether organizational commitment mediated the effects of leadership on employee innovative behavior. We also examined how organizational tenure moderated leadership and innovative behavior through organizational commitment. Findings from our moderated-mediation model revealed that organizational commitment mediated the relationship between leadership and innovative behavior. Similarly, organizational tenure moderated the relationship between leadership and organizational commitment: there was a stronger relationship for long-tenured employees and a weaker relationship for short-tenured employees. However, the effect of higher leadership on organizational commitment was stronger for short-tenured employees than long-tenured employees. Our results spotlight the importance of fostering organizational commitment, which directly affects innovative behavior and through which supervisors can influence individual innovative behavior.     

Thinking job embeddedness not turnover: Towards a better understanding of frontline hotel worker retention

This article reports the findings of a study of 327 Australian hotel frontline employees using a survey of job embeddedness. The research provides a novel application of the job embeddedness construct to the hospitality industry, not only validating the factor structure of the job embeddedness scale, but also investigating the relationship between job embeddedness and other job-related attitudes that influence employee turnover. Findings indicated that a six factor solution is the best explanation. Testing a model of the embeddedness-commitment and embeddedness-turnover relationship, the embeddedness dimensions of organizational sacrifice and community links displayed a positive relationship with organizational commitment. A negative relationship was found between organizational sacrifice and intentions to leave, while a positive relationship was found between community links and intentions to leave. One implication for hospitality managers is that there is an opportunity for hotel organizations to increase the job embeddedness of their employees by increasing the perceived costs of leaving.     

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.     

Hotels’ environmental leadership and employees’ organizational citizenship behavior

Expanding on a stream of literature connecting employee motivation to environmental practices, this research investigated why hospitality employees participated in organizational citizenship behaviors related to company sustainability efforts. The results of this study suggest that employees’ environmental belief partially mediates the influences of both environmental-transformational leadership and environmental policies on organizational citizenship behavior toward the environment, while it fully mediates the association between environmental training and the outcome. The findings also demonstrate that employees’ perception of organizational support moderates the relationship between environmental belief and organizational citizenship behavior toward the environment. Pointedly, hospitality workers reported they were increasingly more likely to engage in ecologically friendly organizational citizenship behaviors as their environmental beliefs increased, and as such, organizational support moderated the association so that the more support received, the more likely workers would engage in such behaviors, and the less support received, the less likely they were to do so.     

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.     

Linking employee attitudes and behaviors with business performance: A comparative analysis of hotels in Mexico and China

Organizations have been studied extensively through the lenses of employee attitudes and behaviors, yet links with organizational performance have not often been considered. This research uses established measures of commitment, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) to analyze data obtained from workers in a multinational hotel chain operating in Mexico and China. Mexico and China are selected due to their importance as emerging global markets. Quantitative analysis shows significantly different levels of commitment, job satisfaction and OCB in line with low and high performance in these national hotel groups. The research finds that commitment, job satisfaction and OCB are associated significantly with financial performance, but not with guest satisfaction.     

How to motivate your older employees to excel? The impact of commitment on older employees’ performance in the hospitality industry

This study examined the relationship between employee age and performance, defined as in-role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), using a sample of 599 hospitality employees from Hong Kong. Results of a regression analysis indicated a negative relationship between age and in-role and OCB. We also examined whether organizational commitment is a necessary condition for older workers to perform well. Findings indicated that organizational commitment moderated the relationship between age and work performance, such that the relationships were strong and negative only when commitment was low.     

An examination of the links between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its internal consequences

The purpose of this study is to examine the links between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its internal consequencesusing the hotel employees' CSR perception, Quality of Working Life (QWL), affective commitment, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and job performance. Although CSR has been widely studied from the perspective of employees, no previous study has related it to QWL in the field of hospitality research. Applying relevant theories, the study empirically substantiates the connection between the constructs and provides theoretical and practical implications. The results, drawn from data collected from hotel employees in upscale hotels in South Korea, show that hotel employees' CSR perception of the firm positively influences their QWL, affective commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior, which, in turn, enhance their job performance.     

Transformational leadership and turnover intention: The mediating effects of trust and job performance on café employees in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Immediate managers are the number one predictor of employee turnover. Immediate managers’ transformational leadership style might reduce turnover intention through the employees’ trust in their manager and their perceived job performance. To support the contention, a study was conducted among 187 employees of cafés in Bangkok, hypothesizing that transformational leadership would negatively predict turnover intention and that trust and job performance would mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and turnover intention. Results support the hypotheses. Transformational leadership seems to have an impact to reduce turnover intention and organizations may benefit from development programs to instill transformational leadership style among their immediate managers.     

Intrinsic or extrinsic motivations for hospitality employees’ creativity: The moderating role of organization-level regulatory focus

This study predicts that the intrinsic (creative personality) and extrinsic motivators (transformational leadership) reinforce employee creativity and job performance in the hospitality industry. More importantly, the positive moderating effects of organizational regulatory focus (promotion and prevention) on employee creativity are included in proposed model. To test the mode, data (339 employees and 72 supervisors) was collected from 62 Taiwan international hotels in the summer of 2014. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) were conducted to examine measurement model and hypotheses. The HLM results confirmed the effects of individual-level factors. However, an organizational promotion focus only enhances the extrinsic creative motivator. The intrinsic creative motivator was reinforced by an organizational prevention focus. The research findings suggest that hospitality managers should consider both individual- and organizational-level factors simultaneously. Indeed, the organizational goals could be set depending on the features of the department. Further discussions and implications are elucidated.     

Do mindfulness and perceived organizational support work? Fear of COVID-19 on restaurant frontline employees’ job insecurity and emotional exhaustion

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted the restaurant industry tremendously. Building on the Conservation of Resources Theory, the current study investigates the relationships among U.S. restaurant frontline employees’ fear of COVID-19, job insecurity, and emotional exhaustion. The study also examines the moderating role of employee mindfulness and perceived organizational support. SPSS PROCESS macro was used for hypotheses testing. Results suggested that restaurant frontline employees’ fear of COVID-19 was positively associated with both job insecurity and emotional exhaustion. Fear of COVID-19 had an indirect effect on restaurant frontline employees’ emotional exhaustion via job insecurity. Employee mindfulness buffered the positive relationship between fear of COVID-19 and job insecurity. Perceived organizational support was found to intensify the positive relationship between job insecurity and frontline employees’ emotional exhaustion. The research provided useful human resource management practices for U.S. restaurant businesses amid crises such as COVID-19.     

Can proactivity translate to creativity? Examinations at individual and team levels

Building on Trait Activation Theory, this study explored whether, how, and why proactive personality and inclusive leaders can foster creativity at both individual and team levels. Using multi-wave data collected from hotel frontline employees and their supervisors, the study first found that at individual level, proactive personality could influence creativity via psychological safety, with inclusive leadership moderated the indirect relationship. The study further tested at team level, using lab experiment with hospitality majored students, the relationship between proactivity and creativity. The findings at the team level suggested that teams with highly proactive members exhibited higher levels of creativity than teams without highly proactive members. This research revealed the psychological mechanism of how proactivity contributes to individual creativity, and teams can benefit from having proactive members.     

COVID-19: The effects of job insecurity on the job engagement and turnover intent of deluxe hotel employees and the moderating role of generational characteristics

COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented crisis in all industries around the world. This study sought to verify that job insecurity, as perceived by deluxe hotel employees, significantly affects their job engagement and turnover intent and to determine the moderating effect of generational characteristics. The finding showed that perceptions of job insecurity had negative effects on the engagement of deluxe hotel employees. Also, employees’ job engagement can decrease turnover intent. The engagement of employees fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of job insecurity and turnover intent, and job insecurity caused by COVID-19 had a greater influence on Generation Y than Generation X in reducing job engagement, indicating that the negative impact of job insecurity is higher in Generation Y.     

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.     

When does an employee not help coworkers? The effect of leader–member exchange on employee envy and organizational citizenship behavior

Using a sample of 233 front-line hotel employees, we examined leader–member exchange (LMX), envy, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The results from path analysis support the research model that employees who have a relatively poor working relationship with their supervisor (i.e., low-quality LMX relationship) were more likely to show higher levels of envy than employees who have relatively closer working relationships with the same supervisor (i.e., high-quality LMX relationship). Ultimately, higher levels of envy decreased employee voluntary helping behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior, OCB) toward coworkers. This finding suggests that employees perceiving a poor working relationship with their supervisor committed less voluntary helping behavior toward coworkers than their counterparts. Implications for managers and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

TOURISM INVOLVEMENT,WORK ENGAGEMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION AMONG FRONTLINE HOTEL EMPLOYEES

This study examined the relationship among tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction in the hotel industry. Data was gathered from 336 frontline employees of 20 international hotels in Taiwan and was analyzed via structural equation modeling. Findings show that tourism involvement is positively related to work engagement, while both tourism involvement and work engagement are positively related to job satisfaction. Work engagement was found to partially mediate the relationship between tourism involvement and job satisfaction. Implications for hotel managers, limitations and future research directions are discussed.