To voice or not to voice? Employee caring practice, employee gratitude, and positive reciprocity norm in the hospitality industry

Abstract

Drawing on principles of reciprocity, we hypothesize that employee caring practice influences employee voice behavior through employee gratitude. Furthermore, the extent to which employee gratitude affects employee voice behavior depends on the employee’s positive reciprocity norm, such that the positive direct relationship between employee gratitude and employee voice behavior is enhanced among employees with a higher level of positive reciprocity norm. We tested our hypotheses with a multisource and multilevel data collected from 54 hotels, 226 teams, and 876 frontline employees in China. Consistent with our theoretical arguments, the empirical results of this study confirmed the hypotheses. These findings shed new insight into how organizations in the hospitality industry can promote frontline employee voice behavior.