Educating limited resource older adults for better choices to lower risk of food insecurity

United States (U.S.) national and North Carolina state data on older adult food insecurity in combination with associated poor nutrition‐related health outcomes point to a critical need for interventions to improve their food security. Nearly 8% of North Carolinians aged 60 and older and 11% of those aged 50–59 are food insecure, placing North Carolina in the top ten states in the U.S. for food insecurity for both age groups. Therefore, the Better Choices intervention was designed to educate limited‐income older adults in ways to manage their meager resources to purchase more and healthier foods. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Better Choices intervention in improving the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of participants concerning their food money resource management. Older adults (n = 453) with ages ranging from 59 to over 90 years participated in 8 weeks of educational programming delivered by educators in 15 participating North Carolina counties. In a cross‐over program design participating counties were randomly assigned to two groups, to create a control for the food money resource management treatment. A three‐points‐in‐time survey supported longitudinal measurement. Independent samples t‐tests showed no significant differences between groups at baseline. Paired sample t‐test results show the intervention was effective with statistically significant improvement of participants' knowledge regarding preparing a healthy meal on a budget, beans as a low‐cost alternative to meat, and the use of unit pricing to compare products to identify the best value. Participant‐developed action plans reflected planned behavior change. Study results show this group of older adults were capable of and willing to adopt new behaviors for a healthier lifestyle. While not a representative sample, the broad applicability of adult learning and planned behavior theories underpinning the program lead us to conclude that the methods and theories applied in this intervention should be of use to educators and practitioners serving limited‐resource older adult populations.     

Job stress and well-being of female employees in hospitality: The role of regulatory leisure coping styles

The job stress and coping behavior of female employees has become a key issue in the hospitality industry. This study investigates the moderating role of regulatory leisure coping styles on the effect of job stress on female employees’ well-being. Specifically, this study extends Patry et al.’s (2007) findings to further confirm the direct and moderating role of regulatory leisure coping styles in the relationship between job stress and well-being. Data were collected from the female employees of 22 tourist hotels in Taiwan. The results showed that the Planned-Breather Leisure Coping Style (PBLCS) was positively and significantly associated with well-being, whereas the Avoidant Leisure Coping Style (ALCS) had a negative and significant effect on it. In addition, the results also revealed that the PBLCS plays a buffering role, but that the ALCS plays an amplifying role. Based on these findings, the implications and research suggestions are then discussed.     

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.     

Using social networking websites as a selection tool: The role of selection process fairness and job pursuit intentions

A growing trend in the hospitality industry is openly encouraging applicants to join their social networking sites as part of their recruitment process (0080 and 0185). However, there is a dearth of studies examining how applicants perceive and react to the use of social networking websites in the recruitment and selection process. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine how applicants react to the use of social networking websites as a selection tool. Using experimental methods, participants attending a career fair for hospitality jobs completed a questionnaire after reading about a hospitality company that does or does not use social networking sites in the selection process. The results showed that perceived fairness and job pursuit intentions of applicants were lower for an organization that used social networking websites as a selection tool than an organization that did not use social networking websites as a selection tool.     

The impact of CSR on relationship quality and relationship outcomes: A perspective of service employees

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing attention over the past decade. While many studies examined an impact of CSR on consumers, only dearth of research is found that attempts to understand the impact of CSR on employees from the relationship marketing perspective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of CSR in predicting relationship quality and relationship outcomes. The four dimensions of CSR used in the study include economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic aspects. Data were collected via survey from employees of franchised foodservice enterprises located in South Korea. The findings of the study show that not all dimensions of CSR have the same effect on relationship quality. While economic and philanthropic dimensions have a significant influence on organizational trust, only ethical dimension has a positive effect on job satisfaction. As expected, relationship quality has a significant impact on relationship outcomes.     

Examining the relationship of work–family conflict to job and life satisfaction: A case of hotel sales managers

The study was designed to clarify the ambivalent relationships between work–family conflict (WFC) and measures of satisfaction. Both the direct and indirect effects of WFC on job and life satisfaction were investigated. Job satisfaction was also separated into two components: affective reaction and cognitive appraisal. Data were collected by a field survey of 121 sales managers from 26 hotels in China. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated a critical role of one's affective reaction to his/her job in the relationship between WFC and life satisfaction. Specifically, the present study found that both work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) have significant negative association with an individual's affective reaction to his/her job, while only FIW reduced the cognitive appraisal of a job. Further, affective reaction, rather than cognitive appraisal, had a significant positive correlation with life satisfaction. Finally, FIW was negatively associated with life satisfaction. The results suggest the strategic role of family friendly human resource polices in hotels.     

Economic Causes and Cures of Social Instability in China

China＇s leaders have often expressed concerns about social instability, viewed as a threat both to the political order and to continued rapid growth. Slower growth might, in turn, further undermine social stability. Using survey data, the present paper examines the economic determinants of social instability. Four main determinants are identified.＇past and expected growth of income, income inequality, economic insecurity and misgovernance. The paper then considers possible policies to reduce social instability, examining each of the determinants in turn.     

Job analysis: a strategic human resource management practice

This study examined the impact of job analysis on organizational performance among 148 companies based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Gulf-region country. Survey results indicated that a practice of proactive job analysis was strongly related to organizational performance. This relationship was strongest to the extent that companies maintained HR information systems, accorded HR greater involvement in strategic planning and emphasized competency-based characteristics of employees in the job analysis approaches they used. The findings suggest that a company-wide policy of job analysis is an important source of competitive advantage in its own right, and merits due attention of HR professionals, line managers and top management. The study extends the findings of the HR–performance research pursued in Western countries to a non-Western context.     

Linking transformational leadership and employee creativity in the hospitality industry: The influences of creative role identity,creative self-efficacy,and job complexity

Integrating transformational leadership, creativity and social cognitive theories, we explore the relationships among transformational leadership, creative role identity, creative self-efficacy, job complexity and creativity. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping estimation was conducted using data from 395 supervisor–employee dyads from international tourist hotels in Taiwan. The results show that supervisors' transformational leadership positively influenced employee creative self-efficacy and creativity. Moreover, creative role identity was found to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creative self-efficacy, while both creative role identity and creative self-efficacy were found to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity. Specifically, job complexity was found to moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creative role identity, the relationship between employee creative role identity and creative self-efficacy, and the relationship between employee creative self-efficacy and creativity. We discuss the implications of these results for research and practice in hospitality context.     

Frontline employees׳ attitudes towards self-service technologies: Threats or opportunity for job performance?

Increasing diffusion of self-service technologies (SSTs) on the points of sale impacts on traditional retailing from several perspectives. For instance, SSTs have direct effect on front-line employees. Indeed, they may cause a potential reduction in personal contacts with clients, reduction of workers, modifying the job conditions and so on. To date, the effect of SSTs on the points of sale has been mainly investigated from a consumers׳ perspective, by mainly focusing on consumers׳ acceptance and usage of these systems. The aim of this paper is to make employees׳ point of view clearly emerge, through a qualitative approach focusing on the investigation of employees׳ perception of the consequences of these technologies on job performance. The content analysis based on exploratory in-depth interviews involves 250 frontline employees. Authors examine the success of technology from employee׳s standpoint by evaluating their attitude and considering the impact on their job performance perception. In this way, the analysis allows defining new variables which are not previously investigated, such as the perception of speed for task completion, which emerged as the most important factor for employees׳ self-evaluation. Hence, this study offers support for evaluating job performance considering the specific case of SSTs in the frontline employees as initial insights rather than definitive understandings.