Is your working life good? Alienation in the nexus between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior of hospitality frontline employees

Abstract

Purpose This study motivated by humanistic care aims to identify hospitality frontline employees’ alienation in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic, and based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the mediating role of alienation between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is discussed. Design/methodology/approach The authors drew on the JD-R model to delineate the mechanisms by which job demands (including emotional dissonance and work–home conflict) and job resources (including job support, training and possibility for career development) affect OCB through employees’ alienation. This study adopted snowball sampling and purposive sampling to conduct a questionnaire survey aimed at Taiwanese hospitality frontline employees. A total of 373 valid questionnaires were retained, and structural equation model was used to test the research hypotheses. Findings The results revealed that job demands of emotional dissonance and work–family conflict positively affect alienation; job resources of job support, training and possibility for career development negatively affect alienation; alienation negatively affects OCB; and alienation mediates the relationship between job characteristics and OCB fully. Research limitations/implications Considering that alienation plays a full mediating role between job characteristics and organizational outcomes, this study put forward specific suggestions on how to increase job resources and reduce job demands to weaken alienation and further improve organizational performance in management practices. And practical implications were provided to help hospitality human resource management deal with the issue of talents retention. In addition, “work authenticity” should be introduced as a mediator in the future research. “Work authenticity” reflects employees’ positive working life state and is the opposite of “alienation.” The effectiveness of employees’ positive and negative working life state in communicating job characteristics and organizational outcomes can be compared. Originality/value The specific alienation experience of hospitality frontline employees is defined. Moreover, by introducing the alienation theory, this study demonstrates the health impairment path of JD-R model and suggests that job characteristics affect OCB through the full mediation of alienation.

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“…Three of them draw our attention to the need to understand negative feelings in the workplace and how they may affect both organizations and the employees. The paper by Chen and Ye (2023), “Is your working life good? Alienation in the nexus between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior of hospitality frontline employees,” draws on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan.…”

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“…Reservation systems, customer relationship management (CRM) software and payment processing solutions have become the backbone of efficient operations (O’Connor, 2023). These technologies improve customer service (Robinson et al ., 2020), streamline processes (Chen and Ye, 2024) and enhance overall guest satisfaction (Liu et al ., 2017).…”

“…The changes in job profiles (Mingotto et al ., 2021) and in the well-established working relationships among employees and between employees and managers (Efthymiou, 2018) require organisational support, such as internal training programs that include soft skills development (Nicolau et al ., 2020). The introduction of these robots may have a detrimental impact on employees' sense of workplace belonging and dedication (Chen and Ye, 2024). However, robots can alleviate humans from undertaking arduous and perilous tasks, such as pot-washing or dangerous substances cleaning.…”

“…AR and VR enhance the learning experience, enabling virtual simulations and aiding in complex assembly processes (Cham et al ., 2024). These technologies, while not causing major industry disruptions, have a great potential in terms of productivity improvement (Nicolau et al ., 2020), employee well-being (Chen and Ye, 2024), service quality and development of new consumers’ experience (Kazandzhieva and Filipova, 2019). Companies are, therefore, required to adopt them carefully, by making an in-depth evaluation.…”

“…A common understanding of the new organisational context (Nicolau et al ., 2020) is required in order for the development of the right skill-sets and mind-sets (Li et al ., 2019) and new revised operations and practices to be put in place (Huang and Rust, 2021). To face the constant evolution of digital technology, companies need to build digital leadership and capabilities (Chen and Ye, 2024). This is a complex organisational situation, in which people have to learn new skills in order to confront new challenges (Gonzalez et al ., 2020).…”