Category: Example

2. Uncertain & highly stressful context has aggravated the problem of burnout (Ayachit & Chitta, 2021), which was customary among hotel employees even before the COVID-19 pandemic (Tsui, 2021; Wong et al., 2019).

1. What are the mechanisms through which HPWSs practices will effect employee job satisfaction?

2. What are the effects of burnout as a mediator in the relationship between HPWSS and employee job satisfaction?

1. Research Method: Exploratory; Quantitative.

2. Research Design: Descriptive

3. Respondents: 202 sample of respondents on hotel employees in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) during Spring 2021.

4. Data Collection Method: Survey-based questionnaire (using a paper pen or an electronic version); convenience sampling process

5. Data Analysis: Correlation Analysis; Validity & Reliability using Partial Least Squares- Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis.

1. To contribute theoretical literature development of HPWSs practices on employee job satisfaction in hospitality & tourism firms.

2. To recommend the practical implications to be useful for HR specialists & hoteliers in the implementation of HPWSs mechanisms in the current pandemic situation, in order to mitigate its negative effects on an employee-centered approach.

Research Objectives

2. To examine the indirect effects of HPWSs through a reduction in burnout on employee job satisfaction.

Introduction

In Lai et al.’s article above, they explored the mediating role of work engagement (WE) between the relationship of transformational leadership (TFL) and employee job performance (JP) and helping behavior (HB). Specifically, how the nurses’ work engagement intervenes in the impact of transformational leadership of head nurses on the job performance of nurses. The study shows that TRL gives rise to WE but not JP and HB. We mediated the relationship between  TFL JP and HB. The results are able to support all three of their hypothesis.

Evaluation

The central argument is that it is important to comprehend the factors and underlying mechanisms that give rise to employee motivation, which makes them perform well in their in-role task and perhaps go the extra mile. In addition, because of a wider variety of work behaviors, work-engaged employees are more likely to help their peers. Transformational leaders provide robust and common goals for employees and convince them that those goals are meaningful. Transformational leaders may improve employee task performance and helping behaviors through work engagement. Work-engaged employees deploy themselves to the in-role task and devote their energy to behavior that gives rise to achieving organizational goals.

In short, employees will be work-engaged when transformational leaders are able to get their buy-in by providing meaningful goals, offering a safe and supportive environment, and providing accessible resources. The paper did well in reducing concerns about common method variance (CMV) errors where it uses three waves of study, collecting data from leaders and members.

The paper did provide practical implications for personnel selection and leadership training:

During day-to-day interaction, lower level (ward head nurse) TFL, who have more contact with members, might have more opportunities to (i) instill in members the organization’s vision and collective goals, (ii) offer emotional support when members feel frustration or help them overcome difficult tasks with new solutions immediately. Through training, leaders may enhance their coaching skills including how to set unit goals, communicate with members about these goals, motivate members to achieve goals, invent new methods for problem-solving, and cheer up members when they experience setbacks.

The research could have better explained the mechanism of how TFL leadership gives rise to WE by using the job demands-resource (JD-R) model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2016). The JD-R model proposed two paths in their model: (i) motivational path and (ii) health-impairment path. According to the motivational path, job and personal resources give rise to employee engagement. It subsequently affects an employee’s job performance.

In Lai et al.’s article above,

JD-R could be used as such that TFL can be conceptualized as job resources for the employee that give rise to employee engagement and consequently lead to better job performance and helping behaviors among nurses. In addition to that, the paper could have tested their assumption on psychological fulfillment (i.e. psychological meaningful, psychological safety, and psychological availability) that led to employee engagement. Meaning, that instead of directly testing TFL to WE, it is possible that TFL  led to meaningful work and then led to WE.

The paper did a good job of representing the work engagement among nurses. However, in terms of gender, this is insufficient to make generalizations about male nurses even within the same industry. The author disclosed the limitations of the study such as the generalizability of their findings, as they collected from one profession and it was dominated by females. Additionally, some citations could have been more recent. For example, when citing past studies to demonstrate empirical evidence: “prior research highlights the positive relationship between motivation and members’ performance (e.g., Cerasoil et al., 2014)”. One of the explanations could be that when initiating their study above in 2019, citing a 2014 paper was still acceptable because it was still within five years back then.

Conclusion

The ward head nurse’s transformational leadership has an impact on nurses’ outcomes (i.e. job performance and helping behavior) through work engagement. Such individual employee outcomes are not only affected by monetary means but rather the perceived support of his or her surroundings (i.e. leadership, job characteristics, support, feedback, autonomy, etc.). It means employees’ behavioral outcomes are influenced by their psychological processes. Whereby, when certain psychological conditions of the employees are fulfilled, they are more likely to express themselves as a member of the organization and perform their in-role tasks well. This is in line with Kahn’s (1990) theory of the psychological condition of engagement that posits a work-engaged individual would need to be psychologically present. To meet that presence,  one must experience psychological meaning, psychological safety, and psychological availability.

Link: Article Link

Introduction of the Article

Zhao and Zou(2020)  conducted a study “Socially responsible human resource management and hotel employee organizational citizenship behavior for the Environment: A Social Cognitive Perspective” in which they, drawing inspiration from Social Cognitive Theory, SCT, explored the relationship and interplay of three key predictors that could modulate an employees’ response towards OCBE;  SRHRM, which goes beyond offering enough pay and excellent working conditions and focuses on addressing employees’ personal and family needs, employee’s own Moral reflectiveness and Responsible leadership who form rules and norms and can directly motivate employees. While previous studies focussed on micro-level factors like psychological aspects, this study integrated them with macro-level factors, SRHRM.

Evaluation of the Article

The researchers hypothesized that: Hypothesis-1, SRHRM was positively related to employee OCBE. Hypothesis-2 Moral reflectiveness mediated the relationship between SRHRM and OCBE. Hypothesis-3, Responsible leadership moderated the positive relationship between SRHRM and moral reflectiveness. Hypothesis-4 Responsible leadership via moral reflectiveness moderated the mediated relationship between SRHRM and employee OCBE.

Employees from a large hotel group in Shanghai, China participated in the study. A total of ten hotels were chosen from three categories of hotels, three economy, three upscale, and four luxury hotels. The two-phase survey was conducted between 2018 -2019. The first batch of questionnaires on SRHRM and moral reflectiveness was given to 340 of the full-time employees, and 310 returned the completed questionnaires. In January 2019 second batch of questionnaires on OCBE and responsible leadership was dished out. 270 completed were returned.

SRHRM was measured by employing a six-item scale from Orlitzky and Swanson (2006). Moral reflectiveness through a five-item developed by Reynolds (2008), OCBE was measured with Ten items developed by Boiral and Paill´e (2012) and responsible leadership was evaluated by using the five-item scale developed by Voegtlin (2011).

Statistical analysis of questionnaires revealed that SRHRM had a positive impact on OCBE (p < 0.05), thus it supported Hypothesis 1. As for the second hypothesis, moral reflectiveness was found to be positively associated with OCBE (p < 0.01) whereas the positive impact of SRHRM on OCBE was not significant (p > 0.05) providing initial evidence to support Hypothesis 2.  An indirect effect of SRHRM on OCBE through moral reflectiveness was found significant, further supporting Hypothesis 2. Hypothesis 3 indicated that responsible leadership moderated the relationship between SRHRM and moral reflectiveness. It was found that SRHRM was more significantly related to moral reflectiveness when responsible leadership was low as compared to when it was high. This supported Hypothesis 3. While testing Hypothesis 4, i.e., the indirect influences of SRHRM on OCBE, the moderated mediation effect of H4 was supported.

Conclusion

Based on their findings, the authors suggested that organizations should adopt strong HR policies. Induction process with a clear job description and through interviews organizations should select individuals who are naturally environmentally friendly. Then they must reinforce OCBE culture through training, evaluation, and providing incentives. Similarly, hotels should employ, train, and promote leaders who can support these cultures by engaging and motivating employees. However, the study was limited to one hotel and only to a responsible leader. Additionally, other leaders in the organization like servant leaders, and ethical leaders may be considered in future studies.