Su Jin Han

Workplace incivility and its effect upon restaurant frontline service employee emotions and service performance

Purpose This study aims to acquire a better understanding about consequences of workplace incivility upon restaurant frontline service employees caused by customers, supervisors and coworkers. The moderating roles of perceived organizational support (POS) and emotion regulation ability (ERA) were also tested to determine the possibility for reducing the negative effect of workplace incivility upon the emotional exhaustion of restaurant frontline service employees. Design/methodology/approach Using data obtained from 239 restaurant frontline service employees, a 35-item instrument was used to assess workplace incivility and its effects upon emotional exhaustion, perceived service performance, POS and ERA. A structural equation model was used to test hypotheses. The multi-group approach was used to investigate the moderating effects POS and ERA have upon the relationships between workplace incivility, emotional exhaustion and perceived service performance. Findings Results documented that workplace incivility significantly increases emotional exhaustion and further leads to low levels of job service performance. Customer incivility was especially found to have the strongest power for increasing emotional exhaustion, followed by supervisor incivility. Also, results confirmed that POS and ERA play significant roles in moderating the relationships between workplace incivility, emotional exhaustion and perceived service performance. Based upon this study’s findings, theoretical and practical implications are offered for developing successful employee management strategies. Practical implications Results suggest specific practical management implications pertaining to restaurant frontline service employees. This study’s research findings recommend the development of more efficient support programs designed to diffuse potential situations involving workplace incivility. Findings further highlight the important role employee ERA has upon the effects of incivility and frontline service performance. Implications are provided with respect to specific strategic direction management should consider to recruit and select the most appropriate employees for restaurant frontline service positions. Originality/value The current study’s conceptual research was developed in an attempt to simultaneously address all three dimensions of workplace incivility to examine how they affect employee emotions and their job performance.

Partnership strength and diversity with suppliers: effects upon independent restaurant product innovation and performance

Purpose This study was designed to better understand the effects of independent restaurant partnerships upon product innovation associated with performance by investigating differences in business situations between startup and established independent restaurant sectors. Design/methodology/approach Partnership strength and diversity were assessed to identify their influence upon restaurant product innovation and performance using a structural equation model to test the study’s hypotheses. A multi-group analysis was employed to examine the moderating roles of business life cycle upon the relationships between partnership strength and diversity, and product innovation. Findings Results found that product innovation implementation requires strong and diverse partnerships with suppliers to improve independent restaurant performance. Diverse partnerships have a more positive effect upon product innovation than do strong partnerships. The positive effect partnership strength with suppliers had upon product inno...

Effect of restaurant manager emotional intelligence and support on front-of-house employees’ job satisfaction

Purpose This study aims to investigate the influence of restaurant manager’s emotional intelligence (EI) and manager support on service employees’ attitudes and performance by applying affective event theory. Design/methodology/approach The multi-level research approach incorporates three different levels of analysis: employees’ job satisfaction and service performance; manager’s EI and support; and) restaurant unit level service under pressure. Data were collected from wait staff employed in full-service restaurants in the southeastern region of the USA. This research uses the hierarchical linear model to process the survey data. Findings The findings indicate that manager EI and support have a significant impact on employees’ job satisfaction, and further leads to high levels of service performance. The moderating effect of service under pressure between leader’s EI and employees’ job satisfaction is not statistically significant. Practical implications Results suggest practical management implications to restaurant managers and frontline service employees. This study’s research findings imply management training and development programs should help managers regulate their own and better understand service employees’ emotions. Findings further highlight the important role manager support has upon employee’s job satisfaction and frontline service performance. Originality/value The present study offers a comprehensive perspective to better understand the variation of employees’ job satisfaction that arises from three different sources: between individuals, between teams and between restaurants. The findings also provide new insight into EI scale development.

The Effect of Motivation on Cyber Plagiarism in Using Social Media: The Focus of Subjective Norm`s moderating Effect

The development of computer-based information technology has led to the quantitative and qualitative growth of social media which have two sides; a positive one such as the generation and sharing of information and a negative one which includes cyber plagiarism and cyber bullying. This study seeks to understand which factors can lead to cyber plagiarism, which is the most prevalent form of unethical cyber behavior. We expected that the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for using social media would have different effects on unethical cyber intention and that this relation between motivation and cyber unethical behavior would be moderated by the subjective norm. In order to obtain a better understanding of the relationships among the individual motivation, unethical cyber intention, and cyber plagiarism, information was obtained from 564 social media users. The respondents provided details of their experiences and attitudes regarding social media usage behavior and unethical cyber behavior. The results confirmed that extrinsic motivation significantly increases unethical intention and further leads to high levels of cyber plagiarism. The subjective norm plays a moderating role in the relationships between extrinsic motivation and unethical cyber intention. Based on the results, the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.

The Influence of Organizational Collectivism and Individualism on Affective Commitment: Comparative Study of Korea and China

In Korean companies, traditional collectivism have been merged into individualism caused by meritocracy. In order to better understanding about change of cultural characteristics, we examine the relationship between collectivism / individualism and person-environment fit. The data was obtained from 203 employees working in 5 Korean company and 173 employees in 4 companies in China. Results confirmed that collectivism increases employees person-environment fit (person-organization, person-supervisor, person-coworker) and further leads to high levels of affective organizational commitment. The moderating roles that individualism play upon the relationships between collectivism and person-environment fit (person-organization, person-supervisor, person-coworker) were also investigated. Results confirmed that individualism enhance the impact collectivism has upon person-environment fit. In addition, this study found the significantly difference between Korea and China in effect of collectivism on person-environment fit. Lastly, the study also has explored theoretical and practical implications and the limitations of this research as well as the future directions of research.