Linking organizational justice to tourism and hospitality employees’ service orientation: the roles of Confucian values and relationship quality

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the moderating effect of Confucian values and the mediating effect of relationship quality on the relationship between organizational justice and employee service orientation in the tourism and hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 421 responses in a questionnaire survey from employees of tourism and hospitality firms in mainland China.FindingsEmployee relationship quality fully mediated the relationship between organizational justice and service orientation. Confucian values negatively moderated the direct effect of organizational justice on employee relationship quality and the indirect effect of organizational justice on service orientation.Practical implicationsThis study offers insights for hospitality managers how to improve employee service orientation and establish Confucian values in the practice of organizational justice. Tourism and hospitality organizations should equally treat all employees as internal customers and use distinct strategies to manage employees with high and low Confucian values in employee selection and management of training and development.Originality/valueThis study highlights the contributions of organizational justice and relationship quality to employee service orientation. It also demonstrates that Confucian values explain why many Chinese employees are less sensitive to low fairness: these values negatively moderate the organizational justice–relationship quality–service orientation relations. By linking organizational justice to relationship quality and employee service orientation, the findings enrich our understanding of the applications of internal marketing and social exchange theories under Confucian values.