Service Climate, Employee Identification, and Customer Outcomes in Hotel Property Rebranding

Rebrandings have become commonplace on the hotel landscape. Research has not directly examined rebrandings from the employee's perspective, nor has previous research considered the impacts of rebranding on service quality and customer outcomes. In this paper we discuss the role of service climate and employee identification in hospitality organizations and propose a conceptual model that links service climate and employee identification with customer service and related outcomes such as word of mouth communication behaviours. As part of a larger project, 228 employees in three hotels in Australia completed a self report survey. At the time of the survey, the hotels were undergoing rebranding processes. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis investigated the relationships between the variables of interest. Preliminary findings demonstrate the significant role of customer-contact aspects of service climate and the role of employee identification with their department in predicting employee perceptions of customer outcomes. Future research is proposed

Analyzing the Social Change Model In the Context of Women’s Rights to Education

For my Honors Senior Thesis, I analyzed a leadership theory called the Social Change Model. This model was created by Susan Komives, and consists of the “7 Cs” of leadership. These Cs are divided into individual (consciousness of self, congruence, commitment), group (collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility), and societal/community (citizenship) values. These values are important in creating positive social change. I applied the Social Change Model to the context of the human right to education. This human right is currently being violated in various areas around the world. Since human rights are intersectional, it is important to look at populations who are marginalized, specifically women. I did a case study to see how the Social Change Model applies to Malala Yousafzai and Emma Watson and their work to advocate for women’s rights to education. I offered insights into how they utilize the values of the Social Change Model, as well as critiques on the limitations of the Social Change Model. I conducted primary research within the University of San Diego community by hosting a screening of the film “He Named Me Malala” and did surveys to see if people can understand the Social Change Model in the context of this film. Additionally, Emerging Leaders students had the opportunity to write reflection papers about the film, and I used quotes from these papers to demonstrate how students can better understand the Social Change Model through real-life examples. Overall the goal of the research was to better understand the Social Change Model and how it can be applied to the context of women’s rights to education

One job, one deal...or not: do generations respond differently to psychological contract fulfillment?

This paper investigates generational differences in the relations between psychological contract fulfillment and work attitudes. Data were collected from a sample of 909 employees in the Dutch service sector. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the moderating effects of generational differences on the influence of psychological contract fulfillment on affective commitment and turnover intention. The relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and these work outcomes was moderated by generational differences. Furthermore, results indicate that different generations respond differently to different aspects of psychological contract fulfillment, such as career development, job content, organizational policies, social atmosphere and rewards. The study provides evidence that generational differences impact the reciprocal relationship between employer and employee. Results from this study suggest that Baby Boomers and Generation X may be more motivated by social atmosphere, whereas Generation Y may be more motivated by job content and career development. Fair organizational policies are particularly motivating to Generation X, and providing rewards, though more important to Generation Y, seem mostly unrelated to work outcomes. This article is the first to study the moderation of generational differences in the relationships between psychological contract fulfillment and work outcomes

Sustaining precarity : critically examining tourism and employment

There is consensus that the social, or people, dimension of sustainability including its workforce thematics are neglected in the tourism literature and policy despite its prevalence in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Premised on the understanding that sustainability is inherently set in neo-liberal discourses of progress, development and growth, we set about to investigate tourism’s performance principally relative to SDG, no. 8 (UN, 2015), which calls for 'decent work'. Underpinned by precarity, an emerging sociological concept applied in the workforce context, and adopting critical approaches, this paper presents a review of a sample of industry reports from global, regional and national levels. The study provides evidence that tourism sustains precarity vis-à-vis its employment practices. Our findings suggest that, counter to prevailing sustainability discourse, tourism (employment) sustains deep social cleavages and economic inequalities – a triumvirate of precariousness of work, precariousness at work and subsequent precariousness of life

Tourism employment paradoxes, 1946–2095 : a perspective article

This paper addresses employment in the global tourism industry, searching for evidence for change since 1946 and then casting a speculative gaze forward to 2095. Unlike most facets of the tourism industry, there is a studied argument of limited changes to its employment conditions over the past 75 years. Indeed, Baum and Mooney (2019), casting back to 1933, argue that many of the conditions that underpinned work in the hospitality industry at the time remain identifiable in today’s industry environment. These are apparent in the early work of Whyte’s (1948, 1949) analysis of US restaurant workers and Chivers’ (1973) study of chefs in the United Kingdom. Authors such as Smeral (2004), Baum (2018), and Ioannides and Zampoukos (2018) highlight industry workplace characteristics that, inter alia, include precarity, low pay, poor working conditions and intersectional disadvantage seen in jobs of often low quality for women and migrants (Mooney et al., 2017; Robinson et al., 2019). If this ‘no change’ status is indeed a fair depiction of the industry, there appear few grounds to anticipate any significant changes in the future

Formal Education and Lodging Managers\u27 Competence: An Industry Update

This paper presents a partial replication of a study on the influence of formal education on lodging management success published in 2005 and compares the major findings of both studies. The findings of the current research demonstrate that today’s industry professionals perceive formal education as having a significantly higher positive impact on lodging management success. However, they still view formal education as having a moderate level of influence on their current knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). Study findings have implications for educators, professionals and industry, by providing the opportunity to enhance the delivery of education and achieving lodging management success

Internal Marketing Orientation: an empirical research in hotel sector

The study has three aims. First, to measure internal market orientation second, to analyze the relation-ships between IMO and two organizational consequences: job satisfaction and commitment; and third,to incorporate a new sub-dimension work/family balance. Empirical research has been done in a sampleof Spanish hotels. Results show that IMO is a strategic determinant of both job satisfaction and employeecommitment

Tourism workforce research : a review, taxonomy and agenda

This paper offers a critical review, purview and future view of 'workforce' research. We argue that the tourism (and hospitality) workforce research domain, beyond being neglected relative to its importance, suffers from piecemeal approaches at topic, analytical, theoretical and methods levels. We adopt a three-tiered macro, meso and micro level framework into which we map the five pervasive themes from our systematic review across a 10 year period (2005-2014). A critique of the literature, following a 'representations' narrative, culminates in the modelling of a tourism workforce taxonomy, which we propose should guide the acknowledgement and advancement of more holistic tourism workforce knowledge development

Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – challenges and critical factors for success: does family matter?

This article investigates the challenges of Klang Valley's independent cafés at the entry stage, while also identifying their shared critical factors for success and their common practices. A total of five exemplar cases and two coffee industry experts were sampled in a two-phase qualitative approach. A list of eight challenges were identified and thematic analysiswas used to find four critical success factors essential to survive past the entry stage: (1) concept vs. strategies; (2) an extended notion of location selection; (3) building foundations; and (4) family factors and family life-cycle management. By understanding the critical success factors of the exemplar cafés, foodservice entrepreneurs can gain insights on how these factors could be incorporated into their business strategies to survive the entry stage. Moreover, by investigating Klang Valley’s café culture, this study broadens the understanding of Klang Valley's destination characteristics, and provides practical and realistic implications that contribute to the development of Klang Valley through cultural and culinary tourism initiatives

Effects of customer incivility on frontline employees and the moderating role of supervisor leadership style

Customer incivility toward frontline employees (FLEs) is a widespread phenomenon within tourism and hospitality industries, severely depleting the psychological resources of FLEs and delivered customer service. Drawing on the job demands-resources and conservation of resources frameworks, the current research compares the effects of the two most common forms of customer incivility on FLEs’ psychological responses and behavioral intentions (study 1). Moreover, this work explores the degree to which supervisor leadership style can mitigate the depleting effects of these two forms of customer incivility on FLEs (study 2). Findings demonstrate that FLEs’ responses to customer incivility episodes remain contingent upon supervisor’s leadership style and acknowledge that an empowering (vs. laissez-faire) leadership style can better mitigate the depleting effects of both customer incivility forms on FLEs’ role stress, rumination, retaliation and withdrawal intentions. The implications of these findings for tourism and hospitality theory and practicing managers are discussed