Abusive supervision and deviance behaviors in the hospitality industry: The role of intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluation

Workplace deviance poses a significant challenge in the hospitality and tourism industries. Based on conservation of resources theory, we develop a model proposing relationships between abusive supervision and frontline employees' deviant behaviors via their intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluation. We validate it with two surveys targeting 200 and 600 hotel frontline employees. Results confirm the detrimental impacts of abusive supervision on frontline employees’ deviant behaviors and the helpful mediating and moderating impacts of their intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluation. Courses of action are proposed to reduce the various human and financial costs at the individual, organizational, social and societal levels.     

When we are onstage,we smile: The effects of emotional labor on employee work outcomes

A growing body of literature has confirmed the deleterious effects of emotional labor on service employees. The study adds to it by investigating two hypothesized antecedents to emotional labor; affectivity and empathy which is conceptualized as a two-dimensional construct composed of emotional contagion and empathic concern. It also examines the impact of emotional labor on job satisfaction and exhaustion. The results confirmed a two-dimensional structure of emotional labor, emotive dissonance, and emotive effort. Hospitality employees with higher positive affect tend to experience less emotive dissonance while individuals with higher negative affect exert more effort to enact emotional labor. A positive relationship was found between emotional contagion and emotive dissonance, and emotive effort and job satisfaction. The results also suggested a negative relationship between emotive effort and emotional exhaustion. An unexpected negative relationship was found between emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion. Managerial implications discuss training and acting techniques to more effectively manage employee emotional labor.     

Antecedents and outcomes of emotional labour in hospitality and tourism: A meta-analysis

This paper meta-analytically investigates a theoretical framework of emotional labour and its antecedents and outcomes in the hospitality and tourism literature with 57 correlation matrices from published journal papers. Adopting the psychometric meta-analytical methods and meta-structural equation modelling (meta-SEM) methods, the study finds that emotional labour is related to antecedents including personality, emotional intelligence, customer orientation, social support and display rules, as well as related to attitudinal, behavioural, and customer-related outcomes. In addition, strain mediates the relations between emotional labour and its outcomes. This paper is the first meta-analysis on the relations between emotional labour and the antecedents and outcomes in hospitality and tourism management.     

Relationship between HEXACO personality factors and emotional labour of service providers in the tourism industry

This study aimed to 1) explore to what extent service providers’ emotional labour is affected by personality as measured using HEXACO personality factors, 2) analyze the affect of emotional labour on the performance of required emotional display rules, and 3) investigate differences in emotional labour depending on service providers’ demographic characteristics. From a questionnaire survey of employees in different service sectors in Korea, four HEXACO personality factors, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness were found to have a positive influence on emotional labour. Deep acting has a positive influence on the requirement to display positive emotions and a negative influence on the requirement to hide negative emotions. Demographic variables generally do not affect emotional labour. This study provides practical information about employees to managers in the service industry. It could help in recruitment, the management of human resources, and enhance a company’s service assessment.     

Rules of engagement: The role of emotional display rules in delivering conservation interpretation in a zoo-based tourism context

The shifting strategic focus of zoos from sites of recreation and entertainment to predominantly visitor conservation education entails a change in the design and delivery of conservation interpretation strategies. As the primary conveyers of conservation messages, zoo guides are expected to display appropriate emotional expression (emotional labour) to establish a connection between the object of interpretation, the conservation message and the visitor. The emotional display responses of guides to role demands may not be consistent with zoo conservation-based objectives beyond delivering a service-based positive visitor experience. We examine organisational expectations for emotional display in directing the delivery of conservation-based visitor outcomes. Findings from 21 semi-structured interviews with managers and guides at an open-range zoo indicate that sources and types of display rules for visitor entertainment remain more clearly communicated than those related to conservation. Theoretical and managerial implications for the delivery of conservation messages are discussed.     

A within-level analysis of the effect of customer-focused perspective-taking on deep acting and customer helping behaviors: The mediating roles of negative affect and empathy

Service employees can face customer mistreatment on a daily basis, which can negatively influence their affect and subsequent service performance. Despite this reality, little research has examined theoretically based interventions to change employees’ affective reactions to customer mistreatment. Using an experience sampling method, the current study examined customer-focused perspective-taking through a longitudinal design consisting of five days of baseline measurements, followed by five days of intervention measurements. Frontline service employees completed daily measures of affective reactions (i.e., negative affect and empathy) and employee performance (i.e., deep acting and customer helping behaviors). The results showed that customer-focused perspective-taking decreased negative affect and increased empathy toward customers, which led to more deep acting and customer helping behaviors. Regardless of fluctuations in daily difficult customer interactions, the positive effect of customer-focused perspective-taking on the outcomes remained consistent at the within-person level.     

Transformational leadership and employee performance: The role of identification,engagement and proactive personality

This study investigates the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions that explain the relationship between transformational leadership and frontline employee performance. Specifically, it explores the mediating role of organizational identification and work engagement in the relationship between transformational leadership and job performance and organization-directed citizenship behaviors. Additionally, it examines whether proactive personality moderates the effect of transformational leadership on identification and engagement. Data from 323 frontline hotel employees were analyzed using partial least square regression. Results show that identification and engagement fully mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors, whereas engagement partially mediates the link between transformational leadership and job performance. Results indicate a sequential mediation effect of identification and engagement on employee performance. Finally, findings show that proactive personality strengthens the effect of leadership on identification and engagement. The study provides information for hotel managers about why and under what circumstances employees perform the way they do.     

Reducing burnout and enhancing job satisfaction: Critical role of hotel employees’ emotional intelligence and emotional labor

Despite its strong theoretical relevance with emotional labor, employees’ ability to understand and regulate emotions (i.e., emotional intelligence, EI) has seldom been studied, especially how it affects hotel employees responding to the firm's display rules (i.e., emotional labor) and experiencing burnout and job satisfaction. Thus, this study investigated direct and indirect effects of employees’ EI on two different forms of emotional labor (i.e., emotional effort: EE; emotional dissonance: ED): burnout and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 309 customer-contact hotel employees and managers in the United States. Results of structural equation modeling showed that EI had a direct, positive effect on EE and personal accomplishment and a direct, negative effect on ED and depersonalization. EI was also found to indirectly affect job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion through the mediating roles of personal accomplishment and ED, respectively. Additionally, ED was found to directly affect depersonalization and indirectly affect job satisfaction through emotional exhaustion while EE directly affects personal accomplishment and indirectly affects job satisfaction through personal accomplishment. Finally, personal accomplishment was found to mediate the depersonalization–job satisfaction relationship. Managerial implications for human resource practices are provided.     

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 double-edged sword effect of service recovery awareness of frontline employees: From a job demands-resources perspective

Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines the double-edged sword effect of service recovery awareness (SRA) on post-recovery satisfaction via frontline employees’ (FLEs) emotional responses (including emotional exhaustion and work engagement). The moderating effect of perceived psychological empowerment (PPE) was also assessed. Dyadic and matched responses from 267 five-star hotel FLEs and customers indicated that SRA is appraised as a challenging demand that is positively associated with post-recovery satisfaction through work engagement. However, SRA is also considered a hindrance demand that leads to emotional exhaustion, which is negatively related to post-recovery satisfaction. PPE amplified the impact of SRA on work engagement and buffered the impact of SRA on emotional exhaustion. The theoretical contribution, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research of this study are discussed in detail.     

Negative affectivity and tipping: The moderating role of emotional labor strategies and leader-member exchange

Negative affectivity (NA) is a personality trait that is likely to impede hospitality employees’ ability to perform service due to their tendency to experience negative emotions that are inconsistent or even contrary to normative display rules.This study examined whether emotional labor strategies and the quality of the relationship with the manager (i.e., LMX) could help NA employees to perform service (expressed as financial gains measured in tip size).The sample was composed of 304 Israeli restaurant servers. The findings show that NA had a positive effect on tip size when engaging in high surface acting or deep acting; however, this effect was not significant for employees who were less engaged in emotional labor strategies. LMX moderated the relationship between NA and tips such that NA was positively related to tips for employees with a high quality LMX relationship but was negatively related to tips for employees with a low quality LMX relationship.     

When diversity leads to divided teams: A multi-level moderated mediation model of team faultlines and employee engagement

Team faultlines are hypothetical dividing lines that split a team into two or more subgroups based on individual (diversity) attributes, which negatively influence team process and outcomes. Linking with diversity literature and building on social identity and optimal distinctiveness theories, our study examined a multilevel moderated mediation model on whether, how, and when team faultlines would affect hotel frontline employees’ work engagement using data from 337 Chinese hotel employees nested in 102 work groups, collected at multiple times. The results indicated that team faultlines negatively influenced hotel frontline employees’ work engagement, and that individual perceived psychological safety played a mediating role. Inclusive leadership moderated the indirect relationship between team faultlines and employees’ work engagement via psychological safety, thus providing a more optimistic view that measures can indeed be taken to mitigate the negative impacts of team faultlines.     

The mediating role of trust between expatriate procedural justice and employee outcomes in Chinese hotel industry

This study draws from social exchange theory to examine the roles cognitive and affective trust play in mediating the relationship between expatriate supervisors and their local employees. We differentiate the two forms of trust by proposing, on the one hand, that cognitive trust mediates the relationship between the procedural justice displayed by expatriate supervisors and job satisfaction and organizational commitment of their employees and, on the other hand, that affective trust mediates the relationship between the procedural justice displayed by expatriates and the level of employee satisfaction with and altruism toward their supervision. We then support the hypotheses by using structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from 286 employees working with expatriate supervisors in China's hotel industry. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

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.     

Hospitality service employees’ coping styles: The role of emotional intelligence,two basic personality traits,and socio-demographic factors

This study examines the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and three coping strategies (task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented coping) using an adult, hospitality industry population specifically in hotel and restaurant work environments. The hierarchical regression indicates that EI is by far the most dominant predictor of task coping among all selected explanatory variables; EI does not have much influence on emotion coping after the entry of two basic personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion); and EI is significantly related to avoidance coping encompassing distraction and social diversion. In addition, this study reveals the role played by age and work experience in individual coping efforts and a high possibility of female workers as a task-oriented coper in hospitality work settings.     

The effects of generational work values on employee brand attitude and behavior: A multi-group analysis

The competitive hospitality industry requires effective external and internal brand management. Since service employees bring the brand to life, insight regarding their motivational drivers is important. Given a multigenerational hospitality workforce, individual motivations will likely differ and therefore inform attitudes and behavior differently. Adopting work values as a motivational lens, and drawing on generational theory, this study surveys 303 hospitality employees to understand how generational collective memories (i.e., formative referents) inform individuals’ work values. Further, it examines how generational work values differentially influence employees’ perceived brand fit and brand citizenship behavior. The results suggest that an individual’s collective memories from their formative years influence their work values, with altruistic, social and intrinsic work values having a positive impact on employee brand attitude and behavior, while extrinsic and leisure work values have no significant impact. Generational differences are evident, but not always in a manner that is consistent with previous literature.     

Dealing with customer incivility: The effects of managerial support on employee psychological well-being and quality-of-life

This research examines the effects of customer incivility and manager procedural and emotional support on employee psychological well-being (PWB) and work quality-of-life (WQOL). Study 1 uses the qualitative critical incident technique to content analyze employee perceptions, finding that incivility affects employee PWB and WQOL. Based on the results of Study 1, a conceptual model examines a 2 (procedural support: high vs. low) × 2 (emotional support: high vs. low) between-subjects experimental design in both a hospitality and general service context. Results from Study 2 and 3 find that managerial procedural and emotional support significantly affect employee’s PWB and WQOL. There is also a significant interaction effect of emotional and procedural support on PWB and WQOL. The research builds upon the incivility, managerial support, psychological well-being, and quality-of-life research as well as provides important managerial implications for actions service firms can take to minimize the negative effects.     

The mediating role of psychological distress between ostracism,work engagement,and turnover intentions: An analysis in the Cypriot hospitality context

Drawing on the conservation of resources and job-demands resource theories, this study proposes and tests psychological distress as an underlying mechanism mediating the relationships between workplace ostracism, work engagement, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, it investigates how resilience and perceived external employability condition the aforementioned relationships. Four- and five-star full-time hotel employees provided the data for this study. The findings suggest that psychological distress mediated the relationship between workplace ostracism and turnover intention, but did not mediate the workplace ostracism-work engagement linkage. Also, workplace ostracism plummeted the work engagement of less resilient employees, and surprisingly aroused that of more resilient employees. Finally, the result did not support the argument that employees with perceived high external employability would have stronger turnover intentions compared to those with lower external employability. This study offered new insights into the interface between workplace ostracism, engagement, and turnover intention, and relevant theoretical implications and address to managers are further discussed.     

Hotel service providers’ emotional labor: The antecedents and effects on burnout

The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents and consequences of two emotional labor strategies (surface and deep acting) in the lodging industry. Variety, duration, and positive display rules are significant predictors of hotel service providers’ deep acting and negative display rules are related to service providers’ surface acting. Employees ohigh in neuroticism are more likely to fake their emotional expressions (surface acting) when dealing with guests and those high in extraversion are more likely to try hard to invoke the appropriate emotions (deep acting). Results further indicate that surface actors are more exhausted and cynical than deep actors and the mediating role of emotional labor between burnout and job and personality characteristics is found to be rather weak. Managerial implications for hotel operators are discussed.     

The impact of wearable devices on employee wellness programs: A study of hotel industry workers

Hospitality workplaces are particularly challenging contexts in which to implement wellness initiatives. The present study implemented a technology-based wellness intervention to improve various aspects of employee wellness in contemporary hotel workplaces. The participants were given a wearable device (Fitbit, used here as an innovative tool) in order to monitor their activity levels and sleep patterns over a 14-day period. Additionally, the participants provided researchers with food diaries in separate electronic form. Information regarding job satisfaction, job engagement, organizational citizenship behaviors, and intention to leave was obtained before and after the observation period. The results demonstrate an increase in physical activity, an increase in healthy food consumption, and a reduction in overall caloric intake. Furthermore, positive changes in employee engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were noted. Care should be exercised when implementing such interventions in order to ensure data privacy and positive employee relations.