The impact of the challenge and hindrance stress on hotel employees interpersonal citizenship behaviors: Psychological capital as a moderator

Abstract

• Challenge stressors are not associated with frontline employees’ interpersonal citizenship behaviors. • Higher perception of stressors results in less decrease in interpersonal citizenship behaviors when psychological capital is high. • Psychological capital alleviates the negative impact of challenge and hindrance stressors on interpersonal citizenship behaviors. This study investigates the relationships between challenge and hindrance stressors and hotel employees’ interpersonal citizenship behaviors (ICB). The study also tests the moderating role of hotel employees’ psychological capital (PsyCap) on the aforementioned relationships. Data were collected from 213 U.S. hotel frontline employees. The results showed that both challenge and hindrance stress had a negative relationship with ICB. PsyCap was found to moderate both relationships. Implications for hospitality researchers and industry practitioners are discussed along with the limitations and suggested avenues for future research.