Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the mediating role of organizational engagement in the link between human resources management (HRM) practices and commitment to quality services (CQS). It also investigates the moderating effect of turnover intention on the link between HRM practices and organizational engagement, and the moderating effect of employee adaptability on the link between organizational engagement and CQS.
Design/methodology/approach
Customer contact employees (N = 593) in Bangladeshi hotels were recruited using a convenient sampling method. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Organizational engagement significantly mediates the relationship between HRM practices and CQS. Turnover intention negatively and employee adaptability positively moderates the proposed relationships.
Practical implications
Hospitality managers may use the findings to enhance quality customer services by implementing appropriate HRM practices, reducing turnover, and increasing adaptability and organizational engagement.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to social exchange theory, theory of planned behavior, and job demand-resources theories by explaining the mediating role of organizational engagement and moderating role of turnover intention and employee adaptability which are yet to be discovered.
研究目的
本研究探討組織參與在人力資源管理實務與提供優質服務的承諾兩者之間的關聯上所扮演的協調角色。研究人員亦探究(一)離職意向在人力資源管理實務與組織參與之間的關聯上所扮演的調節角色,以及(二)員工適應性在組織參與與提供優質服務的承諾兩者之間的關聯上所扮演的調節角色。
研究設計
研究人員以方便抽樣方法招募於孟加拉的酒店工作的員工 (N = 593) (593人),他們均為第一線服務員工。研究人員繼而使用結構方程模型 (PLS-SEM) 去測試各項假設。
研究結果
研究結果顯示,組織參與會顯著地調節人力資源管理實務與提供優質服務的承諾兩者之間的關聯。而且,離職意向在人力資源管理實務與組織參與之間的關聯上所起的調節作用是負面的; 相反地,員工適應性在組織參與與提供優質服務的承諾兩者之間的關聯上所起的調節作用則是肯定的。
研究的新穎性
研究結果闡明了(一)組織參與的調節角色; (二)離職意向的調節角色; 以及(三)員工適應性的調節角色。這些調節角色尚待探索; 就此而言,研究結果對社會交換論、計劃行為理論和工作要求-資源理論三者均具貢獻。
研究帶來的啟示
接待業的管理人員可藉著研究結果去提高客戶服務質量,方法是透過實施合適的人力資源管理措施、降低離職意向和增強組織適應性和組織參與。
Keywords
Citation
Rabiul, M.K., Sigala, M. and Karim, R.A. (2025), "Commitment to quality service in hospitality: role of human resources practices, turnover intention, organizational engagement, and adaptability", European Journal of Management and Business Economics, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJMBE-09-2023-0288
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2025, Md Karim Rabiul, Marianna Sigala and Rashed Al Karim
License
Published in European Journal of Management and Business Economics. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Introduction
Customer contact employees and the quality of their services are the cornerstones of success in the hospitality industry (Nguyen et al., 2023; Shum et al., 2024). Hence, hospitality firms invest heavily in human resources management (HRM) to enhance their employees’ quality of service (Papademetriou et al., 2024; Rabiul et al., 2022). A number of studies (Hessari et al., 2024; Nerves and Van Dam, 2024) have the direct outcomes of HRM practices in the hospitality industry. Likewise, numerous studies (Davras and Davras, 2024; Rabiul et al., 2021a) have been conducted to investigate the mechanisms that elucidate the connection between HRM practices and hospitality employees’ service-oriented behaviour, such as psychological safety and meaningfulness and employee satisfaction.
Although several previous studies have contributed to understanding HRM practices and their impacts on employee behaviours directly and indirectly through different mediating mechanisms (Davras and Manap Davras, 2024; Hessari et al., 2024; Nerves and Van Dam, 2024; Rabiul et al., 2021a), our review of the literature has identified three notable gaps.
First, specifically, previous studies have not tested organizational engagement as a mediator between HRM practices and employees’ commitment to quality services (CQS). Organizational engagement is a necessary employee positive behaviour defined as “an individual’s role, responsibility, and tasks associated with membership in an organization” (Saks, 2017, p. 79). We applied social exchange theory (SET) to explain the mediation (Cropanzano et al., 2017). Nevertheless, many studies used SET to understand HRM practices (Davras and Davras, 2024; Fan et al., 2024; Kilroy et al., 2024) but ignored organizational engagement in the process of SET. SET refers to a reciprocal exchange process, such as employees feeling obliged to return to the organization as they benefit from it. In other words, employees benefit from HRM practices and return to the organizations through organizational engagement.
Our assumption not only depends on the SET propositions but also on practical evidence. For example, organizational engagement is positively associated with employee satisfaction, enhances commitment and service behaviour, reduces turnover intention, and produces a general sense of belongingness to the organization (Saks, 2006). Therefore, we examine that HRM practices enhance organizational engagement through a social exchange process, thus leading to CQS.
Second, many studies have examined factors that enhance the quality of employees’ services in the hospitality industry, such as leadership style, human resource practices, and highly engaged, efficacious, and adaptive employees (Kloutsiniotis et al., 2023; Rabiul et al., 2021b, 2022) and depend on boundary conditions (Rabiul et al., 2022). Hence, CQS may not be explained fully by applying SET, which connects HRM practices and organizational engagement; it may further require a theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and job demands-resources (JD-R) theory. In other words, the SET, TPB, and JD-R theories, as proposed in the model, are required to understand employee service quality.
For instance, employees might repay through the exchange process, but their intentions might have significant impacts. Some employees may think of leaving (i.e. intention to leave) the organization, avoiding their exchange process. Even if the express process is favorable, the individual has a different intention, leading to poor quality service as the individual decides to leave. Precisely, TPB suggests that individuals’ actions in certain work roles depend on their attitude (positive or negative) and motivation (high or low) (Ajzen, 1991). In other words, they may come to enjoy a hospitality job for a while or get experience. Thus, their motivation is lower than that of those who actually need a job to live their lives. Therefore, we test the moderating effect of turnover intention on the association between HRM practices and organizational engagement-when turnover is high, the effect HRM practices on organizational engagement is weaker, and when turnover is low, it is stronger.
Third, some people may not be as adaptable as is required for the work (Hessari et al., 2024; Silva and Pinto, 2024). In this regard, although the exchange process and intention are positive, the failure to adapt to the situation may cause quality service. This is well suggested by JD-R theory, for example, when people feel they have more resources than they need and/or are confident in their ability to handle stress, they may put forth more effort and be more active in their professional duties (Demerouti and Bakker, 2023). Hence, the third aim of this study is to scrutinize the moderating effect of employee adaptability on the association between organizational engagement and CQS in such a way that when employee adaptability is high, the relationship is stronger, and when it is low, it is weaker.
The following are the contributions of the present study. First, the findings contribute to SET by explaining the mediating role of organizational engagement. Second, it adds value to TPB, in that turnover intention is a boundary condition for the relationship between HRM practices and organizational engagement. Third, higher adaptability and organizational engagement lead to higher CQS, thus contributing to JD-R theory. Fourth, it adds to the literature on underdevelopment, particularly in the hospitality industry in developing countries in Asia.
Literature review and hypothesis development
Social exchange theory (SET), theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and job demands-resources (JD-R) theory
SET, which stands for Social Exchange Theory, denotes an exchange process that is reciprocal and involves economic and socioemotional resources (Cropanzano et al., 2017). In this context, organizations provide benefits to employees through HRM practices. As a result, employees reciprocate or feel obliged to respond in kind and repay their organization, such as through organizational engagement.
Ajzen (1991) emphasized that “a central factor in the theory of planned behaviour [TPB] is the individual’s intention to perform a given behaviour” (p. 181). This intention, influenced by subjective norms, behavioural control, and attitude, plays a pivotal role in shaping an individual’s behavior. For instance, an employee’s intention to provide quality service can be significantly influenced by social pressure or the perceived ease of performing the task.
The JD-R theory describes the two elements which are job resources and job demands (Demerouti and Bakker, 2023). Job resources refer to an individual’s ability to perform tasks, such as how effectively an employee can adapt to a situation. On the contrary, job demands are the work-related demands that create a barrier to the task roles, such as a lack of ability to adapt to the situation.
Definition of the variables
HRM Practices. HRM practices refer to the human resources (HR) tools that companies use to increase employees’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and motivation to develop strong organizational commitment and ensure their safety (Elsayed et al., 2024; Ngo et al., 2024). No single set of HR procedures is appropriate for all businesses, including hotels (Benítez-Núñez et al., 2024; Davras and Davras, 2024; Oyelude et al., 2024). This study concentrates on HR practices that hotels can use to gain a competitive advantage by enhancing employees’ skills, knowledge, and abilities, and motivating them to be more committed to serving customers (Elsayed et al., 2024; Ngo et al., 2024). Particularly, eight HR tools vital for employee growth and CQS: appraisal, career advancement, employee participation, job security, recruitment, rewards and recognition, teamwork, and training and development.
Organizational Engagement. This study focuses on organizational engagement, which refers to the individual’s “role, responsibility, and tasks associated with membership in an organization” (Saks, 2017, p. 79). Turnover Intention. Turnover intention refers to job-related withdrawal or intention to resign and search for alternative employment in another organization (Colarelli, 1984). Employee Adaptability. Hartline and Ferrell (1996) defined adaptability “as a continuum ranging from conformity to an established script, in which employees approach each customer the same way, to service personalization, in which employees must adapt to serve individual customers” (p. 55). In other words, it refers to employees’ ability to adjust their behavior and interpersonal situations to serve customers following established social standards, attitudes, and practices. Commitment to Quality Services. This study defines CQS as “the relative intensity of an employee’s dedication or commitment to providing quality service to the firm’s guests” (Clark et al., 2009, p. 216). CQS describes how an individual shows concern for meeting customer needs and providing high-quality service in a distinct and direct manner (Peccei and Rosenthal, 1997; Rabiul et al., 2021b).
HRM practices and organizational engagement
According to SET, agreements are made through a sequence of interactions between parties that are mutually dependent on one another (Cropanzano et al., 2017). Through the exchange process, both parties follow certain rules of engagement. Norms of exchange typically include standards of reciprocity or repayment, whereby one party’s behaviour triggers another party’s response or actions (Fan et al., 2024). For instance, when people receive financial and emotional support from their organization, they feel obligated to give the organization something in return (Cropanzano et al., 2017). Employers who show that they care about their staff by implementing HRM practices may receive stronger organizational engagement responses from employees (Han et al., 2020). If businesses offer their staff members perks through HRM practices, staff members will be more organizationally engaged as a result (Han et al., 2020).
An appropriate appraisal system in an organization can encourage employees’ intrinsic motivation to engage more in the organization. Clear career advancement pathways in an organization can add meaning to work, leading to more organizational activities (Han et al., 2020). Prospects for career advancement make employees more dedicated, optimistic, and fulfilled at work (Islam et al., 2024). Another crucial sign of organizational engagement in employees is their participation in decision-making processes (Islam et al., 2024). When a company provides a clear promotion trajectory, employees’ organizational engagement and motivation increase.
Job security and an appropriate recruitment process could contribute to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and encourage employees to perform and engage in more organizational activities (Anthony et al., 2023). Similarly, when employees receive rewards and recognize their work- and non-work-related roles, they may engage in more organizational activities (Wang et al., 2024). By generating a comfortable work environment by facilitating HRM practices (i.e. teamwork), employees feel psychosocially safe and experience their work as meaningful (Rabiul et al., 2021a), and this generates greater participation in organizational activities. Further, training and development can assist employees in improving their knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform tasks and build their careers (Anthony et al., 2023; Islam et al., 2024).
In all the facilities above, employees are likely to gain from their organization’s HRM practices. They may have a significant positive influence on employee behaviours, highlighting the potential for improvement and growth. The employees feel required to respond by engaging in additional organizational tasks, which is consistent with SET (Cropanzano et al., 2017; Fan et al., 2024). Organizations provide economic and socioemotional resources to employees, such as career investment, appropriate appraisal, decision-making participation, job security, proper recruitment, fair reward and recognition, teamwork development, and training and career development, making them more likely to repay through the exchange process. Thus, we propose:
HRM practices have a significant positive impact on organizational engagement.
Organizational engagement and CQS
Organizational engagement, the outcome of Social Exchange Theory (SET), is a reciprocal process. When both parties (the employer and employee) honour their rules of exchange (Kilroy et al., 2024), it leads to a mutually beneficial relationship. HRM practices, in line with SET, play a crucial role in this process. They provide employees with economic and socioemotional resources from the organization, thereby increasing the likelihood of higher organizational engagement. Practical studies have shown that when people are organizationally engaged, they develop a loyal and trusted relationship with the employer, resulting in positive attitudes and intentions toward the company (Sultana and Johari, 2024). Therefore, we posit that organizational engagement is the social exchange outcome of HRM practices; consequently, employees reciprocate with the organization by providing high-quality services to customers (Cropanzano et al., 2017; Kilroy et al., 2024).
Practical evidence supports this: Individual employees continue to reciprocate by offering high-quality customer services, reflecting their active role as members of the organization (Saks, 2006). Furthermore, greater organizational involvement creates a sense of belonging, which leads to positive outcomes. Saks (2006) found that organizational engagement is positively related to positive commitment and behavioural outcomes, demonstrating the mutual benefits of organizational engagement for both the employee and the organization. Thus, we propose:
Organizational engagement has a significant positive impact on commitment to quality services.
Mediating role of organizational engagement
We followed Saks (2006), to explain the mediating role of organizational engagement using SET. According to SET, an equilibrium exchange in reciprocal relationships between two parties (employee and employer) occurs when the company provides facilities (HRM practices) to employees, employees feel obligated to repay the company through organizational engagement, leads to CQS. The rules of exchange typically include reciprocity or repayment rules that require one party to respond to an action by another party (Fan et al., 2024; Sultana and Johari, 2024). When employees receive socioemotional and financial resources (e.g. including career investment, appropriate appraisal, decision-making participation, job security, proper recruitment system, fair reward and recognition, developing teamwork, and facilitating training and career development) from their organization, they are more likely to show positive behaviour by being psychologically present as a member of the organization and providing high-quality services to customers. Thus:
Organizational engagement mediates the link between HRM practices and commitment to quality services.
Moderating role of turnover intention
TPB postulates that individual behaviours and attitudes toward a work organization (organizational engagement) depend on individual intention (Ajzen, 1991). If an employee plans to leave their present organization and is not committed to their present job, regardless of the circumstances, they will not physically or psychologically engage in the organization (Ferdian et al., 2023; Islam et al., 2024).
In contrast, employees will be psychologically present in their organization if they plan to stay. Thus, drawing on TPB, we speculate that the link between HRM practices and organizational engagement is contingent on individual behaviour. In other words, if an employee has a higher turnover intention, the association between HRM practices and organizational engagement will be weaker, and the same link will be stronger when turnover is lower. Our assumption is solely hypothetical because employees’ intentions depend on many factors, such as economic, social, socioemotional, political, cultural and many more factors (Ma et al., 2023). Thus, we offer:
Turnover intention moderates the relationship between HRM practices and organizational engagement such that the relationship becomes weaker when employees have high turnover intention and stronger when turnover intention is low.
Moderating role of employee adaptability
Adaptability refers to employees’ ability to adjust their behavior and interpersonal situations to serve customers following established social standards, attitudes, and practices (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996; Neves and Van Dam, 2024).
Our exploration of adaptability as a moderator is underpinned by the JD-R theory, a robust framework that illuminates the role of job resources. These resources, whether intrinsic or extrinsic, are the “physical, social, or organizational aspects of a job that serve the functional purpose of enabling employees to achieve work” (Han et al., 2020, p. 3). Consider the case of individuals who thrive in the hospitality industry, investing their resources fully to adapt to any situation (Silva and Pinto, 2024). This intrinsic motivation becomes a resource for them to adapt. Consequently, employee adaptability emerges as a resource that can foster a positive attitude towards customer service (Silva and Pinto, 2024). People may exert more effort and become more deeply involved in assisting clients if they believe they have access to more resources than they require or are confident in their capacity to handle stress (Rabiul et al., 2024). On the contrary, a lack of resources or a lower level of adaptability may generate emotional exhaustion, mental stress, strain, demotivation, and disengagement from serving customers (Demerouti and Bakker, 2023). A lack of adaptability might happen due to high job demands (Anh, 2024). However, we did not focus on job demands in our study.
Consistent with JD-R theory, employees with higher levels of adaptability cope with any job situation and are motivated to serve customers (Neves and Van Dam, 2024; Rabiul et al., 2022). In contrast, employees with lower levels of adaptability are more likely to be demotivated due to strain, anxiety, and uncertainty (Demerouti and Bakker, 2023). Particularly, employees may repay through higher organizational engagement due to HRM practices facilities. However, employees may have higher or lower adaptability. Therefore, as SET does not explain CQS completely, so we added the JD-R theory with employee adaptability to provide more explanatory power to this relation. Thus:
Employee adaptability moderates the connection between organizational engagement and commitment to quality services such that the connection becomes stronger with high levels of employee adaptability and weaker with low levels of employee adaptability.
The framework is presented in Figure 1.
Method
Sample and population
We could not obtain a full list of hotels based on ratings, so we consulted different online sources (e.g. booking.com, Agoda, and TripAdvisor) to identify popular hotels by their online ratings. Dhaka, had the most hotels (N = 142), followed by tourist city, Cox’s Bazar (N = 49), and Sylhet (N = 32) and the port city of Chottogram (N = 31). Hence, this study collected data from hotels in the cities where most hotels are situated. We contacted Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and Ministry of Tourism and Aviation for star-rating information. After contacting them and searching their website, we could not get information. Therefore, we relied on information from different websites as mentioned above, managers of certain hotels, and researchers’ knowledge to clarify the hotel types.
Measurement
The ten items (out of 13) used to measure HRM practices were adapted from den Hartog et al. (2013) and Jensen et al. (2011). Rabiul et al. (2021a) and Den Hartog et al. (2013) used these items and found them reliable. Items included: “I feel my job is secure in this hotel.”
The six items used to measure organizational engagement were adapted from Saks (2006) and found to be reliable (Rabiul et al., 2021a). The following is a representative item: “I am highly engaged in this organization.” Turnover intention was measured using the three items developed by Colarelli (1984). Item included: “I am planning to search for a new job during the next 12 months” This scale was found to be highly reliable (Colarelli, 1984; Hartline and Ferrell, 1996).
Employee adaptability was measured using eight items (out of ten) adapted from Hartline and Ferrell (1996). The following is a representative item: “Every customer requires a unique approach.” This scale was validated by Xie et al. (2019) in a hospital setting. The nine items used to measure commitment to quality services (CQS) were developed by Clark et al. (2009). The scale was initially developed by Hartline and Ferrell (1996). Rabiul et al. (2021b) found it reliable and valid in the hospitality industry. Items included: “I really care about the quality of my organization’s services.”
Participants responded on a seven-point scale, where answers ranged from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” depending on how much they agreed or disagreed with each statement. Any negative items were reverse scored.
Content validity, translation, and pre-test
After selecting well-established measures, the items were given to two assistant professors with PhDs at a public university in Bangladesh to test for content validity. After considering their feedback, two items (out of 10) from employee adaptability and three items (out of 13) from HRM practices were removed. Ten items for HRM practices and eight for employee adaptability were used in the final study. Minor modifications were made to the wording of the items. After validating the items, the researchers translated them into Bengali. Two lecturers in hospitality management at private universities in Bangladesh checked the bilingual (Bengali and English) versions of the questionnaire. Modifications were made to the Bengali version based on their suggestions. A pre-test was performed on 14 hotel employees to increase the questionnaire’s effectiveness and clarity. No issues were identified, and all the items were used in the final survey.
Data collection
After contacting hotel managers, we decided to distribute the questionnaires (Bengali and English versions together) by applying a purposive and convenient sampling method (e.g. Rabiul et al., 2022) as most hotel managers did not agree to officially distribute the survey to their employees. However, human resource managers unofficially assisted us in distributing and collecting the questionnaires by introducing representatives to hotels’ employees. As we had to cover many areas, we recruited alumni and colleagues to distribute and collect the completed questionnaires. As the population was unknown because there was no official list of hotel employees, which state that 384 is a good sample size for an unknown population (see Rabiul et al., 2021a).
For sampling variety, survey questionnaires were conveniently distributed to customer contact employees in every department (food and beverages [F&B], front office, housekeeping, concierge, marketing, and reservations). Each participant received a questionnaire in an open envelope along with a pencil. The participants were requested to seal the envelope after completing the questionnaire. They were guaranteed anonymity and voluntary participation. No personal information was collected, and participants could withdraw from the survey at any time. After distributing 850 survey questionnaires, 654 responses were received from 47 hotels. After removing outliers and missing ones, 593 responses were used for the data analysis.
Data treatment
We checked for missing data using software and removed items following earlier studies. We also ensured that there was no multicollinearity among the variables. Outliers were deleted from the dataset by observing variance inflation factor (VIF) and checking for multivariate outliers (i.e. Benitez et al., 2020). We used Harman’s single-factor test to assess common method bias (CMB). Bias was unlikely as a single factor only explained 28.74% of 62.13, which was less than the threshold of value of 50% (i.e. Rabiul et al., 2024).
Demographic profile
Table 1 represents demographic information. Male employees dominated the sample (72%), which was surprising, because Rabiul (2023) reported a rate of less than 20%. Many participants were from the front offices and the F&B departments. Among the participants, 48.1% held a bachelor’s degree and more than 42% had a diploma or higher secondary (HSC) and secondary school (SSC) certificates.
Table 2 shows that HRM practices had the highest mean of 4.58, and adaptability and HRM practices had the highest correlation coefficient (r = 0.735).
Analysis
Convergent and divergent validity
Measurement model evaluation or convergent validity was checked by running the algorithm in Smart-PLS. Specifically, we checked the indicator loading for every item, composite reliability (CR), and average variance extracted (AVE). The results are summarized in Table 3.
All the items complied with the minimum criteria (i.e. loadings above 0.60, AVE above 0.50, and CR above 0.70) (Benitez et al., 2020). For variable divergence, heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) analysis in Table 4 confirmed that the ratio was below 0.85, as suggested by Benitez et al. (2020). Thus, convergent and divergent validity was ascertained to test the hypotheses.
Hypothesized results and model quality
We controlled for demographic variables (i.e. experience, age, gender, and marital status) as they could influence employees’ behaviors. To test the hypotheses, bootstrapping with a 10,000 resample and a product indicator approach was applied. To illustrate this, the complete model was run simultaneously with all the variables (Nitzl et al., 2016). The results are summarized in Table 5. As Nitzl et al. (2016) have suggested, all the hypotheses were supported with p-values, t-values, and bias-corrected confidence intervals (BBCI). For example, the results showed that turnover intention negatively and significantly moderates the association between HRM practices and organizational engagement.
R2 (coefficient of determination), one of the criteria used to check the model’s goodness of fit; the values were 30.8 and 13.3% for organizational engagement and CQS, respectively. Another criterion was Q2 (predicative relevance), which was 0.183 and 0.069 for organizational engagement and CQS, respectively. The results indicated that the model had medium predictive relevance as it was more than 0.02 (Benitez et al., 2020). Standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) is another criterion, although it does not guarantee a perfect model fit. In this study, the SRMR value of 0.077 was lower than the suggested value of 0.08, and thus confirmed the model’s fit (Benitez et al., 2020).
Results and discussion
HRM practices are positively linked to organizational engagement (H1). Consistent with SET: Employees feel obliged to reciprocate to the company by demonstrating better organizational engagement (Fan et al., 2024; Kilroy et al., 2024). HRM advantages boost employee commitment, performance, contentment, psychological ownership, and enthusiasm (Dorta-Afonso et al., 2023; Peethambaran and Naim, 2024). Proper HRM may increase employee trust (Sultana and Johari, 2024). Psychological safety and job meaning may also boost organizational engagement (Rabiul et al., 2021a). Organizational involvement may also depend on employees' psychological well-being (Ngo et al., 2024). Proper appraisal and reward systems can boost intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Kloutsiniotis, 2023). In other words, career investment, appropriate appraisal, decision-making participation, job security, proper recruitment system, fair reward and recognition, developing teamwork, and facilitating training and career development provided the hospitality organization could influence employees in many different ways along with social exchange process (Davras and Davras, 2024; Fan et al., 2024; Kilroy et al., 2024).
Organizational engagement positively impacts CQS (H2), confirming that when employees feel obliged to reciprocate, they are more committed to serving customers (Saks, 2006). Findings demonstrate that organizational engagement is a significant mediator between HRM practices and CQS (H3), further confirming SET, which states that employees become organizationally engaged and show greater CQS to customers through HRM practices. This reiterates the crucial role of HRM practices in facilitating organizational engagement and thereby influencing CQS. This is because employees experience and perceive organizational efforts to relate and engage with employees as more “authentic” organizational practices by showing an interest in their well-being. In exchange, based on the social exchange process (Cropanzano et al., 2017), employees would like to reciprocate and give back this organizational “care” as “care” to the organization’s customers.
Nevertheless, our assumption is that the social exchange process requires employees to show higher organizational engagement and serve customers as a result of appropriate HRM practices. For instance, when people receive financial and emotional support from their organization, they feel obligated to reciprocate (Cropanzano et al., 2017). In other words, HR tools facilitate further organizational engagement, which leads to positive employee outcomes (Kilroy et al., 2024; Saks, 2017). In the Bangladeshi context, some scholars have shown that HR tools facilitate trust and commitment (Sultana and Johari, 2024), thus engendering positive employee outcomes. Bangladeshi people are emotionally responsive (Rabiul et al., 2023); therefore, facilities such as HRM practices from hotels will make employees emotionally obliged to reciprocate (Cropanzano et al., 2017; Fan et al., 2024). In addition to the exchange process, there could be many other factors, such as lower stress, higher satisfaction, well-being, economic and socioemotional situations, psychological contract, and many more individual factors (Benítez-Núñez et al., 2024; Davras and Davras, 2024; Elsayed et al., 2024).
Regarding the moderating role of turnover intention (Figure 2), the findings show that employee turnover intention significantly and negatively moderates (weakens) the association between HRM practices and organizational engagement (H4). For employees with a higher intention to resign, the positive relationship between HRM practices and organizational engagement is reversed (in Figure 2 the lines deviate to the left and are not parallel). This finding confirms the applicability of TPB theory, which states that with higher turnover intention, the impact of HRM practices on organizational engagement will be weaker. This is not surprising in the context of Bangladeshi hotel, because several studies have confirmed that employees perceive higher turnover as likely causing negative outcomes.
Figure 3 shows the moderation effect of employee adaptability. Employee adaptability significantly and positively moderates the relationship between organizational engagement and CQS (H5).
Employees with higher adaptability levels can significantly strengthen their organizational engagement and CQS. This finding is consistent with the JD-R theory, which states that the effect of organizational engagement on CQS is enhanced when employees have more resources (higher adaptability). When customers perceive flexibility and perspective-taking behaviour in an employee, they are more willing to share their ideas and information with the employee, with the potential to increase the quality of service (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996). Indeed, adaptability is a crucial factor for employees in organizations, with the potential to significantly enhance organizational engagement and influence performance at work in any context, either positively or negatively based on individual adaptability (Neves and Van Dam, 2024; Silva and Pinto, 2024).
Theoretical contributions
First, we were unaware of how HRM practices enhance CQS through an exchange process, which is building employee organizational engagement. Notably, from a social exchange process perspective, HRM practices that focus on building greater engagement between organizations and employees, which in turn can more effectively incentivize and direct employee behaviours, have not been investigated by earlier studies. This study adds to our understanding of the importance of internal quality (i.e. HR practices for organizational engagement) by using SET to explain and confirm the role of organizational engagement as the underlying mechanism facilitating and boosting more excellent employee outcomes or CQS.
Second, very few studies (Rabiul et al., 2021a; Baker, 2024; Mao et al., 2024) in the hospitality industry have investigated the consequences of organizational engagement. By collecting data from hotel employees, this study adds to this research stream by providing firsthand evidence of the role of organizational engagement in boosting CQS. To examine the role of organizational commitment on employees' service quality behavior, this study confirms the applicability of SET, which in turn explains how internal HR practices are converted into employees' service quality behavior toward customers as a result of a social exchange process of “take and give” between organizations and employees.
Third, while SET suggests that employees stay longer to reciprocate the organizations, we propose an alternative explanation using the TPB theory. We argue that the individual’s mindset, not just the exchange process, is a crucial factor in their decision to stay with the organization. In this context, what the employee receives from the organization is not the determining factor. Instead, it is the individual’s mindset that influences their decision to stay or leave, a perspective that the TPB theory sheds light on. For example, TPB suggests that turnover intention is a significant boundary factor of individuals' positive or negative behaviours (Ajzen, 1991). To elaborate further, if employees intend to resign from an organization, they will refrain from participating in organizational activities regardless of the facilities offered by the organization, including HRM practices. However, previous studies have not clarified whether turnover intention weakens the connection between HRM practices and organizational engagement. This study’s findings show that turnover intention is a boundary condition that negatively moderates the connection between HRM practices and organizational engagement (see H4). These factors significantly differentiate our study from previous studies, thereby contributing to the literature.
Fourth, the SET and TPB theories together are not sufficient to explain CQS. For example, individuals may not just work with an exchange process and mindset; it also depends on their adaptability. JD-R theory (Demerouti and Bakker, 2023) states that once employees have access to more resources to cope with service settings, they will exhibit better CQS. Therefore, we add employee adaptability to the model, which is a resource for individuals. Our results (see H5) confirm that individuals with higher service adaptability show a significantly greater association between organizational engagement and CQS. This finding is novel because, although the influence of SET was previously known, its reliance on individual resources had not been previously identified. Thus, our study adds value to the literature on CQS by combining SET and JD-R theories and provides practical insights for improving CQS in organizational settings.
Fifth, this study also makes a contextual contribution by expanding the literature on hospitality in developing countries by focusing on the hospitality industry in Bangladesh, where such research is scarce. Few studies have examined the impact of HRM practices on various employee and organizational outcomes in the Bangladeshi banking sector (Sultana and Johari, 2024).
Practical contributions
Managers should consider providing appropriate HR tools (i.e. job security, career growth opportunities, rewards, and appraisals) to achieve organizational engagement. Managers in the hospitality industry and other organizations can enhance employees’ organizational activities by investigating their needs and expectations so that they can demonstrate psychological presence as members of the organization and offer high-quality services. Hospitality managers should focus on developing a policy and implementing it appropriately to facilitate HR tools and ensure greater organizational engagement among their employees.
To implement HRM practices, hospitality organizations are suggested to evaluate their own strategy and follow the rules and regulations of the country. For example, organizations should follow the country’s rules and regulations. The appraisal system should be designed to ensure justice and fairness, making managers feel just and equitable in their decisions. Decision-making should not be done alone by managers; employees should actively participate in it. Career growth is another crucial factor for any employee. Hoteliers should invest and provide opportunities for employees. Hoteliers should invest in training and development for the employees; otherwise, higher turnover could severely affect the organizations. Teamwork should create a friendly environment. Managers, employees, and hotel owners should work together to implement HRM practices.
The study’s outcomes also highlight the importance of organizationally engaged employees, which is positively associated with employees’ CQS. Therefore, it is imperative for hospitality managers to ensure employees’ organizational engagement. Organizationally engaged employees are resources for hoteliers that produce greater employee outcomes, such as lower turnover intention, greater commitment, CQS, and a sense of belongingness to the organization (Saks, 2006). Organizational engagement may be increased through fair practices, appropriate leadership, safety in the workplace, and meaningfulness.
Managers and hoteliers should investigate ways to reduce turnover intention and keep talented employees to avoid negative organizational activities that may impact the reputation of the organization in general. One effective strategy is to facilitate a high-performance work system, which has the potential to significantly boost employee morale and productivity. Minimizing contractual agreements, reducing ostracism, and creating a better work environment are also important factors in improving employee retention. It is crucial to identify whether employees are committed to staying or have other intentions. For instance, if employees are primarily seeking to gain experience in the hotel industry before moving on, it may be challenging to retain them. Similarly, if they feel their job is meaningless in the exchange process, where organizations do not return what they invest, then organizations should invest money and energy to keep them.
Furthermore, employee adaptability to serve customers is considered a resource that enhances the association between organizational engagement and employee CQS. Indeed, adaptability could be one of the most effective means to enhance workplace morale and improve employee and organizational outcomes because adaptable employees communicate better with customers, which leads to more personalized service (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996). Hence, hospitality and other service organizations should investigate ways to increase employee adaptability to serve individual customers in any situation.
Hoteliers can facilitate a flexible work environment, provide a comfortable workplace design, and ensure their employees have a balanced work-life by establishing programs and practices that emphasize adaptability. Contradictions may occur in the workplace because of supervisor-subordinate relationships; thus, practising flexible attitudes between supervisors and subordinates is important. Specific training interventions could improve employees’ capacity to perform and enhance employees’ adaptability at work. For instance, interpersonal adaptation skills, emotional capacity to deal with the work, and service-oriented skills can be improved through training programs. Organizational strategies and cultures can also improve behavioural attitudes. Thus, managers should consider a work culture that is appropriate for all employees.
Limitations of the present study and future research recommendations
The limitations of this study should be addressed in future studies. We only recruited participants from star-rated hotels in two of Bangladesh’s four large cities. Employee behavior (e.g. intention to quit) may differ in other parts of Bangladesh because of the current job situation (a higher unemployment rate). Future research should collect data from hotels in other cities. Future research could apply simple random sampling by collecting employee lists to address the limitations of convenient sampling techniques.
Contextual factors always matter, because jobs in the hospitality industry are vulnerable and not prestigious compared to banking, information technology (IT), and teaching jobs in Bangladesh. A similar model may produce different results in these sectors, indicating the need for future research in these contexts. Future research may improve the model by introducing motivational variables (work engagement) and examining whether organizational or work engagement produces different outcomes.
Future studies should investigate other types of adaptability, such as group, political, and social adaptability. Moreover, employees in different contexts may demonstrate varying levels of adaptability. Hence, a comparison of employee adaptability in different hospitality countries could provide further insights. Future studies should also investigate psychological factors. Last, although the data analysis suggested no common method bias, future scholars should collect customer data to evaluate employees’ CQS to obtain insightful results.
Conclusion
Organizational engagement does not only occur through the social exchange process or SET, but also depends on individual behavior or TPB theory. Furthermore, higher adaptable employees show higher CQS with organizational engagement, and higher intention to leave the organization shows lower organizational engagement with HRM practices. These findings suggest that HRM practices and higher adaptability can be optimized to enhance organizational engagement and CQS, and turnover intention needs to be mitigated.
Figures
Figure 1
Research framework
Figure 2
Moderation effects of turnover intention
Figure 3
Moderation role of employee adaptability
Demographic profile
| Demographic | Categories | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | 165 | 27.8 |
| Male | 428 | 72.2 | |
| Marital status | Single | 353 | 59.5 |
| Married | 214 | 36.1 | |
| Separated/divorced | 26 | 4.4 | |
| Departments | Front office | 246 | 41.5 |
| Food and Beverage | 185 | 31.2 | |
| Sales and Marketing | 69 | 11.6 | |
| Housekeeping | 33 | 5.6 | |
| security/others | 60 | 10.1 | |
| Education | SSC or below | 28 | 4.7 |
| HSC or Diplomas | 224 | 37.8 | |
| BA/Hons or equivalent | 285 | 48.1 | |
| Masters or postgraduate | 56 | 9.4 | |
| Age | Up to 21 | 49 | 8.3 |
| 22–26 years old | 212 | 35.8 | |
| 27–31 years old | 221 | 37.3 | |
| 32 years and above | 111 | 18.7 | |
| Experience | Up to 2 years | 154 | 26.0 |
| 3–5 years | 316 | 53.3 | |
| 6 years and above | 123 | 20.7 | |
| Cities | Dhaka | 154 | 26.0 |
| Cox’s Bazar | 256 | 43.2 | |
| Chottogram | 74 | 12.5 | |
| Sylhet | 109 | 18.4 | |
| 2 stars | 103 | 17.4 | |
| Types of hotel | 3 stars | 164 | 27.7 |
| 4 starts | 152 | 25.6 | |
| 5 stars | 174 | 29.3 |
Source(s): Authors’ own work
Descriptive statistics
| Variables | Mean | SD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. HRM practice | 4.584 | 1.017 | – | ||||
| 2. Organizational engagement | 4.524 | 1.078 | 0.401** | – | |||
| 3. Turnover intention | 4.369 | 1.028 | 0.285** | 0.372** | – | ||
| 4. Adaptability | 4.520 | 0.992 | 0.368** | 0.735** | 0.348** | – | |
| 5. Commitment to quality service (CQS) | 4.046 | 0.797 | 0.180** | 0.368** | 0.228** | 0.282** | – |
Note(s): **2-tailed significant correlation at 0.01
Source(s): Authors’ own work
Indicator loading, composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE)
| Variables | Highest and lowest loading | CR | AVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adaptability | 0.810–0.0684 | 0.913 | 0.568 |
| Commitment to quality service (CQS) | 0.789–0.627 | 0.908 | 0.524 |
| HRM practices | 0.773–0.634 | 0.912 | 0.511 |
| Organizational engagement | 0.809–0.703 | 0.900 | 0.601 |
| Turnover intention | 0.820–0.801 | 0.852 | 0.657 |
Source(s): Authors’ own work
Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio (HTMT)
| Variables | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Adaptability | = | ||||
| 2. Commitment to quality service (CQS) | 0.320 | = | |||
| 3. HRM practices | 0.418 | 0.207 | = | ||
| 4. Organizational engagement | 0.840 | 0.416 | 0.462 | = | |
| 5. Turnover intention | 0.430 | 0.279 | 0.351 | 0.469 | = |
Source(s): Authors’ own work
Direct, mediation, and moderation hypotheses
| No | Hypothesized paths | β | t-values | 95% BCCI | p-values | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LL | UL | |||||
| H1 | HRM practices → organizational engagement | 0.346 | 9.020 | 0.265 | 0.417 | 0.000 |
| H2 | Organizational engagement → CQS | 0.368 | 6.937 | 0.263 | 0.469 | 0.000 |
| H3 | HRM practices → organizational engagement → CQS | 0.127 | 5.252 | 0.083 | 0.178 | 0.000 |
| H4 | HRM practices*turnover intention → organizational engagement | −0.168 | 3.865 | −0.248 | −0.079 | 0.000 |
| H5 | Organizational engagement*employee adaptability → CQS | 0.132 | 4.134 | 0.071 | 0.195 | 0.000 |
Note(s): CQS = commitment to quality service; bias-corrected confidence interval = BCCI; UL = upper level; LL = lower level
Source(s): Authors’ own work
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Further reading
Jiang, Z., Newman, A., Schwarz, G. and Le, H. (2022), “Perceived red tape and precursors of turnover: the roles of work engagement and career adaptability”, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 437-455, doi: 10.1007/s10869-022-09834-y.
Corresponding author
About the authors
Md Karim Rabiul’s first publication appeared in the International Journal of Hospitality Management. Since then, he contributed to 36 publications in esteemed journals, spanning various indexes: Web of Science (SSCI = 17; ESCI = 19), and Scopus (Q1 = 19; Q2 = 15; Q3 = 2). Additionally, he serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. As a reviewer, he provides insights for numerous Q1 journals, including the Journal of Business Research, Annals of Tourism Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, and Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management.
Marianna Sigala is Professor at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Her academic credentials are combined with her professional experience in the tourism industry. Her interests include services and experience management, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in tourism and services, as well as wine tourism. She is a widely published and multi-awarded authority with great participation in international research projects. She is the co-editor of the Journal of Service Theory and Practice, and the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
Dr Rashed Al Karim is an associate professor in business management. After completing MBA from the United Kingdom, he has completed Ph.D. in tourism management from University Utara Malaysia. He has several publications is prestigious journals such as the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Research, in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism. Dr Karim is also reviewers for many prestigious journals of emerald, Taylor Francis, etc.