Hospitality Frontline Employees Research Articles

Passive leadership and hospitality frontline employees’ creative performance in the UAE: The moderating role of job tenure and coworker help and support

The purpose of this research is to investigate how passive leadership affects creative performance of frontline employees (FLEs) through an analysis of the mediating role played by burnout. Furthermore, the study sought to investigate the moderating effects of coworker support and job tenure, as well as their combined influence as a joint moderator, in relation to this relationship. Employing a time-lagged method, data on 238 frontline employee-supervisor dyads were collected and analyzed through modeling of structural equations. The results indicated that passive leadership directly and indirectly affect creative performance negatively. The three-way interaction result showed that burnout can be diminished when employees receive much help and support from their coworkers and when they have been in their job for longer. The effect of the joint moderators tends to be stronger than any individual moderator, suggesting that multiple resources are better to help FLEs deal with job stressors. The current paper provides a novel theoretical perspective that supports the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and cross-domain buffering approach by elucidating the circumstances under which passive leadership is likely to diminish employee creative performance, with a particular focus on the hospitality industry. This study investigates the mechanisms, timing, and reasons behind this phenomenon.

Hospitality Front-line Employees: A Meta-Analysis of Emotion Management at Work

The main purpose of this study was to summarize extant empirical findings on how front-line service employees experience and manage emotions at work. When consolidated, the research on front-line employee emotions revealed mixed and contradictory results and knowledge gaps on workplace challenges of service-oriented employees. The PRISMA were followed for study selection, and the appraisal theory of emotions was used to classify the direct antecedents and outcomes of emotion management. To calculate meta-analytic effect sizes, comprehensive meta-analysis methodology wasapplied to analyze 79 studies (N=28,332). The summary effects of known antecedents, affective events (conflict, customer interactions), stimuli (personality characteristics), and workplace environment (support and display rules) on front-line employees’ emotion management were more modest than previously indicated. Organization, supervisor, and coworker support were found to be a moderator between conflict and employees’ emotion management. The most-researched outcomes of emotion management (burnout and job performance) also showed only modest effect sizes. Job satisfaction was a moderator between emotion management and job performance. The relationship between emotion management and customer-related antecedents and outcomes showed modest to small effect sizes. These results contribute to the ATE and highlight the knowledge gap on how customer emotions and behaviors affect front-line employees’ ability to manage their emotions and provide quality customer service and, in turn, how employee’s transference of emotions might influence customer satisfaction, loyalty, and trust. Managers should provide necessary support to mitigate the impact of affective events that may influence how front-line employees manage emotions at work to increase job satisfaction and performance.

The effect of collectivism-oriented human resource management on employee resilience of hospitality employees.

In the face of an increasingly challenging and rapidly evolving business environment, not all the employees exhibit the requisite resilience necessary to recover from adversity. From both the individual and organizational perspectives, enhancing employee resilience emerges as a critical issue not only in the practical and academic fields. In the Chinese culture, this research aims to investigate how and why collectivism-oriented human resource management (C-HRM) fosters employee resilience. Drawing on the group engagement model, we propose a serial mediating effect of perceived overall fairness and three dimensions of social identity between C-HRM and employee resilience. Using a sample of frontline employees in the hospitality industry, we conducted a field survey among 342 employees (study 1) and a two-wave online survey among 294 hospitality employees (study 2). Findings from empirical analysis indicated that C-HRM significantly increases overall fairness perception of hospitality frontline employees and in turn, their identification and respect, which further fertilize employee resilience. In addition, the indirect effect of C-HRM on employee resilience through perceived overall fairness and pride was not statistically significant. These important findings are expected to help employees cope with the workplace pressures caused by ongoing challenges and change, and contribute to sustainable career development.

Unveiling connections between organizational dimensions, employee performance and boundary-spanning behaviors: a study on perceived organizational support and perceived supervisory support

PurposeThis study aims to examine the influence of perceived organizational support (POS) on boundary-spanning behaviors (BSBs) among frontline employees in the hospitality industry. It also considered perceived supervisory support (PSS) as a moderating factor within a conceptual model.Design/methodology/approachData were gathered from 651 full-time hospitality employees across 12 hotels in China. The analysis of the data used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe findings revealed that POS influences hospitality boundary spanners’ BSBs, specifically external representation (ER), internal influence (II) and service delivery (SD). In addition, PSS moderates the relationship between POS and these frontline employees’ behaviors.Practical implicationsThis study offers practical strategies for hospitality professionals to enhance frontline employees’ BSBs and foster supportive workplaces that drive employee excellence. These strategies encompass cultivating a supportive organizational culture, implementing supportive measures, fostering a sense of belonging among employees and ensuring supervisors’ well-being and competence in supporting their teams during daily interactions. These actions effectively motivate customer-contact employees to excel in their performance.Originality/valueFostering a helpful attitude in frontline employees is crucial for service firms’ success. Hospitality organizations must provide support to achieve this. Few studies have explored how organizational support contributes positively to the BSBs of customer-contact employees. This study goes beyond oversimplification and delves into the nuanced interplay between perceived support (POS and PSS) and hospitality frontline employees’ BSBs, focusing on ER, II and SD. The moderated mediating model enhances the understanding of support dynamics in the organizational context.

Supervisor incivility and service employee creativity: a moderated mediation model of negative affect state and core self-evaluation

PurposeThe present study examines the effect of supervisor incivility on service employee creativity and the mediating mechanism of negative affect state on the said relationship with the aid of Affective Events Theory (AET) and Social Power Theory. Additionally, the study explores the mitigating role of core self-evaluation in the dual stage of the moderated mediation model.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 420 frontline employees working in four-star and five-star hotels across India and PROCESS macro in SPSS 23.0 was employed to test the hypotheses proposed in the study.FindingsThe study findings observe that frontline employees experiencing supervisor incivility face a negative affect state and it further diminishes service employee creativity. Also, the indirect effect gets attenuated at dual stages when frontline employees are equipped with a high level of core self-evaluation.Practical implicationsThe study findings provide various insights to the managers to understand the deleterious effect of supervisor incivility at work and to develop interventions to manage supervisor incivility and the negative affect state among frontline hotel employees.Originality/valueThe present study is the first and unique attempt to investigate the role of supervisor incivility experienced by frontline hotel employees in India with reference to their creativity towards customers and mediating mechanism of negative affect state. The study adds value to the literature by establishing the role of core self-evaluation in the moderated mediation model. Further, the study also provides a unique contribution to the management of frontline hospitality employees.

Can Informal Communication and Sense of Belonging Motivate and Retain Hospitality Employees? Informal Groups’ Role

ABSTRACT Informal groups facilitate a sense of belonging and collaboration, thereby improving productivity in the workplace. Although the hospitality workplace provides an ideal environment for informal groups to form, it has been rarely studied. This study aimed to explore the role of informal groups in retaining and motivating frontline hospitality employees. The study collected data from frontline hospitality employees in the U.S. and China. The findings show that informal communication positively impacts job performance through knowledge-sharing behaviors, and a sense of belonging to informal groups is negatively related to turnover intentions. The study also highlights the originality of exploring employees’ connection with a group of coworkers (informal groups), which are more naturally formed. The study suggests that informal groups in hospitality businesses should be encouraged to enhance knowledge-sharing behavior and benefit the organization.

Investigating the effects of off-the-job embeddedness on turnover intentions: does affective commitment play a role?

PurposeWhile much attention has been given to work-related factors influencing turnover intention through affective commitment, little focus has been directed to non-work factors affecting the service industry. Hence, this study aims to investigate the impact of links, fit and sacrifice, representing off-the-job embeddedness in the community, on turnover intention in the hospitality industry of Ghana: Sub-Sahara Africa using the theory of conservation of resources (COR) and social exchange. The model has been extended to include affective commitment as the mediating mechanism.Design/methodology/approachA multi-wave technique was used to collect data through a questionnaire from 341 full-time frontline hospitality employees in Ghana. The responses were analysed using AMOS software structural equation modelling.FindingsThe findings show that links, fit and sacrifice significantly influence employees’ turnover intentions. Moreover, it has been observed that affective commitment decreased the negative relationship and partly mediated the main relationship between the dimensions of off-the-job embeddedness and turnover intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe study’s results and academic, practical implications and limitations are discussed for future research.Originality/valueThis study emphasises the theory of COR to demystify community factors employees deem as valued resources, which lighten up their commitment to their organisation and decrease their intent to leave.

How leaders exploited the frontline hospitality employees through distress and service sabotage?

ABSTRACT This study mainly focused on how and why an exploitative leader influences service sabotage via new underlying mechanism, such as distress/boundary condition and procedural/distributive justice by using the COR theory. A time-tagged strategy for the data collection from multiple sources are used. This study demonstrated that procedural and distributive justice attenuates the detrimental effects of exploitative leaders on service sabotage via psychological distress. This study enhances the current research by addressing these critical challenges, and it generates unique insights that can be used by organizational justice practitioners to mitigate the adverse effects of exploitative leaders on their organizations.

Are humorous frontline employees hotels’ secret weapons? Investigating when and why employee sense of humor promotes service performance

Despite the growing efforts devoted to exploring humor, the extant humor literature neglects the impact of employee sense of humor in the workplace, especially in the hospitality industry, an important yet understudied context. Based on person–environment fit theory, our research examines why and when employee sense of humor can influence frontline hospitality employees’ service performance. Our multi-wave research of 232 frontline hospitality employees in two Chinese hotels unveils that employee sense of humor promotes service performance by enhancing person–service job fit. Moreover, customer contact frequency strengthens the direct impact of employee sense of humor on person–service job fit and the indirect effect of employee sense of humor on service performance through person–service job fit. Our research underlines the pivotal role of humorous frontline employees in hospitality organizations.

Frontline employees' turnover intentions in tourism and hospitality sectors: A systematic literature review and research agenda

Frontline employees play crucial roles in tourism and hospitality organizations because they work directly with the customers and represent the organization. However, the turnover rate among tourism and hospitality frontline employees was found to be higher than other groups of employees in the same sector. Therefore, detecting the factors that affect turnover intention among frontline employees is necessary to develop effective human resource management strategies in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Our article reviews the empirical studies on frontline employees' turnover intention in tourism and hospitality and proposes a research agenda for future research. Through a systematic and rigorous selection process, we obtained a sample of 72 empirical studies. By analyzing and synthesizing the research results from these studies, we found that: (a) studies on frontline employees' turnover intention in tourism and hospitality are mainly anchored in conservation of resources theory, social exchange theory, and the job demands-resources model; (b) turnover intention of frontline employees has been investigated in different cultural contexts mainly using quantitative methods; (c) various scales were utilized to measure turnover intention; and (d) antecedents, mediators, and moderators of frontline employees' turnover intention in a variety of tourism and hospitality contexts have been identified. Based on the findings of our review, we developed an integrated framework for turnover intention in tourism and hospitality contexts and provided research implications for future studies.

A Social Informational Processing Lens on Multi-Foci Mistreatment: Roles of Customer Orientation and Power Distance

Drawing on social information processing theory, this set of studies aims to examine hospitality frontline employees’ sabotage toward customers following workplace mistreatment, namely customer incivility and abusive supervision. In addition, employees’ power distance belief and customer orientation are identified as individual contingency factors that alter employees’ sabotage behavior following mistreatment. A multi-method approach with cross-sectional and experimental designs was adopted. In Study 1, 347 Chinese hospitality frontline employees provided survey data in a cross-sectional design. In Study 2, 191 U.S. hospitality frontline employees were recruited for a between-subjects scenario-based experiment. The findings reveal the complementary roles of customers and supervisors as informational sources that jointly determine employees’ sabotage behaviors. In addition, in line with social information processing theory, employees’ personal characteristics regarding the perception of informational sources (power distance belief and customer orientation) were found to significantly alter employees’ sabotage behavior derived from multi-foci workplace mistreatment.

The influence of perceived organizational exploitation on frontline hospitality employees’ workplace deviance: an organizational justice perspective

PurposeDrawing on organizational justice theory, this study aims to investigate how perceived organizational exploitation induces frontline hospitality employees’ organizational and interpersonal deviance. Specifically, this study explored the mediating effect of distributive and procedural justice, as well as the moderating effect of justice sensitivity.Design/methodology/approachThe focal research analyzed multiphase survey data from 267 frontline service employees with structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results revealed that perceived organizational exploitation induced frontline hospitality employees’ organizational and interpersonal deviance through their perceptions of distributive and procedural justice. Moreover, employees’ justice sensitivity amplified perceived organizational exploitation’s harmful impact on justice perceptions and its conditional influence on organizational and interpersonal deviance.Practical implicationsOrganizations should take actions to reduce the occurrence of exploitation to prevent employees’ workplace deviance behaviors. Moreover, organizations can foster employees’ justice perceptions and take care of employees with strong justice sensitivity to reduce the destructive behaviors triggered by organizational exploitation.Originality/valueBy investigating frontline employees’ workplace deviant behaviors, this research identifies new outcomes of exploitation by hospitality organizations. Moreover, the research contributes by offering a justice-based perspective to understand the effects of perceived organizational exploitation. Furthermore, this research helps identify a new boundary condition of being exploited by organizations.

Is your working life good? Alienation in the nexus between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior of hospitality frontline employees

ObjetivooEste estudio motivado por la atención humanística identificó la alienación de los empleados de primera línea de la hostelería en Taiwán durante la pandemia de COVID-19 y, basándose en el modelo de exigencias laborales-recursos (JD-R), se analizó el papel mediador de la alienación entre las características laborales y el comportamiento de ciudadanía organizacional fue discutido.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueNos basamos en el modelo JD-R para delinear los mecanismos por los que las exigencias del puesto de trabajo (incluida la disonancia emocional y el conflicto entre el trabajo y el hogar) y los recursos del puesto de trabajo (incluido el apoyo laboral, la formación y la posibilidad de desarrollo profesional) afectan a la organización. Del comportamiento ciudadano (OCB) a través de la alienación de los empleados. Este estudio adoptó el muestreo de bola de nieve y el muestreo intencional para realizar una encuesta por cuestionario dirigida a los empleados de primera línea de la hostelería taiwanesa. Se obtuvieron 373 cuestionarios válidos y se utilizó un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para probar las hipótesis de la investigación.ResultadosLos resultados revelaron que las demandas laborales de disonancia emocional y conflicto trabajo-familia afectan positivamente a la alienación; los recursos laborales de apoyo al trabajo, formación y posibilidad de desarrollo profesional afectan negativamente a la alienación; la alienación afecta negativamente al comportamiento de ciudadanía organizacional; la alienación media totalmente la relación entre las características laborales y el comportamiento de ciudadanía organizacional.Limitaciones/implicaciones de la investigaciónTeniendo en cuenta que la alienación desempeña un papel mediador total entre las características del puesto de trabajo y los resultados organizativos, este estudio presentó sugerencias específicas sobre cómo aumentar los recursos del puesto de trabajo y reducir las exigencias del mismo para debilitar la alienación y mejorar aún más el desempeño organizacional en las prácticas de gestión. Y se aportaron implicaciones prácticas para ayudar a abordar la cuestión de retención de talentos en la gestión de los recursos humanos en la hostelería. Además, la “autenticidad del trabajo” debería introducirse como mediador en la investigación futura. La “autenticidad laboral” refleja el estado de vida laboral positivo de los empleados y es lo contrario de la “alienación”. Se puede comparar la eficacia del estado de vida laboral positivo y negativo de los empleados en la comunicación de las características del trabajo y los resultados organizacionales.Originalidad/valorSe define la experiencia específica de alienación de los empleados de primera línea de la hostelería. Además, mediante la introducción de la teoría de la alienación, este estudio demuestra la trayectoria de deterioro de la salud del modelo JD-R, y sugiere que las características del puesto de trabajo afectan al comportamiento de ciudadanía organizacional a través de la mediación total de la alienación.

Abusive supervision and emotional labour on a daily basis: The role of employee mindfulness

This study examined the relationships between abusive supervision, subordinates' work engagement and their emotional labour on a daily basis. Based on an experience sampling study of 95 frontline hospitality employees over 10 working days, the results revealed the complex consequences of abusive supervision on subordinates in the hospitality industry. The results showed that daily abusive supervision was positively related to employees' daily surface acting through their daily work engagement, but it was not significantly related to daily deep acting. In addition, subordinates' mindfulness moderated the relationship between daily abusive supervision and subordinates' daily work engagement. These findings reveal employees’ daily responses to abusive supervision and can help tourism and hospitality managers develop relevant training programmes and policies to reduce the negative impact of abusive supervision and thus protect employee well-being.

Why do they slack off in teamwork? Understanding frontline hospitality employees’ social loafing when faced with exploitative leadership

Social loafing is a detrimental phenomenon prevalent in hospitality industry. We propose that the exploitative leadership, characterized by self-interested behavior of leaders, may be a critical trigger of frontline hospitality employees’ social loafing. According to social identity theory, we examine the mediating role of perceived insider status (PIS) and the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in the linkage between exploitative leadership and employees’ social loafing. Results based on time-lagged data of 264 frontline hospitality employees revealed that exploitative leadership was positively related to social loafing, and such relationship was mediated by employees’ PIS. Our findings also demonstrated that POS can serve as a cross-domain buffer against the direct harm of exploitative leadership on PIS and can weaken the positive indirect relationship between exploitative leadership and employees’ social loafing. Implications for researchers and practitioners in hospitality industry are also discussed within this study.

The effect of illegitimate tasks on hospitality employees’ service performance: a conservation of resources perspective

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the influence of illegitimate tasks on frontline hospitality employees’ in-role and extra-role performance via the mediating role of thriving at work and the moderating role of work centrality.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 264 supervisor–subordinate pairs from three hotels in Jiangsu, China and analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsIllegitimate tasks negatively affected hospitality employees’ in-role and extra-role performance by inhibiting thriving at work. In addition, work centrality strengthened the impact of illegitimate tasks on thriving at work and their indirect effect on in-role and extra-role performance via reduced thriving at work.Practical implicationsFirst, managers should avoid assignment of unnecessary tasks. However, many tasks that could be viewed as illegitimate must still be performed; the results demonstrate that managers must be mindful of how such tasks are assigned and to whom, and should take steps to minimize and/or manage potential negative reactions to illegitimate tasks.Originality/valueThis study enriches the illegitimate tasks literature by examining its influence on the frontline hospitality employees’ in-role and extra-role performance and highlights a novel mediating mechanism linking illegitimate tasks and employee performance using conservation of resource theory. In addition, this reveals the novel moderating effect of work centrality.

Work-leisure conflict and emotional labor in hospitality: a moderated-mediation model

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationship between work-leisure conflict and emotional labor and tested the moderated-mediation effect of the need for recovery under different levels of supervisor support. It was based on a sample of 529 Taiwan front-line hospitality employees. The results indicate that work-leisure conflict is positively related to surface acting but negatively related to deep acting. The impact of work-leisure conflict on surface acting and deep acting is mediated by the need for recovery. However, this mediating effect is moderated by supervisor support. The results suggest that front-line employees’ work-leisure conflict issues are relevant to, and should be supported by, hospitality industry managers. In practical terms, these findings have significant implications for promoting inclusive and sustainable employment and decent performance for all in hospitality industry.

Extra-role service under pressure in the hospitality industry: The role of mindfulness

Extra-role service is currently the keystone that supports hotels' ability to compete. At the same time, extra-role service depends on the discretionary behavior of some employees who perform their duties in a context of stress. Our study investigates the effect of a stressor such as performance pressure on extra-role service, using employee engagement as a mediator and mindfulness level as a moderating variable. Through structural equation modeling, we analyze data from 300 frontline hospitality employees. The results show a negative effect of increases in performance pressure on employees extra-role service behavior through their engagement. We therefore suggest that performance pressure can turn into a threatening stressor in hospitality work environment. We also confirm that the employee's mindfulness level moderates this relationship, compensating for nearly the entire negative effect of this specific stressor on employee engagement. Managers will find key insights that help them to stimulate high-quality service in hospitality organizations.

Can customer participation promote hospitality frontline employees’ extra-role service behavior?

PurposeDrawing on and extending the socially embedded model of thriving, this paper aims to investigate how and when customer participation promotes hospitality frontline employees’ engagement in extra-role service behavior.Design/methodology/approachA two-wave questionnaire survey was carried out among frontline service employees and their immediate supervisors in a four-star business hotel in Eastern China. Path analysis using Mplus 8.3 examined a multilevel moderated mediation model.FindingsCustomer participation has a positive effect on frontline employees’ experience of thriving, which in turn promotes their engagement in extra-role service behavior. Nevertheless, supervisors’ negative affect weakens the positive effect of customer participation.Practical implicationsHotels could implement employee assistance programs, arrange training on emotional regulation and positive psychology and create a fun work environment to help alleviate supervisors’ experience of negative affect so as to lessen its adverse effect on frontline employees’ perception of customer participation.Originality/valueFirst, this work is one of the few studies exploring how customer participation affects frontline employees’ well-being (in terms of thriving) and extra-role service behavior, which advances extant value co-creation literature. Second, the moderating role of supervisors’ negative affect enriches the limited understanding of when customer participation might not bring firm benefits. Third, by uncovering customer participation as an antecedent of employee thriving, this study extends thriving research that only attends to contexts located within organizations.

Burnout and counterproductive workplace behaviours among frontline hospitality employees: the effect of perceived contract precarity

PurposeThis study aims to investigate affective commitment (ACS) and leader–member exchange (LMX) as resources mitigating against burnout and counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs) in the hospitality sector, and examines the effect of zero-hour contracts on these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThrough conservation of resources theory, this study tests a framework exploring ACS and LMX as resources against burnout and CWBs, using a data set of 260 frontline hospitality employees working in Ireland, considering zero-hour contracts as a moderator.FindingsFindings indicate that burnout is associated with CWB, and ACS and LMX are resources against burnout and CWB. Furthermore, zero-hour contract perceptions moderate the resource effect of ACS and LMX. Yet, zero-hour contract perceptions do not moderate the relationship between burnout and CWB, indicating these employees may be caught in a resource-loss spiral.Practical implicationsThis study proposes mechanisms to enhance resources against burnout, with specific strategies to support young employees who are more likely to experience burnout. As findings suggest unique negative impacts of burnout for employees on zero-hour contracts, this paper also provides guidance to support these vulnerable employees.Originality/valueThis study provides unique insights into hospitality employees’ ability to harness resources against burnout and CWB consequences of burnout. The results indicate that perceived precarity does not moderate these relationships, suggesting that burnout affects this cohort differently.