Transformational leadership, proactive personality and service performance

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impacts of transformational leadership and employee proactive personality on service performance, the mediation role of organizational embeddedness and the synergies of transformational leadership and proactive personality within the proposed framework. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected following a time-lagged research approach. The study sample included 218 frontline employees and their supervisors from ten carefully selected five-star hotels in China. Structural equation modeling was employed for the data analysis. Findings Transformational leadership and proactive personality had positive effects on task performance and contextual performance via organizational embeddedness. The interactive influences of transformational leadership and proactive personality on task performance and contextual performance were found significant and negative. Originality/value Transformational leaders and proactive employees have been shown to exert a strong influence on excellent service performance, with organizational embeddedness playing a critical role.

Why and How Does Empowering Leadership Promote Proactive Work Behavior? An Examination with a Serial Mediation Model among Hotel Employees

“…Empowering leadership can enrich the job design characteristics, which make employees stay in their job and have the willingness to stay in their organization for the long term [ 30 , 31 ]. Employees are highly reliant on interactions with customers, and organizational embeddedness makes them further proactive at work [ 96 ], which fosters excellent job performance and workplace mental health [ 97 ]. That is, job characteristics and job embeddedness are critical motivational mechanisms in the indirect positive effects of empowering leadership and proactive work behavior.…”

“…Thus, job embeddedness can be a critical factor in job attitude and can have a positive effect on work outcomes. In this vein, job embeddedness makes employees more proactive than before [ 96 ], and employees with organizational embeddedness have been shown to be proactive at work and have a strong influence on excellent service performance [ 97 ]. Most of all, drawing from the theory of planned behavior that links individual beliefs to behavior [ 98 ], subjective norm, attitude, and perceived behavioral control are three core ingredients, which collectively develop an individual planned behavior.…”

Employee proactivity, work engagement, job resources and service recovery performance: a study of structural linkages

“…These outcomes include some of the very important organizational constructs, e.g. task and contextual performance (Yang et al, 2020), in-role performance and citizenship behavior (Greguras and Diefendorff, 2010), innovation and career initiative (Seibert et al, 2001), leadership (Bateman and Crant, 1993), career outcomes (Seibert et al, 1999), team performance (Kirkman and Rosen, 1999) and entrepreneurship (Becherer and Maurer, 1999). However, despite employee personality being a critical factor of employee performance, particularly in service context (Choi and Hwang, 2019), existing literature does not indicate whether employee proactive personality could lead to superior service recovery performance.…”

Does employee willingness to take risks affect customer loyalty? A moderated mediation examination of innovative behaviors and decentralization

“…The recent literature has called for more understanding of how to encourage desired behaviors at work that are triggered by positive personality traits, such as a willingness to take risks (Anderson et al , 2014; Yang et al , 2020). As individual behavior does not occur in a vacuum, examining the relevant context in which individuals operate is crucial to understanding individual behavior (Crant, 2000; Groth et al , 2019; Tavitiyaman et al , 2012).…”