No abstract

Purpose Drawing on the theories of servant leadership and upper echelons, this paper aims to highlight the mechanisms through which CEO servant leadership enhances firm innovativeness in hotels. This study aims to test a multiple mediation model by considering the mediating role of encouragement of participation (EoPART) – a high-performance human resources (HR) practice – and employees’ voice (EVOICE) in sequence. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from HR managers of 34 hotels in the hospitality industry in Spain, which represents an important international tourist destination. Two methods of rigorous data analysis were used (partial least squares [PLS], structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis [fs/QCA]), which enabled robust findings to be produced with minimal sample size requirements. Findings CEO servant leadership had a positive indirect effect on firm innovativeness in hotels, via the sequential application of EoPART and EVOICE. Research limitations/implications The findings provide new HR-related insights regarding the encouragement of firm innovativeness in hotels: CEOs can boost innovativeness in their hotels through the development of EoPART systems, which in turn favor EVOICE. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to analyze whether CEO servant leadership has an impact on innovativeness in hotels. Moreover, this study is the first to show the internal mechanisms (EoPART, EVOICE) through which CEO servant leadership encourages hotel innovativeness.

The hospitality industry has been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with changes that have harmed employees’ psychological well-being. However, having supervisors who are servant may make a difference. With a focus on serving others and the care taken to ensure their employees’ highest priority needs are served, these leaders could help employees feel less depressed in these complicated times. By instilling servant behaviors in followers that help them become people that others can trust or with whom they can develop friendships, leaders could help these employees earn greater levels of personal social capital (PSC) through which to more successfully address pandemic times, especially if furloughed. Using structural equation modeling to analyze a sample of 205 hotel employees in Spain, we found that servant leadership directly decreases depression, and that PSC mediates this relationship. Our multigroup analyses (MGA) findings also reveal that when these employees are furloughed, the negative effect of PSC and the mediating role of PSC in this relationship is stronger. New light is thus shed on how servant leadership is effective in reducing employee depressive symptoms in times of severe changes such as those produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evaluation of the work performance of health professionals has focused the interest of scientific research in recent decades as a basis for improving the quality of health services. The global COVID-19 pandemic has pushed countries’ health systems to the limit and had previously unknown consequences on the job performance of health professionals. In this context, what are the determinants of performance? There are numerous studies that link job performance with other variables that directly affect it, such as leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work environment. However, there are no studies that jointly relate all these variables, and even less in the field of health. The main objective of this work is to analyse how these variables are configured together to generate a good level of performance of health professionals during the times of COVID-19. To do this, a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is carried out, an appropriate method that will allow finding the joint causal effects of key variables in human resources to ensure a good level of job performance in health organizations. The study reveals that leadership and commitment are the two key drivers of performance. The data confirm that the “recipe” to achieve a good level of performance consists of the combination of leadership, commitment, and a good work environment. Additionally, in the case of less satisfied workers, linking leadership and commitment is a sufficient condition.

Several studies have been conducted on ethical leadership and workplace ethical behavior but little is known about the role of organizational justice and each of its dimensions (procedural, distributive, interpersonal, informational) in this relationship. This study predicts that ethical leadership enhances organizational justice perceptions, including each of its specific dimensions, which in turn enhances employee ethical behavior. The results from two-wave survey data obtained from 270 employees in the Malaysian manufacturing industry confirm that ethical leadership has a positive impact on employee ethical behavior, and that organizational justice and each of its justice dimensions mediate this relationship, both individually and together. Importantly, interpersonal and informational dimensions show the strongest mediation effects. This paper highlights the actions and strategies that can help managers to effectively elevate the moral tone in their organizations. In particular, our findings show where managers must put more emphasis to foster an ethical workplace: on providing fair treatment (interpersonal justice) and honest information (informational justice).