No abstract

This study examines the role of job insecurity as a moderator that may trigger destructive responses by employees to perceived outsourcing of labor services. Although some studies have suggested that outsourcing might not be viewed favorably by the hotel staff, the article first argues that because outsourcing of labor can be a useful strategy for the effective functioning of a hotel, mere perceptions of outsourcing by internal employees should lead them to react favorably to the hotel in the form of citizenship (organizational citizenship behavior-organization [OCB-O]) and decreased deviance (deviant workplace behavior-organization [DWB-O]). We invoke unitarism theory, which emphasizes the shared interests of all the members of an organization. The article then argues that these reactions to outsourcing may become negative when internal employees note the presence of job insecurity, triggering decreased OCB-O and DWB-O. Data were collected from 215 in-house employees working concurrently with outsourced employees at 14 hotels in Gran Canaria (Spain). Structural equation modeling (SEM) results suggest that, contrary to expectations, perceived outsourcing leads employees to significantly increase their DWB-O, but not vary their OCB-O. Unlike OCB-O, these DWB-O reactions to perceived outsourcing became stronger among employees who were high rather than low in job insecurity. The findings suggest that job insecurity plays an expendable, but relevant, role in reactions to outsourcing that harm their success.

Purpose This study aims to hypothesize that the more in-house staff perceive themselves as beneficiaries of the procedural justice (PJ) followed in the outsourcing, or perceive their outsourced peers as recipients of distributive (DJ) and interactional justice (IJ), the more they will show acceptance and positive evaluations of the outsourcing initiatives. Although prior research in the hospitality industry has extensively studied individual-level reactions to organizational justice, no study has been undertaken to examine how hotel staff support and value outsourcing initiatives based on the way they perceive management’s treatment of them and their peers. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire data from 215 in-house employees working side-by-side with outsourced employees at 14 hotels in Gran Canaria (Spain) were analyzed by using structural equation modeling. Findings The results found that in-house employees who perceived themselves or their outsourced peers as recipients of organizational justice to a greater extent reported greater support for outsourcing by expressing higher levels of acceptance and better evaluations. The results also supported procedural justice (PJ) as playing a dominant role over distributive (DJ) and interactional justice (IJ). Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that by encouraging justice perceptions among in-house employees, mainly those related to properly discussing the outsourcing procedures with affected employees, hotel managers can promote successful outsourcing. Given that in-house employees reacted not only to the way they were treated by hotel management but also to the way their outsourced peers were treated, the findings also indicate that all (un)fair treatment in outsourcing, regardless of the recipient, should receive explicit attention by hotel managers. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to primarily focus on the individual level of analysis in examining and supporting organizational justice in hotel firms as a factor influencing outsourcing success.