The antecedents of employee service quality in the hospitality industry : service orientation and organisational justice perspectives

This study investigated the antecedents of employee service quality in the hotel industry by focusing on variables that were believed to be its direct and indirect antecedents. The conceptual model developed in this study suggested that organisational service orientation (OSO), organisational justice (OJ), and the individual service orientation (ISO) of customer-contact employees influence employee service quality (ESQ) through employee attitudes towards their work (job satisfaction (JS) and affective organisational commitment (AOC)) and employee behaviours at work (in-role behaviour (IRB) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)). In order to identify the relationships between these constructs, two questionnaires were designed; one to measure employee perceptions of OSO, OJ, ISO, JS and AOC, and the other to measure managers’ perceptions of employee IRB, OCB and ESQ. A total of 800 matched questionnaires were distributed randomly to a sample of front-line employees and their direct managers working in four- and five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia. Of these 356 usable matched questionnaires were returned and used in the analysis. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to test the validity of the scales used. The single dimensional scales were all confirmed, although most of the multi-dimensional scales loaded differently and were renamed accordingly. The relationships between the constructs were examined using three analytical methods: correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and structural equation modelling. The correlation results showed that there were positive significant relationships between all variables at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). Then multiple regression was used to test the developed hypotheses. All the propositions suggested in this study showed positive relationships. Using the multiple regression analysis to study the proposed relationships model showed an inconsistency in the results when different mediation paths were studied. Therefore, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to confirm the goodness-of-fit of the model generated from the multiple regression analysis. The final model generated from the SEM using AMOS software was considered as a valid and reliable model. The contributions of this research at the theoretical and methodological levels and the implications for theory, management and future research were discussed. Theoretical contributions were addressed in this study. ISO, IRB and OCB were found as direct antecedents of employee service quality. On the other hand, OSO, OJ and JS were found to be as indirect antecedents of employee service quality. JS, IRB and OCB played mediation roles between predictors and the outcome. Unexpectedly, AOC was not correlated to employee service quality in this study. As one of the motivations of this study was to provide a comparison of expatriates and local employees looking at employee service quality while the replacement process -Saudi-isation - was in progress. The results showed that there were no significant differences between Saudi employees and expatriates in terms of the delivery of service quality perceived by their managers. The findings of this study suggest that the Saudi-isation process of employees in the Saudi hotels has little or no impact on the quality of the service delivered to customers.