A work-unit level analysis of employees’ well-being and service performance in hospitality industry

Abstract

In this manuscript, the relationship between hotel work-units’ aggregate well-being and service performance is examined in two different ways. First, by analysing the simultaneous relationship between two main facets of well-being at work (job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion) and service quality perceived by customers, at unit level of analysis. Second, by exploring the moderating role of within-unit dispersion in satisfaction and emotional exhaustion on these links, respectively. The study sample consisted of 398 service employees and 1233 customers from 42 hotels. Using Mplus 5, the results showed that at the unit level of analysis, job satisfaction was positively related to customer-shared perceptions of service quality, while emotional exhaustion was negatively related to it. Moreover, the results provided support for the idea that the positive or negative relationship was more pronounced in hotel work-units where there was less internal variability in satisfaction/exhaustion than in units where the variability was greater. Taken together, our findings highlight the importance of noticing the dispersion in satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in work-units in order to understand the relationship between well-being and service quality perceived by customers and, therefore, for the development of intervention programs aimed at increasing well-being at work and service quality in hospitality companies.