The Effect of Fellow Workers’ Warmth and Competence on Frontline Employees’ Proactive Customer Service Performance and Turnover Intentions in Hotels

Abd El-Aty, Yasser; Deraz, Amr

doi:10.21608/ijhth.2018.31506

The Effect of Fellow Workers’ Warmth and Competence on Frontline Employees’ Proactive Customer Service Performance and Turnover Intentions in Hotels

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

10.21608/ijhth.2018.31506

Abstract

The warmth and competence represent two fundamental social dimensions that people often use to evaluate other individuals or groups. In terms of proactive customer service performance (PCSP), it is still a relatively recent concept; and its antecedents are unidentified to a great extent. Therefore, understanding how warmth and competence influence PCSP will add to the knowledge of the hotel industry, both theoretically and practically. Thus, the study aimed at investigating employees’ perceptions of fellow workers’ warmth and competence as well as measuring employees’ PCSP and turnover intentions in hotels. In addition, the study also examines the impact of fellow workers’ perceived warmth and competence on employees’ PCSP and turnover intentions. For achieving these objectives, data were collected using questionnaires. From all five-star hotels (33 hotels) in Cairo, only 10 hotels that represent about 30.3 % accepted to distribute the questionnaire to their employees. A questionnaire form was developed based upon the relevant review of literature and a pilot study which was conducted on the ten investigated hotels. According to this pilot study, there were 500 frontline employees (e.g. front desk agents, food servers, and bartenders) working in these hotels. Therefore, it was possible to distribute the questionnaire forms to the entire population as it was of a manageable size. Only 370 valid questionnaire forms were received from the respondents. To analyze these forms, descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used. The findings showed that co-workers’ warmth was perceived low by employees, whereas fellow workers’ competence was perceived high. Moreover, co-workers’ perceived warmth had a negative effect on employees’ PCSP and turnover intentions. In addition, competence had a positive effect on employees’ PCSP and a negative effect on turnover intentions. Thus, the results suggested that hotels should focus on increasing co-workers’ perceived warmth but they should work hard to reduce the negative impact of the perceived warmth through the permanent management supervision of employees when providing service to customers. Furthermore, hotel management should also maintain the high competence of the frontline employees as well as it should try to increase it.

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