How virtual reality moderates daily negative mood spillover among hotel frontline employees: A within-person field experiment

Abstract

This study explores how virtual reality (VR) interventions mitigate daily negative mood spillover among hotel frontline employees through a daily dairy study. A within-subject field experiment was conducted to collect data from 87 hotel employees over ten consecutive workdays (846 daily responses). The multilevel analysis supports daily negative mood spillover by revealing positive relationships between negative moods before work and midday negative moods, and between midday negative moods and turnover intentions. Exposure to virtual natural scenes alleviates these daily positive relationships. Employees with high (vs. low) levels of trait mindfulness are less likely to be influenced by their negative moods before work when exposed to the VR intervention. This study advances our knowledge by integrating spillover theory, stress recovery theory, and mindfulness through a multilevel framework of employees’ daily emotional fluctuations moderated by VR interventions. The study findings provide hotel professionals with meaningful information regarding workplace stress management.