Good or bad staff? Hotel employees' core self-evaluations impacting service effort and service sabotage considering leader-member exchange moderation

This research investigates the impact of hotel employees' core self-evaluations on their service effort and service sabotage behaviors. Included is examination of leader-member exchange moderating relationships. The study was conducted with the participation of employees of eight Taiwanese five-star hotels. Convenience sampling was used in obtaining data from 295 employees. Analysis using regression based methods shows that (1) stronger employee core self-evaluations are associated with higher service effort; (2) stronger employee core self-evaluations are negatively related to service sabotage; (3) leader-member exchange moderates the relationship between employee core self-evaluations and service effort; and (4) leader-member exchange moderates the relationship between employee core self-evaluations and service sabotage. Implications for managerial practice, research limitations and future research directions are discussed.