From empowering leadership to proactive work behavior in hospitality: a study of multiple cross-level mediation processes
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights
ISSN: 2514-9792
Article publication date: 21 March 2023
Issue publication date: 26 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
On the basis of the hierarchical organizational structure, this study investigated how empowering leadership influences hotel employees' proactive work behavior through multiple cross-level mediation processes. This study also investigated whether psychological empowerment, positive psychological capital, job characteristics and job embeddedness can activate the linkage of the aforementioned trickle-down effects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws data from 826 international tourist hotel employees at different times with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses.
Findings
Multiple cross-level mediation analyses indicate that (1) psychological empowerment mediates the cross-level influences of empowering leadership on job characteristics and positive psychological capital; (2) positive psychological capital mediates the cross-level influences of empowering leadership on job embeddedness and proactive work behavior; and (3) job embeddedness mediates the cross-level influences of psychological empowerment and job characteristics on proactive work behavior.
Practical implications
In the post-pandemic era, the valuable trickle-down effects of empowering leadership could spill over into employees' positive beliefs of psychological empowerment, which ultimately benefit working responsibility and organizational operations.
Originality/value
The results support and suggest that maximizing the benefits of empowering leadership could eventually foster proactivity and performance in the workplace under hospitality and tourism settings.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This research was funded by the research plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan (Grant No. MOST 109-2511-H-020-002-MY3).
Citation
Wang, C.-J. (2024), "From empowering leadership to proactive work behavior in hospitality: a study of multiple cross-level mediation processes", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 371-393. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-11-2022-0547
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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