Search

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the influence of supervisor incivility on employees’ general self-efficacy and engagement and their mediating roles in a relationship between supervisor incivility and employees’ service delivery. The study also explores how gender (dis)similarities between supervisors and subordinates affect these relationships.Design/methodology/approachA total of 276 frontline hotel employees in the US Midwest participated in the study. The research model was examined through a two-step structural equation modeling.FindingsThe study findings suggest that an uncivil supervisor negatively influences hotel employees’ self-efficacy and engagement level, which served as underlying mechanisms connecting supervisor incivility with reduced service delivery. The findings did not support the moderating role of gender (dis)similarity.Practical implicationsThe results of the current study should urge organizations to acknowledge the detrimental impact of workplace incivility and to commit to the prevention and termination of employee mistreatment. Organizations make efforts to ensure that supervisors serve their internal customers with support and gratitude and help enhance employees’ psychological resources.Originality/valueThe current study advanced the body of literature by suggesting an integral psychological underlying mechanism linking uncivil treatment and declined performance in the hospitality industry.

Leadership is a much-studied topic, and yet, the topic still attracts researchers. As an essential factor in every organization, however, leadership contributes significantly to a business failure, especially in small independent restaurant businesses and this could be due to the unique operations of the industry and the lack of leadership studies on small hospitality businesses. This study aims to fill the gap by exploring the ideal characteristics for small independent restaurant leaders to become an effective leader using a qualitative approach from their employees’ perspectives. Qualitative data were collected through four focus groups and one dyadic interview. The findings of the qualitative data analysis revealed nine themes: respectful, compassionate, effective communicator, experienced, effective delegator, gives recognition, sociable, emotionally controlled, organized. The paper discussed implications of the findings for small independent restaurant businesses and the hospitality industry in general as well as implications for theory.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the interaction effect of job demands (e.g. display rules; DRs) and personal resources (e.g. emotional intelligence; EI) on work engagement and whether this interaction effect varies between managers and non-managers. Design/methodology/approach This study has been conducted on 572 hotel employees (153 managers and 388 non-managers) in China, and multiple linear regression analyses have been used to analyze the data. Findings The results indicate that the direct impact of DRs on work engagement was significantly positive for both hotel managers and non-managers; DRs boosted the positive impact of EI on work engagement, but only among managers; and EI boosted the positive impact of DRs on work engagement, but only among managers with high EI. Originality/value Previous studies have primarily focused on the antecedents and outcomes of work engagement, but little is about the direct impact of job demands and the interaction effect of job demands and personal resources on work engagement. This is the first study investigating DRs and its interaction effect with EI on work engagement among hotel managers and non-managers, respectively.

Since social media has become a fundamental part of the daily activities of people, the purpose of this study was to explore social media use by focusing on job demands that may explain why employees perceive social media are vital for them at work. Further, this study seeks to understand how employees use social media at work to experience recovery. Questionnaires were collected from current frontline hospitality non-managerial and managerial employees in the United States. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data. Results of the study confirm that at-work break activities including social and non-media break activities can be a channel for employees to experience recovery and deal with job demands. Moreover, the results suggest that at-work break activities are an important mediator between job demands and recovery experiences. Social media break activities also moderated the mediation effect of non-social media break activities between job demands and recovery experiences.

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the moderating effect of self-efficacy and gender on work engagement. Design/methodology/approach The survey study was conducted on 149 restaurant employees, and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Findings Self-efficacy significantly moderated the impact of perceived organizational support on work engagement, but the moderating effect of self-efficacy was only significant for women with low self-efficacy. Self-efficacy did not moderate the impact of work engagement on intent to leave. Practical implications The results of the study provide suggestions for managing men and women with different levels of self-efficacy in the hospitality workplace. Originality/value The focus of previous studies on work engagement has primarily been on its antecedents and outcomes, but little is known about individual differences in the relationship between work engagement and its antecedents/outcomes. This is the first study investigating self-efficacy and gender as moderators of work engagement in the hospitality industry.

The aim of this study was to examine extrinsic and intrinsic motivations as the antecedents of work engagement and to empirically test the motivation crowding theory using hospitality employees. The findings showed that intrinsic motivation played an important role in improving employees’ work engagement. The study also found that there was no indication that employees’ intrinsic motivation diminished when extrinsic motivation entered. It is also suggested that employers need to understand that creating a comfortable workplace environment and making jobs more interesting and meaningful will increase employees’ intrinsic motivation, which will help employees to engage more at work. Motivational antecedents of work engagement have been rarely studied and no studies have been conducted to research impacts of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators on employees’ work engagement in the hospitality industry, particularly in small restaurant businesses. In addition, empirical studies on motivation crowding theory are needed due to the inconclusive results.

Studies have shown that a certain personality leads to higher job performance. This finding has led many companies to use personality traits when they hire employees. Despite abundant studies on personality, little is known about suitable personality traits for travel agents, especially in Taiwan. With 230 travel agents working in sales departments for corporate clients and transient travelers in Taiwan, their personalities, actual sales records, and managers’ performance evaluations were used to identify significant personality traits affecting job performance. The results reflect different personality traits for travel agents working with corporate clients and individual transient travelers. The results revealed that travel agents working with corporate contracts have strong commanding and continuative personalities but weak innovative and independent personalities. On the contrary, the agents working with transient travelers showed strong innovative, commending, independent, and sympathy personalities ...

This study investigates the effects of perceived organizational support on transactional and relational contracts and how these two types of psychological contracts influence employee intent to leave. Additionally, perceived supervisor support was examined as a predictor of perceived organizational support. Given the high employee turnover rates in the hospitality industry, lack of employee turnover studies in hospitality context, and more importantly, lack of employee turnover studies in countries other than the Western organizational contexts, the current study examines the above relationships with restaurant employees in India. Results showed that perceived supervisor support increased employee perceptions of organizational support, perceived organizational support increased relational psychological contracts but not transactional contracts, and only relational contracts had a significant effect on employees’ intent to leave. Implications of these results and issues for future research are discussed.

Reducing the risk and occurrence of foodborne illness is a priority for the foodservice industry. Despite the large presence of Latino(a)s in the foodservice workforce, there is little research on attitudes toward food safety and related behavior among this group. This study employed the health belief model to investigate Latino(a) foodservice employees’ attitudes toward food safety and the antecedents of food safety behavior. Results showed that food safety knowledge did not affect self-reported food safety behavior but did significantly predict perceived susceptibility, severity, and barriers. The analysis also indicated that perceived benefits have a direct impact on food safety behavior.

Scholars are expected to master teaching, research and service activities as part of their tenure-seeking process. However, it is not easy to become a master in all three areas. This study was conducted to investigate what tenure criterion was perceived to be most important and whether the tenure criteria have been changed over the last decade. In addition, the study examined whether or not tenure criteria were different between a school granting a graduate degree and one offering only a baccalaureate degree. This study revealed that a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degrees, refereed publication records, and college teaching experience were the three most important criteria. Programs granting graduate degrees indicated stronger importance for publishing refereed articles than programs with only a baccalaureate degree.

Part-time workers have been considered a necessity for gaining a competitive advantage in the U.S. hospitality industry. More than 500 line employees working in the U.S. hotel industry were invited to participate in this study. Regression analysis was used to uncover the relationship between behaviors and attitudes of part-time versus full-time hotel workers. Significant variations between the two groups were found. Part-time workers showed more “voice” and “action” organizational citizenship behaviors than full-time employees did. This study provides hotel managers with a better understanding of the differences between the organizational behaviors of part-time and full-time workers and provides an evaluation for enhancing the attitudes of part-time employees within U.S. hotels.

The purpose of this study was to determine if managers' perceptions of their leadership styles are in agreement with their subordinates' perceptions, and to determine which of the four leadership styles are influential in predicting employees' performance. The result of this study indicates disagreement between managers' and subordinates' perceptions of the managers' leadership styles. Self‐other agreement on leadership styles predicted employees' performance. Supportive, participative, and achievement‐oriented leadership styles were influential in predicting employees' motivation. Supportive and directive leadership styles increased employees' intention to get the job done. The study's limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

As the number of part-time employees continually increases in the United States, it is critical to know how employment status affects employees' attitudes and behaviors for organizational success as the employee plays the key role in the delivery of quality guest service and customer retention. The main goal of this study was to investigate the moderating effect of work status on the relationship between organizational and supervisor support, organizational commitment, citizen behaviors, and employee performance. Nearly 300 employees working in the restaurant industry were asked to participate in this study. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the four hypotheses proposed to investigate the objectives. The results indicate that there are stronger effects on employees' commitment and organizational commitment on citizenship behaviors among part-time employees than full-time workers. This finding implies that part-time employees should not be treated as perishable workers.

Although the number of U.S. hospitality graduate programs has increased over the past two decades, few research studies have addressed how hospitality graduate education is perceived by its stakeholders: students, educators, and employers. This study offers a multidimensional framework to assess the status quo of hospitality graduate education. General management skills, curriculum, generalist and specialist approaches, and effective teaching methods were investigated through three perceptional dimensions; hospitality industry professionals, educators, and students. The results confirm several significant gaps and intriguing differences among the stakeholders' perceptions of graduate education in hospitality. Implications of these important findings are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of employee relations programs (ERP) on organizational performance in the lodging industry. ERP provides employees with opportunities to participate in planning and improving work-related tasks. Four items were used to measure employee relations: formal complaint-resolution programs, participation programs, attitude surveys, and suggestion systems. Further, three types of organizational performance measures, namely employee turnover, labor productivity, and revenue per available room (RevPAR) were used. Findings indicated that ERP led to higher labor productivity and RevPAR.

This study investigated the relationship between the use of 12 human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance measured by turnover rates for managerial and non-managerial employees, labor productivity, and return on assets. The results of regression analyses indicated that companies implementing HRM practices such as labor-management participation program, incentive plans, and pre-employment tests are more likely to experience lower turnover rates for non-managerial employees.

This 2003 study repeats and extends a 1997 investigation of how students perceive hospitality organizations as prospective employers. Using structural equation modeling, the study confirmed five factors to examine the relationship between the factors and the likelihood of employment in eight industry segments. The greatest difference between the 1997 findings and those of 2003 is the rise of the Internet in guiding students’ attitudes toward various industry segments. With regard to quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and private clubs, company-sponsored events particularly improve the likelihood of that a student will accept employment in those segments. Word of mouth and experience as a customer, on the other hand, can decrease a student’s interest in working in economy hotels and QSRs (even though direct work experience improves notice for those two segments). Ironically, the personal recruiting visit seems to have less influence on employment decisions than one might expect.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Human Resource Management (HRM) on organisational performance. This study addressed two measurement challenges suggested by human resource researchers: collecting data separately for managerial and non-managerial employee groups and testing the interrelationships between three organisational performance measures (turnover, labour productivity and growth rate). The structural equation model revealed that the effects of HRM implemented for the managerial employee group were different from the effects of HRM implemented for the non-managerial employees. The primary difference related to the influence of a firm's bottom line. This study also examined the interrelationships among the dependent variables and found that managers' turnover rates reduced by HRM practices increased labour productivity.