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Examining the spillover effect of frontline employees’ work–family conflict on their affective work attitudes and customer satisfaction
International Journal of Hospitality Management 33 (2013) 310–315
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International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman
Examining the spillover effect of frontline employees’ work–family conflict on their affective work attitudes and customer satisfaction Xinyuan (Roy) Zhao a,∗ , Anna S. Mattila b,1 a b
Business School, Sun Yat-Sen University, S456 Shan Heng Hall, 135 Xin Gang Xi Lu, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510275, China School of Hospitality Management, Pennsylvania State University, 224 Mateer Building, University Park, PA 16802-1307, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Keywords: Work–family conflict Customer satisfaction Affective reactions Affective commitment
a b s t r a c t This study examines the negative spillover effects of hospitality frontline employees’ work–family conflict on their affective reactions, commitment, and customer satisfaction. A field survey was conducted to obtain a dyadic data set (148 paired employee–customer responses). Our results indicate that frontline employees’ role conflict between work and family results in less positive affective reactions to the job, decreased emotional attachment to the organization, and lower levels of customer satisfaction. These findings suggest that hospitality firms need to understand that factors outside the workplace influence service excellence, thus calling for a family-friendly organizational culture. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The “kick the dog” scenario is a familiar condition: after a tough and stressful day at work, an employee takes that stress and frustration out on those in his or her personal life, thus causing conflict at home (Horwitz et al., 2008). Less often the focus of attention is a converse scenario of the pressures and stress of home life impacting employees’ work performance. The nature of the hospitality industry makes it particularly vulnerable to workplace stress, and consequently, hospitality organizations often focus on managerial practices to ensure service excellence (e.g., a serviceoriented culture, employee empowerment, a customer-listening orientation, and responsive service guarantees) (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). However, such efforts may not be as effective as anticipated due to interference from the employees’ family situations. Previous research has mainly focused on the negative consequences of work–family conflict on job satisfaction, family satisfaction, life satisfaction, job stress, job performance, and turnover intentions (Karatepe and Baddar, 2006; Karatepe and Bekteshi, 2008; Karatepe and Uludag, 2008; Michel et al., 2009; Mulvaney et al., 2007; Yavas et al., 2008). Yet the possible affective influences of employees’ family concerns onto their work attitudes and, ultimately, to customer satisfaction, has largely been ignored. Hospitality frontline employees face long working hours, high levels of job insecurity, irregular and inflexible work schedules,
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 20 84112721; fax: +86 20 84036924. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (X. Zhao), [email protected] (A.S. Mattila). 1 Tel.: +1 814 863 5757. 0278-4319/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.10.001
limited time off on weekends and holidays, and low wages (Karatepe et al., 2012; Karatepe and Bekteshi, 2008; Karatepe et al., 2008; Karatepe and Uludag, 2008). Work–family conflict (WFC; i.e., role interference resulting from incompatible work and family demands) often has a detrimental impact on individuals’ work attitudes (Siegel et al., 2005). Because customer perceptions are shaped by customer–employee dyadic interactions, employees’ job attitudes greatly influence service outcomes (Bolton et al., 2007; Schmit and Allscheid, 1995; Schneider and Bowen, 1985). For example, as demonstrated by Koys’s (2001) longitudinal study, employee satisfaction is strongly correlated to customer satisfaction (Year 1 r = .49, p < .01; Year 2 r = .61, p < .01). Grandey et al. (2011) found a significant relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction at the store-level (r = .28, p < .05), and explain that employee satisfaction influences customer satisfaction in two ways: (1) employees’ emotional contagion with customers may transfer their positive or negative affect to customers, and (2) employees’ extra-role behaviors not only influence job performance, but also customer satisfaction. Combining these theoretical concepts and empirical evidence, it is possible to conclude that frontline employees’ WFCs influence their work attitudes which in turn have an impact on customer satisfaction. To reiterate, the present study aims to investigate the spillover effect of frontline employees’ work–family conflict through affective attitudes that influence customer satisfaction. 2. Theoretical framework WFC can be defined is “a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressure from the work and family domains are mutually
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incompatible in some respect” (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985, p. 77). WFC has a negative association with two levels of employee attitudes: job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Allen et al., 2000). Moreover, prior research shows that affective spillover is a critical intervening variable between work and family domains (Heller and Watson, 2005; Song et al., 2008). Job satisfaction is “an internal state that is expressed by affectively and/or cognitively evaluating an experienced job with some degree of favor or disfavor” (Brief, 1998, p. 86). WFC has been shown to have a highly negative impact on employees’ affective reactions (Zhao et al., 2011). Organizational commitment captures three types of feelings of belonging to the organization: affective, normative, and continuance (Meyer and Allen, 1991; Meyer et al., 1993), and prior research suggests that work–family interference takes a particularly heavy toll on affective commitment (Namasivayam and Zhao, 2007). The present study examines WFC’s negative spillover effect on individuals’ affective reactions to their job and commitment to the organization. Because WIF (work interfering with family) and FIW (family interfering with work) lead to feelings of emotional exhaustion, such negative feelings may decrease both affective reactions to the job and affective commitment to the organization (Chu et al., 2012; Karatepe and Uludag, 2007). To minimize the negative effects of WIF/FIW, hotels should adopt family-friendly human resources policies (Nishii et al., 2008). With high levels of perceived organizational support (e.g., ethical leadership and friendly colleagues), hospitality employees might feel lower levels of work–family role pressure and less distress from work–family conflict (Karatepe, 2010; Michel et al., 2010). Under such conditions, employees tend to attribute the improved work–family well-being to management, like their jobs better, have a higher level of emotional attachment to the hotel, and provide better service to their customers (Chen and Cheng, 2012; Karatepe and Tekinkus, 2006; Kim and Brymer, 2011; Nishii et al., 2008). Further, there are inconsistent findings about the extent to which the two directions of WFC (work-to-family and family-towork) play different or similar roles in forming frontline employees’ affective reactions and commitment. WIF and FIW have been traditionally considered as two distinct dimensions of WFC (Frone et al., 1992a, 1997). WIF represents the impact of the work domain factors on aspects of the family, while FIW reflects the effects of family domain factors on work outcomes. Prior research suggests that FIW, rather than WIF, has a negative impact on employees’ affective reactions and commitment to the company (Zhao et al., 2011). Some studies propose that work and family boundaries have asymmetrical effects (Frone et al., 1992b). WIF may have a stronger impact on affective reactions and commitment than FIW. In contrast, other studies show that both WIF and FIW influence employees’ affective attitudes (Karatepe and Kilic, 2009). When encountering WIF/FIW, employees are more likely to attribute troubles to the job and tend to believe that management did not provide them with sufficient support, and the result will be low levels of job satisfaction (Grandey et al., 2005a; Homans, 1961; Siegel et al., 2005). The present study examines the impact of WIF/FIW on employees’ affective attitudes in the specific context of the hospitality industry. Spillover theory indicates that work–family experiences are positively associated, and that affective experience across life domains result in correlations of work and family variables (Song et al., 2008; Williams and Alliger, 1994). Hospitality employees often work during weekends or holidays, and they are required to smile regardless of internal feelings (Chu et al., 2012). To make matters worse, they are frequently asked to be willing to, and ready to, sacrifice time needed for fulfilling family responsibilities (Karatepe and Baddar, 2006; Karatepe and Bekteshi, 2008; Karatepe and Olugbade, 2009). When negative feelings persist, job-related affective reactions and organizational commitment tend to suffer (Hecht and Boies, 2009). Thus, among hospitality employees both
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WIF and FIW should have negative effects on affective reactions (e.g., Zhao et al., 2011) and on organizational commitment (e.g., Karatepe and Kilic, 2007). Previous empirical research reveals inconsistent evidence of negative effects of WIF and FIW on employee attitudes (Karatepe, 2010). Karatepe and Kilic (2007) found that in the context of Northern Cyprus hotels, FIW did not have a significant negative effect on job satisfaction. More recently, Karatepe and Kilic’s (2009) findings indicate that FIW rather than WIF is negatively related to affective commitment. Conversely, Zhao et al.’s (2011) study of hotel sales managers in China demonstrates that both WIF and FIW have a significant negative relationship with employee affect. Namasivayam and Zhao (2007) failed to detect significant associations between affective commitment and either WIF or FIW. Given the mixed findings we propose that there is a negative relationship between employees’ WIF/FIW and both their affective reaction to the job and affective commitment to the hotel. Therefore, we hypothesize the following: H1a. WIF has a negative relationship with employees’ affective reactions to the job (i.e., affective component of job satisfaction). H1b. WIF has a negative relationship with affective commitment to the hotel. H2a. FIW has a negative relationship with employees’ affective reactions to the job. H2b. FIW has a negative relationship with affective commitment to the hotel. Customer satisfaction refers to the customer’s cognitive and affective evaluation of a product or service (Zeithaml et al., 2006), and the link between employee attitudes and customer satisfaction is widely accepted in the services literature. Building on prior research (e.g., Netemeyer et al., 2010), we examine the relationship between employee attitude and customer response, and propose that frontline employees’ positive affective reactions and commitment are related to customer satisfaction. Frontline employees who like their job are more apt to perform their service tasks effectively (Netemeyer et al., 2010; Way et al., 2010) and to display positive affect toward customers (Tsai and Huang, 2002). Such actions should lead to enhanced customer satisfaction levels (Gazzoli et al., 2010; Gil et al., 2008). Highly satisfied and committed employees also tend to demonstrate organizational citizenship behaviors, such as cooperative actions, paying more attention to customers’ individualized needs, and establishing a positive service climate (Paulin et al., 2006). Consistently, we propose the following: H3. Employees’ affective reactions are positively related to customer satisfaction. H4. Employees’ affective commitment is positively related to customer satisfaction. In addition to the indirect effects detailed above, frontline employees’ work–family conflict (WIF and FIW) may also have a direct impact on customer satisfaction. WIF and FIW reflect the tension between work and family domains (Horwitz et al., 2008) and, consequently, high levels of WIF/FIW are likely to lead to negative mood (Grandey and Cropanzano, 1999). Under such conditions, the influence on customer satisfaction should be direct—a position that is supported by research from Pugh (2001). His research shows that customers are able to pick up on inconsistencies between employees’ positive emotional displays and negative inner moods. Moreover, customers value authentic displays of emotions rather than faked ones (Grandey et al., 2005b). Therefore, we propose: H5.
WIF has a negative relationship with customer satisfaction.
H6.
FIW has a negative relationship with customer satisfaction.
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3. Method 3.1. Procedure The present study investigates the interrelated outcomes of employees’ family interferences, affective attitudes, and service outcomes. A dyadic data set consisting of paired employee–customer responses is an ideal sample for examining our proposed relationships (Brown and Lam, 2008; Homburg and Stock, 2004). Human resource managers from six hotels provided employee lists from which we randomly selected forty frontline employees from each hotel. Selected employees were subsequently asked to fill out a questionnaire and return it directly to research assistants. The measurement items were obtained from established scales and revised to fit the current context. In the questionnaire, respondents were informed (1) that the study was financially supported by a government research grant, (2) that the findings were solely used for academic purposes and (3) that all responses were to be kept confidential (i.e., hotel managers would not have access to any specific responses). In the next step, customers who had just interacted with the sampled employees were invited to participate in the study. During the data collection process, employees were not aware that their service interactions would be evaluated by customers, and to that end, customers were approached only after the service interaction was completed. The employee–customer responses were immediately matched, and as a result, all paired service interactions were coded as one employee to one customer. From the 240 paired surveys distributed, 148 paired employee–customer responses were deemed valid (a response rate of 61.67%). Employee respondents were predominantly female (64.90%), with an average tenure of 1.31 years (SD = 1.51) and with an average number of 1.06 dependents (e.g., spouse, children, elderly parents; SD = 1.28). The human resource managers in each hotel confirmed that the demographic information matched the employee characteristics. Customer demographics were also similar to hotel guest profiles. Of the customer questionnaires used, 54% were from males with an average age of 32.18 years (SD = 9.82). Most of the customers (77.70%) indicated pleasure as the primary purpose of their stay. 3.2. Measures For the employee questionnaires, work–family conflict was measured with eleven items from Grandey et al.’s (2005) inventory. Six items measured work interfering with family (WIF; e.g., “my job keeps me from spending time with my family members”), and another five items tapped into family interfering with work (FIW; e.g., “my family demands make it hard for me to do my job well”). A seven-point Likert-type scale anchored with 1, Strongly Disagree and 7, Strongly Agree was applied. Affective reaction as a component of job satisfaction was measured by four items from the Job Opinion Questionnaire (e.g., enjoyable–miserable, full–empty, friendly–lonely, and boring–interesting). This instrument was developed by Campell et al. (1976) and was previously tested in the WFC context by Grandey et al. (2005a,b). The semantic differential sevenpoint scale asked participants to “Think over the last year of your job and use the following words and phrases to describe it.” Three items measuring affective commitment were adapted from Shemwell et al. (1994) measures. On a seven-point scale (1, low and 7, high), participants were asked to evaluate three affective aspects of commitment to the hotel. The items were: “My level of emotional attachment to this company,” “The strength of my
commitment to this company,” and “The level of personal relationship between coworkers and myself.” Customer satisfaction was assessed by three items adapted from Hennig-Thurau et al. (2006). On a seven-point Likert scale, respondents were asked to evaluate their satisfaction with the service experience (e.g., “I am delighted by this service experience” and “I am satisfied with this specific experience”). 4. Results The procedure for data analysis followed the two-step approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) developed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). Specifically, a series of statistical tests, including a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), was first conducted to evaluate psychometric properties (i.e., convergent and discriminant validity) of study variables and to assess the measurement model (see Table 1). The results of testing the five-factor CFA measurement model (i.e., WIF, FIW, affective reactions, affective commitment, and customer satisfaction) suggest that the measurement model did not fit the data well: 2(199) = 329.09 (p < .01), CFI = .84, IFI = .85, RMSEA = .07 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Four items (one item of WIF, two of FIW, and one of the affective reactions) suffered from cross loadings as indicated in the modification indices (MIs) and expected parameter changes (EPCs). When these four items were excluded from the model the fitness indices improved: 2(125) = 151.48 (p = .05), GFI = .90, AGFI = .86, CFI = .96, IFI = .96, RMSEA = .04. The findings also support the fact that WIF and FIW are two independent constructs (2(19) = 14.34 (p = .76), GFI = .98, AGFI = .96, CFI = 1.00, IFI = 1.01, RMSEA = .00) rather than a one factor model of WFC (2(20) = 181.52 (p = .00), GFI = .82, AGFI = .68, CFI = .35, IFI = .37, RMSEA = .23). Cronbach’s ˛ values of study constructs ranged from .77 to .89, which exceeds the suggested cut-off value of .70 (Hair et al., 2006; Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). The CR values are well above the cut-off point of .70 and the AVEs exceed the .50 cut-off value (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The structural model with original measures was examined first and the results indicated adequate fitness with the data: 2(200) = 329.28 (p < .01), GFI = .90, AGFI = .85, IFI = .90, CFI = .89, and RMSEA = .07 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Then, according to the CFA analyses, the four cross-loading items were excluded from the structural model. The modified structural model fit the data better: 2(126) = 151.83 (p = .06), GFI = .90, AGFI = .86, IFI = .96, CFI = .96, and RMSEA = .04. The standardized path coefficients were further applied to test the hypotheses (Fig. 1). WIF has a marginally significant negative effect on affective reactions (ˇ = −.16, p = .05), but the effects on affective commitment are not significant (ˇ = −.06, p = .49). Consequently, Hypothesis 1a rather than Hypothesis 1b is supported. In contrast however, FIW has a significant negative effect on both affective reactions (ˇ = −.27, p < .001) and affective commitment (ˇ = −.21, p = .02). These results provide support for Hypotheses 2a and 2b. Further, affective reactions (ˇ = .23, p = .01) have a more significant impact on customer satisfaction than affective commitment (ˇ = .14, p = .09). These results are consistent with Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4. Finally, FIW (ˇ = −.24, p = .01) rather than WIF (ˇ = −.05, p = .28) has a significant direct impact on customer satisfaction. Therefore, Hypothesis 6 is supported while Hypothesis 5 is not. 5. Discussion The present study examined the direct effects of WIF/FIW on customer satisfaction, and the indirect associations through affective reactions and commitment. Our results show that WIF reduced
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Table 1 Descriptive statistics.
(1) WIF (2) FIW (3) ARA (4) ACO (5) CSA
M
SD
CR
AVE
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
6.09 5.41 5.23 6.06 5.46
.48 .90 1.01 .62 1.13
.88 .83 .73 .75 .86
.82 .70 .62 .65 .74
.89 .15* −.16* .07 −.02
.86 −.18* −.14+ −.10
.77 −.09 .01
.78 .17*
.88
Note: N = 148. M: Mean; SD: standard deviation; CR: composite reliability; AVE: average variance extracted; WIF: work interfering with family; FIW: family interfering with work; ARA: affective reactions; ACO: affective commitment; CSA: customer satisfaction. Numbers indicated in bold on the diagonal denote the Cronbach’s ˛ values. + p < .10. * p < .05. ** p < .01.
individuals’ positive affective reactions to their jobs, while FIW decreased both positive affective job reactions and affective organizational commitment. Although both positive affective reactions and affective commitment had significant positive associations with customer satisfaction, affective reactions had stronger effects. Finally, FIW was negatively linked to customer satisfaction, while WIF failed to have any influence. These findings have several theoretical and practical implications.
seems to indicate spillover effects from work to nonwork domains, while FIW reflects the influences from family to work. Finally, frontline employees’ affective spillover processes may accentuate the impact of WFC on work attitudes and customer satisfaction. As previous studies have revealed, when employees face WFC, they tend to dislike their jobs (i.e., negative affective reactions to the job), and such negative affect plays a more critical role in influencing their attitudes and behaviors than does low cognitive appraisal (e.g., Zhao et al., 2011). Our study further differentiated two levels of employees’ affect: affective reactions to a job and affective commitment to an organization. Affective job reactions are more proximal to employee behaviors, and hence have a stronger impact on customer satisfaction. Conversely, affective commitment might be more relevant to frontline employees’ emotional attachment toward the organizations, subsequently influencing service outcomes through organizational citizenship behaviors.
5.1. Theoretical implications The findings of this study imply that frontline employees’ work–family conflict should be recognized as a critical antecedent to customer satisfaction. As noted earlier, previous studies identified a large number of workplace determinants of customer satisfaction, but research on the potential impact of employees’ family burdens on service outcomes is scant. Our research shows that employees’ work–family role conflict, especially FIW, has significant direct or indirect negative relationships to customer satisfaction. Future research should investigate the spillover processes from family to work by considering other mediators or moderators, and by extending the focus to positive effects (e.g., enrichment and facilitation). As stated, the results of previous studies are mixed and our findings indicate that WIF and FIW may have differential impacts on employee attitudes. Similarly, WIF and FIW influence customer satisfaction indirectly through employees’ affect toward their jobs and their organizations. However, FIW has direct and significant negative relationships with service outcomes, while WIF does not have such direct relationships. Our findings further indicate that FIW has a negative impact on employees’ work affect at both the job level and at the organizational level. Conversely, the negative impact of WIF was shown to be limited to employees’ affective job evaluations. These results hit at different functions of WIF and FIW: WIF H1a -.16+
WIF (Work Interfering with Family)
H1b -.06
The results of this study have important implications for hospitality managers. Traditionally, efforts aimed at improving customer satisfaction have concentrated on factors in the workplace (e.g., quality management, employee empowerment, and technical training). Our results demonstrate that these efforts may not be sufficient, and that the relationship between employees’ work life and home life should be considered. In the case of the hospitality industry, when work and family demands are balanced and interference from one domain to the other is minimized, employees demonstrate a more positive affect toward their service-level jobs and a greater commitment to the hotel in which they work. This, in turn, results in higher levels of customer satisfaction—a critical factor for any business. Hospitality managers should therefore be cognizant of factors outside the workplace—particularly family
Affective Reactions
H3 .23*
H5 .05 H6 -.24*
H2a -.27**
FIW (Family Interfering with Work)
5.2. Practical implications
H2b -.21*
Affective Commitment
Customer Satisfaction
H4 .14+
Fig. 1. The tested model. Note. Paths that are not significant at p < .10 are shown as dashed lines, for simplicity. The standardized path coefficients are given with corresponding hypotheses. + p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01.
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burdens on their employees—can have on service excellence at the workplace. From the perspective of human resource practices, hospitality organizations have started to aim at creating a work environment that is family-friendly (e.g., flexible work schedule for employees with special family demands). When frontline employees benefit from a family-friendly culture, they can minimize distractions from nonwork domains, and ultimately provide high levels of customer service. Further, the results suggest that employees’ affective reactions to the job and their affective commitment to the organization are critical in the relationship between WFC and customer satisfaction service outcomes. Hospitality organizations should try to establish a work environment in which frontline employees are able to modify their moods and emotions in a positive way. For example, relaxation activities may help employees to take a break from work and family demands, to restore the energy and psychological resources that are taxed by WFC, and to maintain a calmer and more peaceful mood (Hecht and Boies, 2009). Some hotel companies have recently established fitness centers and physical exercise programs that could help employees to release stress (Rao and Indla, 2010). Finally, because there are many choices for family-friendly practices, hospitality organizations may want to apply different practices to specific employee populations. Ideally, hotels could provide employees with flexible options of social support, employee assistance programs, and childcare. Work–family support from hotels may have to be flexible, so that individual employees can choose options that best fit their needs. For example, single and young employees typically desire free time for entertaining, dating, and participating in social activities, and they may need time for taking care of parents. Their needs are often quite different from the requirements of the more senior employees, supervisors, and managers who may place a greater emphasis on support and benefits related to childcare, work breaks, medical care, and work schedule flexibility. By establishing a definitive need for continued research in this area, and by extending the workplace dialog through specific results, this study provides a substantial contribution to the field of hospitality management.
5.3. Limitations The present study has several limitations that should be kept in mind. First, this study was cross-sectional and correlational in nature, and it relied on self-reports. The design itself may have prevented the exclusion of alternative explanations, including the possibility that superior service experiences with happy customers leads hospitality employees to like their jobs and the hotel. If a longitudinal design could be adopted (e.g., Koys, 2001 longitudinal study in a regional restaurant chain), future research could establish the sequence of causal inferences. Thus, future research utilizing observational techniques, experience sampling methods, and/or longitudinal designs is needed to further explore the relationships established in this study. Second, a relatively small number of hotel employees (N = 148) served as the sample, and the paired customer–employee interactions were collected from a single episode. Although dyadic data are ideal for examining the employee–customer relationship, the relatively small sample size might pose problems with extreme responses (e.g., some employees might have particularly heavy WFC and the current sample size may not be large enough to ‘average’ these special cases). The present investigation was limited to frontline employees in hotels, and the findings may not be generalizable to other hospitality contexts (e.g., independent restaurants and cruise lines). Therefore, future research in other contexts is needed to test the robustness of the study findings.
A third limitation of this study is that controls were not applied for potential factors influencing service interactions. For example, employee and customer mood states are particularly important in terms of negative affect (e.g., Judge et al., 2006), so future work is needed to rule out mood effects. As noted in the theoretical development segment, emotional exhaustion might be an important mediating variable in the work–family affective spillover process (e.g., Karatepe and Tekinkus, 2006; Karatepe and Uludag, 2007). Moreover, employees’ perceptions of organizational support are likely to influence their attitude toward their jobs (e.g., Karatepe, 2010). Because emotional exhaustion and perceived organizational support offer potential alternative explanations for our findings, future research should incorporate these two variables into the model, and examine their roles in the relationship between family interference and service outcomes. Perceived organizational support, for instance, could be viewed as an antecedent to job attitudes, or as a moderator between work–family conflict and employees’ attitudinal responses (Casper et al., 2011). Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71102097), the Chinese Department of Education (08JA840012), the Guangdong Social Science Foundation (07YH01), the Guangzhou Social Science Foundation (07Q6), and Sun Yat-Sen University (14000-3181304). References Allen, T.D., Herst, D.E.L., Bruck, C.S., Sutton, M., 2000. Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 5 (2), 278–308. Anderson, J.C., Gerbing, D.W., 1988. Structual equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin 103 (3), 411–423. Bagozzi, R.P., Yi, Y., 1988. On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 16 (1), 74–94. Bolton, R.N., Grewal, D., Levy, M., 2007. Six strategies for competing through service: an agenda for future research. Journal of Retailing 83 (1), 1–4. Brief, A.P., 1998. Attitudes In and Around Organizations. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Brown, S.P., Lam, S.K., 2008. A meta-analysis of relationships linking employee satisfaction to customer responses. Journal of Retailing 84 (3), 243–255. Campell, A., Converse, P.E., Rodgers, W.L., 1976. The Quality of American Life: Perceptions, Evaluations, and Satisfactions. Rusell Sage Foundation, New York. Casper, W.J., Harris, C., Taylor-Bianco, A., Wayne, J.H., 2011. Work–family conflict, perceived supervisor support and organizational commitment among Brazilian professionals. Journal of Vocational Behavior 79 (3), 640–652, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.04.011. Chen, W.-J., Cheng, H.-Y., 2012. Factors affecting the knowledge sharing attitude of hotel service personnel. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2), 468–476, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.07.005. Chu, K.H., Baker, M.A., Murrmann, S.K., 2012. When we are onstage, we smile: the effects of emotional labor on employee work outcomes. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (3), 906–915, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. ijhm.2011.10.009. Enz, C.A., Siguaw, J.A., 2000. Best practices in service quality. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 41 (5), 20–29, http://dx.doi.org/10. 1177/001088040004100531. Fornell, C., Larcker, D.F., 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research 18 (1), 39–50. Frone, M.R., Russell, M., Cooper, M.L., 1992a. Antecedents and outcomes of work–family conflict: testing a model of the work–family interface. Journal of Applied Psychology 77, 65–78. Frone, M.R., Russell, M., Cooper, M.L., 1992b. Prevalence of work–family conflict: are work and family boundaries asymmetrically permeable. Journal of Organizational Behavior 13, 723–729. Frone, M.R., Yardley, J.K., Markel, K.S., 1997. Developing and testing an integrative model of the work–family interface. Journal of Vocational Behavior 50, 145–167. Gazzoli, G., Hancer, M., Park, Y., 2010. The role and effect of job satisfaction and empowerment on customers’ perception of service quality: a study in the restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research 34 (1), 56–77. Gil, I., Berenguer, G., Cervera, A., 2008. The roles of service encounters, service value, and job satisfaction in achieving customer satisfaction in business relationships. Industrial Marketing Management 37, 921–939, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2007.06.008.
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International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman
Examining the spillover effect of frontline employees’ work–family conflict on their affective work attitudes and customer satisfaction Xinyuan (Roy) Zhao a,∗ , Anna S. Mattila b,1 a b
Business School, Sun Yat-Sen University, S456 Shan Heng Hall, 135 Xin Gang Xi Lu, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510275, China School of Hospitality Management, Pennsylvania State University, 224 Mateer Building, University Park, PA 16802-1307, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Keywords: Work–family conflict Customer satisfaction Affective reactions Affective commitment
a b s t r a c t This study examines the negative spillover effects of hospitality frontline employees’ work–family conflict on their affective reactions, commitment, and customer satisfaction. A field survey was conducted to obtain a dyadic data set (148 paired employee–customer responses). Our results indicate that frontline employees’ role conflict between work and family results in less positive affective reactions to the job, decreased emotional attachment to the organization, and lower levels of customer satisfaction. These findings suggest that hospitality firms need to understand that factors outside the workplace influence service excellence, thus calling for a family-friendly organizational culture. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The “kick the dog” scenario is a familiar condition: after a tough and stressful day at work, an employee takes that stress and frustration out on those in his or her personal life, thus causing conflict at home (Horwitz et al., 2008). Less often the focus of attention is a converse scenario of the pressures and stress of home life impacting employees’ work performance. The nature of the hospitality industry makes it particularly vulnerable to workplace stress, and consequently, hospitality organizations often focus on managerial practices to ensure service excellence (e.g., a serviceoriented culture, employee empowerment, a customer-listening orientation, and responsive service guarantees) (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). However, such efforts may not be as effective as anticipated due to interference from the employees’ family situations. Previous research has mainly focused on the negative consequences of work–family conflict on job satisfaction, family satisfaction, life satisfaction, job stress, job performance, and turnover intentions (Karatepe and Baddar, 2006; Karatepe and Bekteshi, 2008; Karatepe and Uludag, 2008; Michel et al., 2009; Mulvaney et al., 2007; Yavas et al., 2008). Yet the possible affective influences of employees’ family concerns onto their work attitudes and, ultimately, to customer satisfaction, has largely been ignored. Hospitality frontline employees face long working hours, high levels of job insecurity, irregular and inflexible work schedules,
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 20 84112721; fax: +86 20 84036924. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (X. Zhao), [email protected] (A.S. Mattila). 1 Tel.: +1 814 863 5757. 0278-4319/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.10.001
limited time off on weekends and holidays, and low wages (Karatepe et al., 2012; Karatepe and Bekteshi, 2008; Karatepe et al., 2008; Karatepe and Uludag, 2008). Work–family conflict (WFC; i.e., role interference resulting from incompatible work and family demands) often has a detrimental impact on individuals’ work attitudes (Siegel et al., 2005). Because customer perceptions are shaped by customer–employee dyadic interactions, employees’ job attitudes greatly influence service outcomes (Bolton et al., 2007; Schmit and Allscheid, 1995; Schneider and Bowen, 1985). For example, as demonstrated by Koys’s (2001) longitudinal study, employee satisfaction is strongly correlated to customer satisfaction (Year 1 r = .49, p < .01; Year 2 r = .61, p < .01). Grandey et al. (2011) found a significant relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction at the store-level (r = .28, p < .05), and explain that employee satisfaction influences customer satisfaction in two ways: (1) employees’ emotional contagion with customers may transfer their positive or negative affect to customers, and (2) employees’ extra-role behaviors not only influence job performance, but also customer satisfaction. Combining these theoretical concepts and empirical evidence, it is possible to conclude that frontline employees’ WFCs influence their work attitudes which in turn have an impact on customer satisfaction. To reiterate, the present study aims to investigate the spillover effect of frontline employees’ work–family conflict through affective attitudes that influence customer satisfaction. 2. Theoretical framework WFC can be defined is “a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressure from the work and family domains are mutually
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incompatible in some respect” (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985, p. 77). WFC has a negative association with two levels of employee attitudes: job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Allen et al., 2000). Moreover, prior research shows that affective spillover is a critical intervening variable between work and family domains (Heller and Watson, 2005; Song et al., 2008). Job satisfaction is “an internal state that is expressed by affectively and/or cognitively evaluating an experienced job with some degree of favor or disfavor” (Brief, 1998, p. 86). WFC has been shown to have a highly negative impact on employees’ affective reactions (Zhao et al., 2011). Organizational commitment captures three types of feelings of belonging to the organization: affective, normative, and continuance (Meyer and Allen, 1991; Meyer et al., 1993), and prior research suggests that work–family interference takes a particularly heavy toll on affective commitment (Namasivayam and Zhao, 2007). The present study examines WFC’s negative spillover effect on individuals’ affective reactions to their job and commitment to the organization. Because WIF (work interfering with family) and FIW (family interfering with work) lead to feelings of emotional exhaustion, such negative feelings may decrease both affective reactions to the job and affective commitment to the organization (Chu et al., 2012; Karatepe and Uludag, 2007). To minimize the negative effects of WIF/FIW, hotels should adopt family-friendly human resources policies (Nishii et al., 2008). With high levels of perceived organizational support (e.g., ethical leadership and friendly colleagues), hospitality employees might feel lower levels of work–family role pressure and less distress from work–family conflict (Karatepe, 2010; Michel et al., 2010). Under such conditions, employees tend to attribute the improved work–family well-being to management, like their jobs better, have a higher level of emotional attachment to the hotel, and provide better service to their customers (Chen and Cheng, 2012; Karatepe and Tekinkus, 2006; Kim and Brymer, 2011; Nishii et al., 2008). Further, there are inconsistent findings about the extent to which the two directions of WFC (work-to-family and family-towork) play different or similar roles in forming frontline employees’ affective reactions and commitment. WIF and FIW have been traditionally considered as two distinct dimensions of WFC (Frone et al., 1992a, 1997). WIF represents the impact of the work domain factors on aspects of the family, while FIW reflects the effects of family domain factors on work outcomes. Prior research suggests that FIW, rather than WIF, has a negative impact on employees’ affective reactions and commitment to the company (Zhao et al., 2011). Some studies propose that work and family boundaries have asymmetrical effects (Frone et al., 1992b). WIF may have a stronger impact on affective reactions and commitment than FIW. In contrast, other studies show that both WIF and FIW influence employees’ affective attitudes (Karatepe and Kilic, 2009). When encountering WIF/FIW, employees are more likely to attribute troubles to the job and tend to believe that management did not provide them with sufficient support, and the result will be low levels of job satisfaction (Grandey et al., 2005a; Homans, 1961; Siegel et al., 2005). The present study examines the impact of WIF/FIW on employees’ affective attitudes in the specific context of the hospitality industry. Spillover theory indicates that work–family experiences are positively associated, and that affective experience across life domains result in correlations of work and family variables (Song et al., 2008; Williams and Alliger, 1994). Hospitality employees often work during weekends or holidays, and they are required to smile regardless of internal feelings (Chu et al., 2012). To make matters worse, they are frequently asked to be willing to, and ready to, sacrifice time needed for fulfilling family responsibilities (Karatepe and Baddar, 2006; Karatepe and Bekteshi, 2008; Karatepe and Olugbade, 2009). When negative feelings persist, job-related affective reactions and organizational commitment tend to suffer (Hecht and Boies, 2009). Thus, among hospitality employees both
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WIF and FIW should have negative effects on affective reactions (e.g., Zhao et al., 2011) and on organizational commitment (e.g., Karatepe and Kilic, 2007). Previous empirical research reveals inconsistent evidence of negative effects of WIF and FIW on employee attitudes (Karatepe, 2010). Karatepe and Kilic (2007) found that in the context of Northern Cyprus hotels, FIW did not have a significant negative effect on job satisfaction. More recently, Karatepe and Kilic’s (2009) findings indicate that FIW rather than WIF is negatively related to affective commitment. Conversely, Zhao et al.’s (2011) study of hotel sales managers in China demonstrates that both WIF and FIW have a significant negative relationship with employee affect. Namasivayam and Zhao (2007) failed to detect significant associations between affective commitment and either WIF or FIW. Given the mixed findings we propose that there is a negative relationship between employees’ WIF/FIW and both their affective reaction to the job and affective commitment to the hotel. Therefore, we hypothesize the following: H1a. WIF has a negative relationship with employees’ affective reactions to the job (i.e., affective component of job satisfaction). H1b. WIF has a negative relationship with affective commitment to the hotel. H2a. FIW has a negative relationship with employees’ affective reactions to the job. H2b. FIW has a negative relationship with affective commitment to the hotel. Customer satisfaction refers to the customer’s cognitive and affective evaluation of a product or service (Zeithaml et al., 2006), and the link between employee attitudes and customer satisfaction is widely accepted in the services literature. Building on prior research (e.g., Netemeyer et al., 2010), we examine the relationship between employee attitude and customer response, and propose that frontline employees’ positive affective reactions and commitment are related to customer satisfaction. Frontline employees who like their job are more apt to perform their service tasks effectively (Netemeyer et al., 2010; Way et al., 2010) and to display positive affect toward customers (Tsai and Huang, 2002). Such actions should lead to enhanced customer satisfaction levels (Gazzoli et al., 2010; Gil et al., 2008). Highly satisfied and committed employees also tend to demonstrate organizational citizenship behaviors, such as cooperative actions, paying more attention to customers’ individualized needs, and establishing a positive service climate (Paulin et al., 2006). Consistently, we propose the following: H3. Employees’ affective reactions are positively related to customer satisfaction. H4. Employees’ affective commitment is positively related to customer satisfaction. In addition to the indirect effects detailed above, frontline employees’ work–family conflict (WIF and FIW) may also have a direct impact on customer satisfaction. WIF and FIW reflect the tension between work and family domains (Horwitz et al., 2008) and, consequently, high levels of WIF/FIW are likely to lead to negative mood (Grandey and Cropanzano, 1999). Under such conditions, the influence on customer satisfaction should be direct—a position that is supported by research from Pugh (2001). His research shows that customers are able to pick up on inconsistencies between employees’ positive emotional displays and negative inner moods. Moreover, customers value authentic displays of emotions rather than faked ones (Grandey et al., 2005b). Therefore, we propose: H5.
WIF has a negative relationship with customer satisfaction.
H6.
FIW has a negative relationship with customer satisfaction.
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3. Method 3.1. Procedure The present study investigates the interrelated outcomes of employees’ family interferences, affective attitudes, and service outcomes. A dyadic data set consisting of paired employee–customer responses is an ideal sample for examining our proposed relationships (Brown and Lam, 2008; Homburg and Stock, 2004). Human resource managers from six hotels provided employee lists from which we randomly selected forty frontline employees from each hotel. Selected employees were subsequently asked to fill out a questionnaire and return it directly to research assistants. The measurement items were obtained from established scales and revised to fit the current context. In the questionnaire, respondents were informed (1) that the study was financially supported by a government research grant, (2) that the findings were solely used for academic purposes and (3) that all responses were to be kept confidential (i.e., hotel managers would not have access to any specific responses). In the next step, customers who had just interacted with the sampled employees were invited to participate in the study. During the data collection process, employees were not aware that their service interactions would be evaluated by customers, and to that end, customers were approached only after the service interaction was completed. The employee–customer responses were immediately matched, and as a result, all paired service interactions were coded as one employee to one customer. From the 240 paired surveys distributed, 148 paired employee–customer responses were deemed valid (a response rate of 61.67%). Employee respondents were predominantly female (64.90%), with an average tenure of 1.31 years (SD = 1.51) and with an average number of 1.06 dependents (e.g., spouse, children, elderly parents; SD = 1.28). The human resource managers in each hotel confirmed that the demographic information matched the employee characteristics. Customer demographics were also similar to hotel guest profiles. Of the customer questionnaires used, 54% were from males with an average age of 32.18 years (SD = 9.82). Most of the customers (77.70%) indicated pleasure as the primary purpose of their stay. 3.2. Measures For the employee questionnaires, work–family conflict was measured with eleven items from Grandey et al.’s (2005) inventory. Six items measured work interfering with family (WIF; e.g., “my job keeps me from spending time with my family members”), and another five items tapped into family interfering with work (FIW; e.g., “my family demands make it hard for me to do my job well”). A seven-point Likert-type scale anchored with 1, Strongly Disagree and 7, Strongly Agree was applied. Affective reaction as a component of job satisfaction was measured by four items from the Job Opinion Questionnaire (e.g., enjoyable–miserable, full–empty, friendly–lonely, and boring–interesting). This instrument was developed by Campell et al. (1976) and was previously tested in the WFC context by Grandey et al. (2005a,b). The semantic differential sevenpoint scale asked participants to “Think over the last year of your job and use the following words and phrases to describe it.” Three items measuring affective commitment were adapted from Shemwell et al. (1994) measures. On a seven-point scale (1, low and 7, high), participants were asked to evaluate three affective aspects of commitment to the hotel. The items were: “My level of emotional attachment to this company,” “The strength of my
commitment to this company,” and “The level of personal relationship between coworkers and myself.” Customer satisfaction was assessed by three items adapted from Hennig-Thurau et al. (2006). On a seven-point Likert scale, respondents were asked to evaluate their satisfaction with the service experience (e.g., “I am delighted by this service experience” and “I am satisfied with this specific experience”). 4. Results The procedure for data analysis followed the two-step approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) developed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). Specifically, a series of statistical tests, including a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), was first conducted to evaluate psychometric properties (i.e., convergent and discriminant validity) of study variables and to assess the measurement model (see Table 1). The results of testing the five-factor CFA measurement model (i.e., WIF, FIW, affective reactions, affective commitment, and customer satisfaction) suggest that the measurement model did not fit the data well: 2(199) = 329.09 (p < .01), CFI = .84, IFI = .85, RMSEA = .07 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Four items (one item of WIF, two of FIW, and one of the affective reactions) suffered from cross loadings as indicated in the modification indices (MIs) and expected parameter changes (EPCs). When these four items were excluded from the model the fitness indices improved: 2(125) = 151.48 (p = .05), GFI = .90, AGFI = .86, CFI = .96, IFI = .96, RMSEA = .04. The findings also support the fact that WIF and FIW are two independent constructs (2(19) = 14.34 (p = .76), GFI = .98, AGFI = .96, CFI = 1.00, IFI = 1.01, RMSEA = .00) rather than a one factor model of WFC (2(20) = 181.52 (p = .00), GFI = .82, AGFI = .68, CFI = .35, IFI = .37, RMSEA = .23). Cronbach’s ˛ values of study constructs ranged from .77 to .89, which exceeds the suggested cut-off value of .70 (Hair et al., 2006; Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). The CR values are well above the cut-off point of .70 and the AVEs exceed the .50 cut-off value (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The structural model with original measures was examined first and the results indicated adequate fitness with the data: 2(200) = 329.28 (p < .01), GFI = .90, AGFI = .85, IFI = .90, CFI = .89, and RMSEA = .07 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Then, according to the CFA analyses, the four cross-loading items were excluded from the structural model. The modified structural model fit the data better: 2(126) = 151.83 (p = .06), GFI = .90, AGFI = .86, IFI = .96, CFI = .96, and RMSEA = .04. The standardized path coefficients were further applied to test the hypotheses (Fig. 1). WIF has a marginally significant negative effect on affective reactions (ˇ = −.16, p = .05), but the effects on affective commitment are not significant (ˇ = −.06, p = .49). Consequently, Hypothesis 1a rather than Hypothesis 1b is supported. In contrast however, FIW has a significant negative effect on both affective reactions (ˇ = −.27, p < .001) and affective commitment (ˇ = −.21, p = .02). These results provide support for Hypotheses 2a and 2b. Further, affective reactions (ˇ = .23, p = .01) have a more significant impact on customer satisfaction than affective commitment (ˇ = .14, p = .09). These results are consistent with Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4. Finally, FIW (ˇ = −.24, p = .01) rather than WIF (ˇ = −.05, p = .28) has a significant direct impact on customer satisfaction. Therefore, Hypothesis 6 is supported while Hypothesis 5 is not. 5. Discussion The present study examined the direct effects of WIF/FIW on customer satisfaction, and the indirect associations through affective reactions and commitment. Our results show that WIF reduced
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Table 1 Descriptive statistics.
(1) WIF (2) FIW (3) ARA (4) ACO (5) CSA
M
SD
CR
AVE
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
6.09 5.41 5.23 6.06 5.46
.48 .90 1.01 .62 1.13
.88 .83 .73 .75 .86
.82 .70 .62 .65 .74
.89 .15* −.16* .07 −.02
.86 −.18* −.14+ −.10
.77 −.09 .01
.78 .17*
.88
Note: N = 148. M: Mean; SD: standard deviation; CR: composite reliability; AVE: average variance extracted; WIF: work interfering with family; FIW: family interfering with work; ARA: affective reactions; ACO: affective commitment; CSA: customer satisfaction. Numbers indicated in bold on the diagonal denote the Cronbach’s ˛ values. + p < .10. * p < .05. ** p < .01.
individuals’ positive affective reactions to their jobs, while FIW decreased both positive affective job reactions and affective organizational commitment. Although both positive affective reactions and affective commitment had significant positive associations with customer satisfaction, affective reactions had stronger effects. Finally, FIW was negatively linked to customer satisfaction, while WIF failed to have any influence. These findings have several theoretical and practical implications.
seems to indicate spillover effects from work to nonwork domains, while FIW reflects the influences from family to work. Finally, frontline employees’ affective spillover processes may accentuate the impact of WFC on work attitudes and customer satisfaction. As previous studies have revealed, when employees face WFC, they tend to dislike their jobs (i.e., negative affective reactions to the job), and such negative affect plays a more critical role in influencing their attitudes and behaviors than does low cognitive appraisal (e.g., Zhao et al., 2011). Our study further differentiated two levels of employees’ affect: affective reactions to a job and affective commitment to an organization. Affective job reactions are more proximal to employee behaviors, and hence have a stronger impact on customer satisfaction. Conversely, affective commitment might be more relevant to frontline employees’ emotional attachment toward the organizations, subsequently influencing service outcomes through organizational citizenship behaviors.
5.1. Theoretical implications The findings of this study imply that frontline employees’ work–family conflict should be recognized as a critical antecedent to customer satisfaction. As noted earlier, previous studies identified a large number of workplace determinants of customer satisfaction, but research on the potential impact of employees’ family burdens on service outcomes is scant. Our research shows that employees’ work–family role conflict, especially FIW, has significant direct or indirect negative relationships to customer satisfaction. Future research should investigate the spillover processes from family to work by considering other mediators or moderators, and by extending the focus to positive effects (e.g., enrichment and facilitation). As stated, the results of previous studies are mixed and our findings indicate that WIF and FIW may have differential impacts on employee attitudes. Similarly, WIF and FIW influence customer satisfaction indirectly through employees’ affect toward their jobs and their organizations. However, FIW has direct and significant negative relationships with service outcomes, while WIF does not have such direct relationships. Our findings further indicate that FIW has a negative impact on employees’ work affect at both the job level and at the organizational level. Conversely, the negative impact of WIF was shown to be limited to employees’ affective job evaluations. These results hit at different functions of WIF and FIW: WIF H1a -.16+
WIF (Work Interfering with Family)
H1b -.06
The results of this study have important implications for hospitality managers. Traditionally, efforts aimed at improving customer satisfaction have concentrated on factors in the workplace (e.g., quality management, employee empowerment, and technical training). Our results demonstrate that these efforts may not be sufficient, and that the relationship between employees’ work life and home life should be considered. In the case of the hospitality industry, when work and family demands are balanced and interference from one domain to the other is minimized, employees demonstrate a more positive affect toward their service-level jobs and a greater commitment to the hotel in which they work. This, in turn, results in higher levels of customer satisfaction—a critical factor for any business. Hospitality managers should therefore be cognizant of factors outside the workplace—particularly family
Affective Reactions
H3 .23*
H5 .05 H6 -.24*
H2a -.27**
FIW (Family Interfering with Work)
5.2. Practical implications
H2b -.21*
Affective Commitment
Customer Satisfaction
H4 .14+
Fig. 1. The tested model. Note. Paths that are not significant at p < .10 are shown as dashed lines, for simplicity. The standardized path coefficients are given with corresponding hypotheses. + p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01.
314
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burdens on their employees—can have on service excellence at the workplace. From the perspective of human resource practices, hospitality organizations have started to aim at creating a work environment that is family-friendly (e.g., flexible work schedule for employees with special family demands). When frontline employees benefit from a family-friendly culture, they can minimize distractions from nonwork domains, and ultimately provide high levels of customer service. Further, the results suggest that employees’ affective reactions to the job and their affective commitment to the organization are critical in the relationship between WFC and customer satisfaction service outcomes. Hospitality organizations should try to establish a work environment in which frontline employees are able to modify their moods and emotions in a positive way. For example, relaxation activities may help employees to take a break from work and family demands, to restore the energy and psychological resources that are taxed by WFC, and to maintain a calmer and more peaceful mood (Hecht and Boies, 2009). Some hotel companies have recently established fitness centers and physical exercise programs that could help employees to release stress (Rao and Indla, 2010). Finally, because there are many choices for family-friendly practices, hospitality organizations may want to apply different practices to specific employee populations. Ideally, hotels could provide employees with flexible options of social support, employee assistance programs, and childcare. Work–family support from hotels may have to be flexible, so that individual employees can choose options that best fit their needs. For example, single and young employees typically desire free time for entertaining, dating, and participating in social activities, and they may need time for taking care of parents. Their needs are often quite different from the requirements of the more senior employees, supervisors, and managers who may place a greater emphasis on support and benefits related to childcare, work breaks, medical care, and work schedule flexibility. By establishing a definitive need for continued research in this area, and by extending the workplace dialog through specific results, this study provides a substantial contribution to the field of hospitality management.
5.3. Limitations The present study has several limitations that should be kept in mind. First, this study was cross-sectional and correlational in nature, and it relied on self-reports. The design itself may have prevented the exclusion of alternative explanations, including the possibility that superior service experiences with happy customers leads hospitality employees to like their jobs and the hotel. If a longitudinal design could be adopted (e.g., Koys, 2001 longitudinal study in a regional restaurant chain), future research could establish the sequence of causal inferences. Thus, future research utilizing observational techniques, experience sampling methods, and/or longitudinal designs is needed to further explore the relationships established in this study. Second, a relatively small number of hotel employees (N = 148) served as the sample, and the paired customer–employee interactions were collected from a single episode. Although dyadic data are ideal for examining the employee–customer relationship, the relatively small sample size might pose problems with extreme responses (e.g., some employees might have particularly heavy WFC and the current sample size may not be large enough to ‘average’ these special cases). The present investigation was limited to frontline employees in hotels, and the findings may not be generalizable to other hospitality contexts (e.g., independent restaurants and cruise lines). Therefore, future research in other contexts is needed to test the robustness of the study findings.
A third limitation of this study is that controls were not applied for potential factors influencing service interactions. For example, employee and customer mood states are particularly important in terms of negative affect (e.g., Judge et al., 2006), so future work is needed to rule out mood effects. As noted in the theoretical development segment, emotional exhaustion might be an important mediating variable in the work–family affective spillover process (e.g., Karatepe and Tekinkus, 2006; Karatepe and Uludag, 2007). Moreover, employees’ perceptions of organizational support are likely to influence their attitude toward their jobs (e.g., Karatepe, 2010). Because emotional exhaustion and perceived organizational support offer potential alternative explanations for our findings, future research should incorporate these two variables into the model, and examine their roles in the relationship between family interference and service outcomes. Perceived organizational support, for instance, could be viewed as an antecedent to job attitudes, or as a moderator between work–family conflict and employees’ attitudinal responses (Casper et al., 2011). Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71102097), the Chinese Department of Education (08JA840012), the Guangdong Social Science Foundation (07YH01), the Guangzhou Social Science Foundation (07Q6), and Sun Yat-Sen University (14000-3181304). References Allen, T.D., Herst, D.E.L., Bruck, C.S., Sutton, M., 2000. Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 5 (2), 278–308. Anderson, J.C., Gerbing, D.W., 1988. Structual equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin 103 (3), 411–423. Bagozzi, R.P., Yi, Y., 1988. On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 16 (1), 74–94. Bolton, R.N., Grewal, D., Levy, M., 2007. Six strategies for competing through service: an agenda for future research. Journal of Retailing 83 (1), 1–4. Brief, A.P., 1998. Attitudes In and Around Organizations. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Brown, S.P., Lam, S.K., 2008. A meta-analysis of relationships linking employee satisfaction to customer responses. Journal of Retailing 84 (3), 243–255. Campell, A., Converse, P.E., Rodgers, W.L., 1976. The Quality of American Life: Perceptions, Evaluations, and Satisfactions. Rusell Sage Foundation, New York. Casper, W.J., Harris, C., Taylor-Bianco, A., Wayne, J.H., 2011. Work–family conflict, perceived supervisor support and organizational commitment among Brazilian professionals. Journal of Vocational Behavior 79 (3), 640–652, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.04.011. Chen, W.-J., Cheng, H.-Y., 2012. Factors affecting the knowledge sharing attitude of hotel service personnel. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2), 468–476, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.07.005. Chu, K.H., Baker, M.A., Murrmann, S.K., 2012. When we are onstage, we smile: the effects of emotional labor on employee work outcomes. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (3), 906–915, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. ijhm.2011.10.009. Enz, C.A., Siguaw, J.A., 2000. Best practices in service quality. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 41 (5), 20–29, http://dx.doi.org/10. 1177/001088040004100531. Fornell, C., Larcker, D.F., 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research 18 (1), 39–50. Frone, M.R., Russell, M., Cooper, M.L., 1992a. Antecedents and outcomes of work–family conflict: testing a model of the work–family interface. Journal of Applied Psychology 77, 65–78. Frone, M.R., Russell, M., Cooper, M.L., 1992b. Prevalence of work–family conflict: are work and family boundaries asymmetrically permeable. Journal of Organizational Behavior 13, 723–729. Frone, M.R., Yardley, J.K., Markel, K.S., 1997. Developing and testing an integrative model of the work–family interface. Journal of Vocational Behavior 50, 145–167. Gazzoli, G., Hancer, M., Park, Y., 2010. The role and effect of job satisfaction and empowerment on customers’ perception of service quality: a study in the restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research 34 (1), 56–77. Gil, I., Berenguer, G., Cervera, A., 2008. The roles of service encounters, service value, and job satisfaction in achieving customer satisfaction in business relationships. Industrial Marketing Management 37, 921–939, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2007.06.008.
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