Predicting proactive service performance: The role of employee engagement and positive emotional labor among frontline hospitality employees

Abstract

While previous research has improved our knowledge of how leadership influences employee behavior, the role of potential processes and contingencies in this relationship remains relatively unexplored. In the current study, based on the Self-determination Theory (SDT), we intend to contribute to this research by investigating whether employee engagement significantly plays the role of an intervening mechanism between employees' perceived interpersonal leadership of their supervisor and proactive service performance. Moreover, positive emotional labor (i.e., deep acting) is tested as a moderator to understand whether or not the strength of the relationship between employee engagement and employee proactivity is more for those who show more deep acting. Results of an online survey study among 438 frontline hospitality employees in Malaysia revealed that while employee engagement is a significant mediator in the relationship between interpersonal leadership and proactive service performance, positive emotional labor moderates the relationship between employee engagement and proactive service performance. Therefore, the findings of the current study provide initial evidence about how and for whom positive interpersonal leadership employee perceptions ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Medical Students’ Socialization Tactics When Entering a New Clinical Clerkship: A Mixed Methods Study of Proactivity

“…54,55 The hierarchical nature of medicine could further potentiate the influence that others in the clinical environment may have on the energy drain students experience when they engage in proactive behaviors. This energy drain bears conceptual similarities to the emotional exhaustion of burnout 56 and the coping reservoir of wellness described by Dunn et al 57 Additionally, service jobs (e.g., providing health services 30 ) require displaying organizationally desirable emotions—or emotional labor. 58 Emotional labor has been associated with burnout.…”

“…This energy drain bears conceptual similarities to the emotional exhaustion of burnout 56 and the coping reservoir of wellness described by Dunn et al 57 Additionally, service jobs (e.g., providing health services 30 ) require displaying organizationally desirable emotions-or emotional labor. 58 Emotional labor has been associated with burnout.…”

“…23 In medicine, proactivity has been investigated in relation to feedback seeking, 27,28 speaking up behaviors, 29 and proactive engagement in health care tasks. 30 Among postgraduate business students, Ashford and Black 14 examined 5 proactive behaviors exhibited when entering and fitting into a new work environment: information seeking, feedback seeking, relationship building, positive framing, and task negotiation.…”

HRM Practice and Various Performance in SMEs: Systematic Literature Review

“…management in SMEs is crucial to becoming a significant concern in the study of this scientific paper. [1].…”

“…Off-the-job training and On-the-job training have a positive effect on performance [5]. Leadership, engagement, and positive emotional labor positively affect proactive service performance [1]. Open innovation performance affects the organization's sustainability and culture [6].…”