The Influence of Social Perceptions on Restaurant Employee Work Engagement and Extra-role Customer Service Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Keywords

social perceptions, restaurants, coworkers, supervisors, work engagement, extra-role customer service, warmth, competence, morality

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of restaurant employees' social perceptions of their supervisors on employees' work engagement and extra-role customer service behavior. We also assessed restaurant employees' social perceptions of their coworkers as a moderator. Utilizing an online survey design, data were collected from frontline restaurant employees via an online commercial subject pool (N = 477). Results showed that the more employees perceive their supervisors as warm, competent, and moral, the more employees were willing to engage in extra-role customer service behavior via the indirect effect of increased work engagement. The effect of work engagement on extra-role customer service was also found to be more pronounced when employees developed positive social perceptions of their coworkers. These results offer implications for work engagement, as they suggest a new antecedent in the form of social perceptions, as well as a boundary condition to the positive outcomes of engagement through the interactive effect of social perceptions of coworkers and extra-role customer service behavior. In doing so, these results also shed light on the relevance of social perceptions in hospitality operations.

Publication Date

3-10-2020

Original Citation

Orlowski, M., Bufquin, D., & Nalley, M. E. (in press). The influence of social perceptions on restaurant employee work engagement and extra-role customer service behavior: A moderated mediation model. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly

Document Type

Paper

Language

English

Source Title

Cornell Hospitality Quarterly

College

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Location

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

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