The Role of Leadership Style on Frontline Employees’ Perceived Ethical Climate, Polychronicity and Service Recovery Performance: An Evaluation from Customer Service Development Perspective

Öz

This empirical study aims to investigate the influence of leadership styles transformational and transactional on frontline employees’ FLEs perceived ethical climate, polychronicity, and service recovery performance in a service work setting in Malaysia. A total number of 249 questionnaires were gathered from a sample of full-time frontline hotel employees. The hypothesized relationships were tested using PLS-SEM Path analysis. Results based on the path analysis reveal that transactional leadership had more significant positive impact on ethical climate and service recovery performance. On the other hand, transformational leadership had more significant positive effect on FLEs’ polychronicity. As inconsistent with the study hypothesis, transformational leadership had no significant effect on FLEs’ service recovery performance. Theoretically, the current study by examining the untried effects and relationships such as the effect of leadership styles on polychronicity lends further contribution to the hospitality management literature.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Leadership Styles, Service Recovery Performance, Polychronicity, Ethical Climate

Liderlik Stillerinin Müşterilerle Yüz Yüze İrtibatlı Çalışanların Algılanan Etiksel İklim, Çok Yönlü İş Yapabilirlik ve Hataları Düzeltme Performansları Üzerindeki Rolü: Müşteri Servis Gelişimi Açısından Bir Değerlendirilme

Öz

Bu ampirik çalışmanın amacı Malezya hizmet sektörü alanında dönüştürücü ve etkileşimci liderlik stilleri ile yüz yüze irtabatlı çalışanların algılanan etiksel iklim, çok yönlü iş yapabilirlik ve hataları düzeltme performansları arasında bir ilişki olup olmadığını araştırmaktır. Örneklem olarak ön büro otel çalışanlarından toplam 249 adet anket toplanmıştır. Çalışmanın hipotezleri PLS-SEM yol analizleri yöntemi kullanılarak test edilmiştir. Yol analizlerine göre, etkileşimci liderlik tipinin çalışanların algılanan etiksel iklim ve hataları düzeltme performansları üzerinde daha çok anlamlı pozitif bir etki yaptığı bulunmuştur. Çalışma hipotezine uyumsuz olarak dönüştürücü liderlik tipinin hataları düzeltme performansı üzerinde bir etkisi olmadığı bulunmuştur. Teorik olarak bu çalışma daha önce çalışılmamış etki ve ilişkileri araştırması hasebiyle servis yönetimi literatürüne ek bir katkı sunmaktadır

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Liderlik Stilleri, Hataları Düzeltme Performansı, Çok Yönlü İş Yapabilirlik, Etiksel İklim

Kaynakça

1. Afolabi, O., Obude, O., Okediji, A. and Ezeh, L. (2008), “Influence of gender and leadership style on career commitment and job performance of subordinates”, Global Journal of Humanities, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-8.
2. Anderson, J.C. and Gerbing, D.W. (1988), “Structural equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 103, No. 3, pp. 411-423.
3. Aragon-Correa, J.A., Garcia-Morales, V.J. and Cordon-Pozo, E. (2007), “Leadership and organizational learning’s role on innovation and performance”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 349-359.
4. Ashill, N.J., Caruthers, J. and Krisjanous, J. (2005), “Antecedents and outcomes of service recovery performance in a public health-care environment”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 293-308.
5. Ashill, N.J., Rod, M. and Carruthers, J. (2008), “The effect of management commitment to service quality on frontline employees’ job attitudes, turnover intentions and service recovery performance in a new public management context”, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 437-462.
6. Avolio, B.J (1999), Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations, Advanced Topics in Organizational Behaviour, Sage, Thousand Oaks. Awee, A., Cheah, W.Y., Cheng,C.N., Hong, K.S., Ling, L.B. and Tan, M.C. (2014), “Effect of Servant Leadership on Affective Commitment among Hotel Employees”, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Vol. 4, No. 11, pp. 1-7.
7. Babin, B.J. and Boles, J.S. (1998), “Employee behaviour in a service environment: a model and test of potential differences between men and women”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62, No. 4, pp.77-91.
8. Bagozzi, R.P. and Yi, Y. (1988), “On the evaluation of structural equation models”, Journal of Academic Marketing Science, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 74-94.

9. Bass, B.M. (1990), Bass and Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Applications (3rd ed.), Free Press, New York.
10. Bass, B.M (1998), “From transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision”, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 19-31.
11. Bass, B. M. (1999), “Two decades of research and development in transformational leadership”, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 8, No.1, pp. 9-32.
12. Bass, B.M. and Avolio, B.J. (1997), Full Range of Leadership Development: Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Mind Garden Inc., Palo Alto. Bass, B.M., Avolio, B.J., Jung, D.I. and Berson, Y. (2003), “Predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 88, No. 2, pp. 207-218.
13. Bluedorn, A.C., Thomas, J.K., Michael, J.S. and Gregg, D.M. (1999a), “Polychronicity and the inventory of polychronic value (IPV): the development of an instrument to measure a fundamental dimension of organizational culture”, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 3-4, pp. 205-230.
14. Bono, J. E., and Judge, T. A. (2003), “Self-concordance at work: toward understanding the motivational effects of transformational leaders”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 554-571.
15. Boshoff, C. and Allen J. (2000), “The influence of selected antecedents on frontline staff’s perceptions of service recovery performance”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 63-90.
16. Brockman, B. K. and Morgan, R. M. (2006), “The moderating effect of organizational cohesiveness in knowledge use and new product development”, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 295-307.
17. Brown, M.E. (2007), “How to avoid potential pitfalls”, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 140-155.
18. Cadwaller, S., Burke-Jarvis, Ch., Bitner, M. and Ostrom, A. (2010), “Frontline employee motivation to participate in service innovation implementation” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 38, pp. 219-239.
19. Chin, W. (1998), The partial least squares for structural equation modeling, in Marcoulides, G.A. (Ed.), Modern Methods for Business Research, Erlbaum, NJ. Colgate, M. and Norris, M. (2001), “Developing a comprehensive picture of service failure”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol.12, No.3, pp. 215-233.
20. Cummings, G. G., Macgregor, T., Davey, M., Lee, H., Wong, C. A., Lo, E., Muise, M. and Stafford, E. (2010), “Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: a systematic review”, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 363-385.
21. Daskin, M. (2015), “Antecedents of extra-role customer service behaviours: Polychronicity as a moderator”, Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 1-14.
22. Daskin, M. (2016), “Linking polychronicity to hotel frontline employees’ job outcomes: Do control variables make a difference”, EuroMed Journal of Business, Vol. 11, No.2, pp. 162-180.
23. Daskin, M. and Kasim, A. (2015), “Exploring the impact of service recovery on customer affection, perceived value, and sabotaging behaviour: does gender make a difference?”, International Journal of Services and Operations Management, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 467-485.
24. Daskin, M. and Yilmaz, O.D. (2015), “Critical antecedents to service recovery performance: some evidences and implications for service industry”, International Journal of Management Practice, Vol. 8, No.1, pp. 70-97.
25. De Dai, Y., Yu Dai, Y., Yang Chen, K. and Chun Wu, H. (2013), “Transformational vs transactional leadership: which is better? A study on employees of international tourist hotels in Taipei city”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 25, No. 5, pp. 760-778.
26. Echunha, M.P., Rego, A. and Kamoche, K. (2009), “Improvisation in service recovery”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 657-669.
27. Egan, R., Sarros, J. and Santora, J. (1995), “Putting transactional and transformational leadership into practice”, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 100-123.
28. Elci, M. and L. Alpkan (2009), “The impact of perceived organizational ethical climate on work satisfaction”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 84, No. 3, pp. 297-311.
29. Fornell, C. and Larcker, D.F. (1981), “Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable and measurement error”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 39-50.
30. Gill, A. S., Flaschner, A. B. and Shacha, M. (2006), “Mitigating stress and burnout by implementing transformational-leadership”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 18, No. 6, pp. 469-481.
31. Goodwin, V.L., Wofford, J.C. and Whittington, J.L. (2001), “A theoretical and empirical extension to the transformational leadership construct”, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Vol. 22, No. 7, pp.759-774.
32. Gustafsson, A. and Johnson, M.D. (2004), “Determining attribute importance in a service satisfaction model”, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 124-141.
33. Jang, J. and George, R.T. (2012), “Understanding the influence of polychronicity on job satisfaction and turnover intention: a study of non-supervisory hotel employees”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 588- 595.
34. Jinzhao, W. and Jing, W. (2009), “Issues, challenges, and trends that facing hospitality industry”, Management Science and Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 53-58.
35. Karatepe, O.M. (2013), “Linking perceived ethical climate to performance outcomes: themediating role of job embeddedness”, Ekonomska istraživanja – Economic Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp.77-90.
36. Karatepe, O.M., Karadas, G., Azar, A.K. and Naderiadib, N. (2013), “Does work engagement mediate the effect of polychronicity on performance outcomes? A study in the hospitality industry in Northern Cyprus”, Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 52-70.
37. Kim, T., Kim, W.G. and Kim H.B. (2009), “The effects of perceived justice on recovery satisfaction, trust, word-of-mouth, and revisit intention in upscale hotels”, Tourism Management, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 51-62.
38. Kirkman, B.L., Chen, G., Farh, J.L., Chen, Z.X. and Lowe, K.B. (2009), “Individual Power Distance Orientation and Follower Reactions to Transformational Leaders: A Cross-Level, cross-cultural examination”, Academy of Management Journal, 2009, Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 744-764.
39. Kusluvan, S. (2003), Employee attitudes and behaviors and their roles for tourism and hospitality business, in S. Kusluvan (Ed.): Managing employee attitudes and behaviors in the tourism and hospitality, Nova Science Publishers, New York.
40. Leftwich, A. and Hogg, S. (2008), The Politics of Institutional Indigenization: Leaders, Elite and Coalitions in Building Appropriate and Legitimate Institutions for Sustainable Growth and social development. DLP - Developmental Leadership Program, University of Birmingham (UK).
41. Lewis, B.R. and McCann, P. (2004), “Service failure and recovery: evidence from the hotel industry”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 6-17.
42. Lin, W.B. (2011), “Factors affecting the effects of service recovery from an integrated point of view”, Total Quality Management, Vol. 22, No.4, pp. 443-459.
43. Lua, P.M., Akbar, A.K. and Gun Fie, D.Y. (2005), “Service quality: a study of the luxury hotels in Malaysia”, The Journal of American Academy of Business, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 46-55
44. Luria, G. and Yagil, D. (2008), “Procedural justice, ethical climate and service outcomes in restaurants”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 27, pp.276-283.
45. Ma, E. and Qu, H. (2011), “Social exchanges as motivators of hotel employees’ organizational citizenship behaviour: The proposition and application of a new three-dimensional framework”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 30, pp. 680-688.
46. MacKenzie, S.B., Podsakoff, P.M. and Rich, G.A. (2001), “Transformational and transactional leadership and salesperson performance”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 115-134.
47. MacKenzie, D.I., Nichols, J.D., Royle, J.A., Pollock, K.H., Bailey, L.L. and Hines, J.E. (2005), Occupancy Estimation and Modeling: Inferring Patterns and Dynamics of Species Occurrence. Elsevier, San Diego.
48. Malaysian Association of Hotels (2005), Latest News [online] http://www.hotels. org.my (accessed 05/05/2015).
49. Malloy, D. C. and Agarwal, J. (2003), “Factors influencing ethical climate in a non-profit organization: an empirical investigation”, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 224-250.
50. Maxham, J. G., III. and Netemeyer, R. G. (2002), “A longitudinal study of complaining customers’ evaluations of multiple service failures and recovery efforts”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 66, No. 4, pp. 57-71.
51. McColl-Kennedy, J. R., and Anderson, R. D. (2002), “Impact of leadership style and emotions on subordinate performance”, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 5, pp. 545-552.
52. Minkes, A. L., Small, M. W., and Chatterjee, S. R. (1999), “Leadership and business ethics: does it matter? Implications for management”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 327-335.
53. Mulki, J.P., Jaramillo, J.F. and W.B. Locander (2008), “Effect of ethical climate on turnover intention: Linking attitudinal - and stress theory”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 78, No.4, pp. 559-574.
54. Mulla, Z. and Krishnan, V. (2011), “Transformational leadership: Do the leader’s morals matter and do the follower’s morals change?”, Journal of Human Values, Vol. 17, No.2, pp. 129-143.
55. Nadiri, H. and Tanov, C. (2010), “An investigation of the role of justice in turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior in hospitality industry”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 33-41.
56. Netemeyer, R. G., Brashear-Alejandro, T. and Boles, J. S. (2004), “A cross-national model of job-related outcomes of work role and family role variables: a retail sales context”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 49-60.
57. Northouse, P. G. (2007), Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks.
58. O’Mahony, B., Lahap, J. and Sillitoe, J. (2011), “The development of a service delivery improvement model for the Malaysian hotel sector: a focus on the developing, formulating, synthesising and refinement of a new model”, Journal of Tourism, Hospitality & Culinary Arts, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-24.
59. Podsakoff, P.M., Mackenzie, S.B., Lee, J. and Podsakoff, N.P. (2003), “Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 5, pp. 879-903.
60. Quintana, C. D. D., Ruiz, J.-G. M. and Vila, L. E. (2014), “Competencies which shape leadership”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 35, No.4, pp. 514-535.
61. Ruyter, K. and Wetzels, M. (2000), “Customer equity considerations in service recovery: a cross industry perspective”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 91-108.
62. Sadik, M. N. (2001), Strategic Leadership for Non-Profit Organizations: A Case Study. The San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, Golden Gate University, Doctorate Thesis, California.
63. Salleh, N.Z., Abdul Hamid, A.B., Hashim, N.H. and Omain, S.Z. (2010), Issues and challenges in Malaysian hotel operations’, in the proceeding of 3rd AsiaEuro Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy Conference, Taylor’s College, Subang, Malaysia.
64. Schein, E.H. (1985), Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
65. Schell, K.L. and Conte, J.M. (2008), “Associations among polychronicity, goal orientation, and error orientation, personality and individual differences”, Vol.44, pp. 288-298.
66. Scheule, B. and Sneed, J. (2013), “Teaching leadership in hospitality management programs: a model for learning from leaders”, Journal of Hospitality &Tourism Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 34-37.
67. Schminke, M., Ambrose, M.L. and Neubaum, D.O. (2005), “The effect of leader moral development on ethical climate and employee attitudes”, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Process, Vol. 97, pp. 135-151.
68. Schwepker, C.H.Jr. (2001), “Ethical climate’s relationship to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turn over in the sales force”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 54, No.1, pp. 39-52.
69. Schwepker, C.H.Jr. and M.D. Hartline (2005), “Managing the ethical climate of customer-contact service employees”, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 7, No.4, pp. 377-397.
70. Smith, A., Bolton, R. and Wagner, J. (1999), “A model of customer satisfaction with service encounters involving failure and recovery”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 356-372.
71. Tabachnick, B.G. and Fidell, L.S. (2007), Using Multivariate Statistics (5th Ed.), Allyn and Bacon, New York.
72. Tang, C.F. and Tan, E.C. (2013), “How stable is the tourism-led growth hypothesis in Malaysia? Evidence from disaggregated tourism markets”, Tourism Management, Vol. 37, pp. 52-57.
73. Tepeci, M.(2005), “The Dimensions and Impacts of Organizational Culture on Employee Job Satisfaction and Intent to Remain in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Turkey”, Journal of Travel and Tourism Research, Vol.5, No.1/2, pp. 21-39.
74. Tharenou, P., Shaks, A. and Moore, C. (2007), “A review and critique of research on training and organizational-level outcomes”, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 17, pp. 251-273.
75. Tracey, J. and Hinkin, R. (1996), “How transformational leaders lead in the hospitality industry”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 15, No.2, pp. 165-176.
76. Trevino, L. K. and Nelson, K. A. (1995), Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
77. Walumbwa, F., Wu, C. and Orwa, (2008), “Contingent reward transactional leadership, work attitudes, and organizational citizenship behaviour: the role of procedural justice climate perceptions and strength”, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 19, No.3, pp. 251-270.
78. Wold, H. (1982), Soft modeling: the basic design and some extensions, in Joreskog, K.G. and Wold, H.E. (Eds), Systems under Indirect Observation: Causality, Structure, Prediction, North-Holland Publishing, Amsterdam.
79. Wold, H. (1985), Partial least squares, in S. Kotz, and N. L. Johnson, (Eds.). Encyclopaedia of Statistical Sciences, Wiley, New York.
80. Zeithaml, V., Parasuraman, A. and Malhotra, A. (2002), “Service quality delivery through web sites: A critical review of extant knowledge”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 362-375.
81. Zhu, W., Avolio, B. J. and Walumbwa, F. O. (2009), “Moderating role of follower characteristics with transformational leadership and follower work engagement”, Group and Organization Management, Vol. 34, No. 5, pp. 590-619.