Job resourcefulness, work engagement and prosocial service behaviors in the hospitality industry

Abstract

Purpose

Prosocial service behaviors play a major role in the hospitality industry. However, few studies have examined how job resourcefulness affects prosocial service behaviors. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between job resourcefulness and prosocial service behaviors as well as clarify the mediating effect of work engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was developed to collect data from 282 frontline service employees in Taiwan’s hotel industry. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the hypotheses of this research.

Findings

The results indicate that job resourcefulness is positively related to role-prescribed service behaviors, extra-role service behaviors and cooperation. Furthermore, work engagement mediates the relationship between job resourcefulness and prosocial service behaviors.

Research limitations/implications

The design of cross-sectional research restricts inference to the findings of cause–effect relationships. Also, the design of this study could not rule out the effect of common method variance, as all the data used in the study were acquired using the same questionnaire.

Originality/value

The current study contributes to the hospitality management research by investigating the link between job resourcefulness and prosocial service behaviors, and elaborating the partially mediating role of work engagement in this relationship.

Citation

Cheng, J.-C. and Chen, C.-Y. (2017), "Job resourcefulness, work engagement and prosocial service behaviors in the hospitality industry", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 29 No. 10, pp. 2668-2687. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-01-2016-0025