Antecedents and Consequence of Frontline Employees’ Commitment to Service Quality in Hotels: Proactivity, Organizational Learning Culture, Empowerment, and Job Efficacy

Abstract

Given the significant roles that they play in the customer services, the frontline employees’ work attitudes and behavior patterns can largely influence the customer satisfaction and performance of service organizations. Adding to the growing research on work attitudes, this research aims at deepening our understanding about the frontline employees’ commitment to service quality (CSQ). This study proposes and tests an integrative framework that not only analyzes the positive personal outcome of CSQ, but also predicts it at both individual and organizational level. Based on a survey of employees in the front offices of hotels in Korea, this research highlights the job efficacy, or the self-confidence in the capability to perform job effectively, as a crucial consequence of CSQ. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of predictors shows that proactive personality has a greater effect on the CSQ than others. Regarding the effect of organizational contexts, this study shows the positive, but varying, effects of the organizational learning culture and the psychological empowerment on the employees’ CSQ.

Keywords

• frontline employees
• commitment to service quality
• proactivity
• organizational learning culture
• psychological empowerment