Bullying in Korean hotel restaurant kitchens: why is everybody always picking on me?
ISSN: 0142-5455
Article publication date: 11 August 2020
Issue publication date: 29 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this article is to develop and test a model of the antecedents and consequences (Cho et al., 2016) of bullying in Korean hotel kitchens.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 288 kitchen workers at 12 upscale Korean hotels. Proposed path models were tested using Hayes' (2013) PROCESS syntax in SPSS for mediation and moderated mediation analyses.
Findings
The empirical results indicated that an employee's acquiescent silence behavior increases the likelihood of being bullied. As a result, bullied employees are more likely to respond by engaging in a person-related counterproductive work behavior (CWB-P) or in defensive silence out of fear with temporary employees reacting less aggressively compared to regular employees.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-sectional design and self-report data risk common method variance and attributions of causality. Future research should use longitudinal designs to avoid common method bias and make causal inferences. Theoretical and practical implications for kitchen productivity are presented. The study should offer valuable insights for prospective employers to develop on-going training and create a positive working environment within the organization.
Originality/value
While bullying is a widespread and even an epidemic problem for the commercial kitchen environment, research into abusive behavior among chefs has been limited. By utilizing a specific segment of the hospitality industry, this research identified different behavioral aspects of bulling between temporary and regular employees in the commercial kitchen environment.
Keywords
Citation
Kim, K.H., Roh, E.Y., Kim, Y.J. and Spralls, S.A. (2021), "Bullying in Korean hotel restaurant kitchens: why is everybody always picking on me?", Employee Relations, Vol. 43 No. 1, pp. 337-351. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2019-0362
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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