Employees’ service recovery performance: the role of functional manager’s emotional intelligence in the hospitality industry

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has taken a firm hold in organizations. The emotional intelligence of managers is essential for building a motivated workforce. This study investigates the relationship between functional managers’ emotional intelligence and employees’ service recovery performance in the context of the hospitality industry. In this study, functional managers’ emotional intelligence includes four dimensions: self-emotion appraisal, other-emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion. A mixed method was employed to explore the influence of functional managers’ emotional intelligence on employees’ service recovery performance. The data were collected from 238 functional managers at 33 four- and five-star hotels in five provinces and cities in Vietnam. Factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results show that functional hotel managers’ emotional intelligence has a positive and significant impact on employees’ service recovery performance, with others’ emotion appraisal having the strongest impact, followed by emotion regulation, use of emotion, and self-emotion appraisal. These findings contribute to the literature and deepen the understanding of service recovery. This study also provides managers with useful advice on managing customer service as a competitive advantage.