Emotional intelligence and job performance in the hospitality industry: a meta-analytic review

Abstract

Purpose Hospitality workers are emotional labor workers because they must display appropriate emotions to their customers to provide outstanding service. Emotional intelligence (EI) helps employees regulate their emotions and display appropriate emotions, and hence should help hospitality workers provide outstanding service. However, the strength of the relationship between EI and hospitality workers’ job performance substantially varied across studies. Hence, the purpose of the present study is to clarify the mixed findings and to examine if EI can improve hospitality workers’ job performance. Design/methodology/approach A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between EI and hospitality workers’ job performance as well as the moderators which condition this relationship. Findings The present meta-analysis indicated that EI is positively related to hospitality workers’ job performance (ρ̅̂ = 0.54); the relationship between EI and hospitality workers’ job performance is stronger when the percentage of married subjects is low and in feminine cultures; and this relationship does not differ between male-dominated and female-dominated studies, across educational levels, between collectivistic and individualistic cultures, between low and high power distance cultures and between low and high uncertainty avoidance cultures. Research limitations/implications This study uncovers theoretically important moderators that contribute to cross-cultural research, work–family literature and gender-related literature in hospitality research. Originality/value The present study builds a theoretical foundation and performs a meta-analysis to elucidate the relationship between EI and hospitality workers’ job performance and to identify the moderators which condition this relationship.

Over 33 years of the hospitality research: a bibliometric review of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

“…Initially, “higher education” was an essential emerging theme in the hospitality and tourism field (Morgan, 2004; Naipaul and Wang, 2009), which then evolved into workforce learning between 2001–2010 (Prestoungrange, 2002; Teare and Neil, 2002). However, the recent stats emphasize “job satisfaction” by highlighting it as the current motor theme (Çalışkan and Özkoç, 2020; Miao et al , 2021). The niche themes quadrant highlighted the theme “customer service” initially in the first time zone between 1989 and 2000, which then transformed to “financing” and “retailing” in the second time zone.…”

Humorous leadership, upward voice and resistance to change in the hotel context: from affective events theory perspective

“…De Ruiter et al (2017) conclude that psychological contracts help to discourage deviant behavior in the workplace and have been adopted as a catalyst for harnessing positive organizational change. As part of affiliative-based leadership, they will have to ensure they are connecting successful organizational change (Miao et al , 2021). This is achieved by increasing positive organizational behavior through psychological contract management.…”

Emotional intelligence matters in hospitality education: contributions of emotional intelligence, fluid ability, and personality to hospitality grades

“…Such studies would add a theoretical grounding to the professional training methods and tools available to develop the workforce. Given the meta-analytic results provided by Miao and colleagues on how EI affects service quality ( Miao et al, 2019 ) and job performance in general ( Miao et al, 2021 ), we expect that the relationships are promising and deserve further attention.…”