Speaking up because it’s my brand: Examining employee brand psychological ownership and voice behavior in hospitality organizations

Abstract

Employee voice has been regarded as an important organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Within the hospitality industry, employee - customer interactions present opportunities to identify issues and propose change-oriented suggestions (i.e., voice) that can improve performance. Because of the risky nature of voice and potential loss for the voicing individual, employees need to be strongly motivated to overcome such barriers to speak up. Given the central role that the hospitality brand plays in guiding employees’ attitudes and behavior, we consider employees’ brand psychological ownership as a strong motivator for voice. Results from this research suggest that employees are more likely to initiate voice when they develop a sense of ownership toward the brand, invest ideas, time and effort into building the brand, as well as possess sufficient knowledge and skills to deliver brand-aligned performance.