The Cascading Affective Consequences of Exercise among

Hotel Workers

Vincent Magnini, Virginia TechGyumin Lee, Virginia Tech

BeomCheol (Peter) Kim, Virginia Tech

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Introduction

• The strong correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction has been empirically demonstrated numerous times in extant literature (e.g. Goodman and Yanovsky, 1997; Wieseke et al., 2007).

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Introduction

• In the hotel sector, turnover rates for line-level employees have been estimated at around 60% (Woods et al., 1998).

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Introduction

• Due to the known negative consequences of low employee satisfaction and turnover, the hospitality literature is replete with studies that attempt to identify antecedents of these outcomes (e.g. Chathoth et al., 2007; Karatepe and Magaji, 2008).

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Introduction

• Since research indicates that an individual’s level of exercise is highly correlated with his/her stress level (Breus and O’Connor, 1998; Kennedy and Newton, 1997; Petruzzello et al., 1997) and mood (Gauvin and Rejeski, 1993; Lutz et al., 2003), it seems plausible that employee exercise may ultimately be associated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

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Purpose

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Exercise Hours

Emotional Intelligence

Cognition-based Trust

Affect-based Trust

Job Satisfaction

Org. Commitment

H1(+)H4

(+)

H3(+)

H2(+)

H6(+)

H5(+)

H7(+)

Hypothesis DevelopmentExercise Emotional Intelligence (EI)

• As previously stated, research indicates that an individual’s level of exercise is highly correlated with his/her stress level (Breus and O’Connor, 1998) and mood (Lutz et al., 2003).

• In the business literature, Neck and Cooper (2000) report a correlation between fitness and increased mental performance and a reduction of anxiety; further, Goldsby et al. (2001) discuss an association between exercise and higher levels of energy and enhanced feelings of well-being.

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Hypothesis DevelopmentExercise Emotional Intelligence (EI)

• A person’s level of EI is also robustly associated with his/her level of stress and general mood (optimism, happiness) (Vakola et al., 2004).

• Distinct from general intelligence, EI can be defined as “the ability to monitor one’ own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (Salovey and Mayer, 1990, pp. 189).

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Hypothesis DevelopmentExercise Emotional Intelligence (EI)

• The health belief model (HBM) serves as theoretical anchoring for an exercise EI linkage (Saklofske et al. 2007).

• In accord with the HBM model, an individual reaps a perceived benefit from exercise which can be used to develop the self-regard, self-actualization, and stress tolerance components of EI. Thus, within a hotel context, based upon this stream of logic the following hypothesis is offered:

H1: A hotel associate’s frequency of exercise is positively associated with his/her level of EI.

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Hypothesis DevelopmentEI Cognition-based Trust

• Trust is cognition-based because “we choose whom we will trust in which respects and under what circumstances, and we base the choice on what we take to be ‘good reasons,’ constituting evidence of trustworthiness” (Lewis and Wiegert, 1985, pp. 970).• This research posits that the EI of a hotel worker is correlated with the level of cognition-based trust that s/he has in his/her manager because cognition-based trust is developed through perceptions of norms of reciprocity and fairness through time (McAllister, 1995).

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Hypothesis DevelopmentEI Cognition-based Trust

• Since EI involves the ability to be a flexible planner (Salovey and Mayer, 1990), it is more likely the EI worker will positively assess the norms of reciprocity and fairness that are being created with his/her manager. • Likewise, because being highly EI also entails stress tolerance (Bar-On, 2007) and optimism (Bar-On, 2007), these factors further bolster the likelihood that a hotel worker will positively assess the norms of reciprocity and fairness that are being created with his/her manager. Hence, the following hypothesis is offered:H2: A hotel associate’s EI is positively associated with his/her level of cognition-based trust in his/her manager.

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Hypothesis DevelopmentEI Affect-based Trust

• Affect-based trust focuses upon the emotional bonds between people (Lewis and Weigert, 1985).

• A person with a high level of EI typically possesses better interpersonal skills than someone with a low level of EI(Boyatzis, 2001).

• EI is also positively associated with a person’s empathy which can be described as the ability “to be aware of and understand how others feel” (Bar-On, 2007).

• These characteristics of a highly EI person will likely bolster the person’s ability to create and foster the emotional linkages that support affect-based trust. Consequently, the following hypothesis is offered:

H3: A hotel associate’s level of EI is positively associated with his/her level of affect-based trust in his/her manager.

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Hypothesis DevelopmentEI Job Satisfaction

• Since EI is associated with feeling of happiness and optimism (Vakola et al., 2004), it stands to reason that EI might be positively associated with job satisfaction.

• In fact, empirical studies conducted by Abraham (2000), Bar-On (1997), and Chiva & Alegre (2008) found this to be the case. Therefore, within a hotel context, the following hypothesis is offered:

H4: A hotel associate’s level of emotional intelligence is positively associated with his/her overall job satisfaction.

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Hypothesis DevelopmentTrust Job Satisfaction

• The relationship between trust and job satisfaction is largely due to the fact that trust stimulates cooperative behavior (Rousseau et al., 1998).

• Moreover, trust leads to job satisfaction because it reduces conflicts, aids the effectiveness of ad hoc work groups, and bolsters sound responses to crises (Rousseau et al., 1998).

• These positive outcomes can contribute to reduced stress in typically stress-prone service environments . Thus, we predict:

H5: A hotel associate’s level of cognition-based trust in his/her manager is positively associated with his/her overall job satisfaction.

H6: A hotel associate’s level of affect-based trust in his/her manager is positively associated with his/her overall job satisfaction.

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Hypothesis DevelopmentJob Satisfaction Organizational Commitment

• Organizational commitment can be described as a psychological attachment that is fostered between an individual and his/her membership in an organization (O’Reilly and Chatman, 1986).

• Recent studies demonstrate that employee satisfaction is a key driver of organizational commitment (Mak and Sockel, 2001; Martensen and Gronholdt, 2001).

• In their attempt to identify antecedents and correlates of employee turnover, Griffeth et al. (2000) meta-analyzed a number of studies to find that job satisfaction is a robust predictor of turnover. Thus, the following is hypothesized:

H7: A hotel associate’s overall job satisfaction is positively associated with his/her organizational commitment.

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MethodologyProcedures:

• 400 self-administered questionnaires were distributed to frontline employees in nine hotels in S. Korea. A total of 210 usable responses were collected; yielding a response rate of 52.5%.• Followed accepted back translation procedures (Malhotra et al., 1996)

• 55 % were female• 51.9% (f&b); 34.5% (rooms); 13.6% (other)• Average of 6.6 years of hotel experience

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MethodologyMeasurement of variables:

Exercise:“On average how many hours per week do you spend exercising?” Response categories ranged from “less than one hour per week” (1) to “more than seven hours per week” (9).

Affect-based trust:McAllister (1995) five item scale (alpha=0.93)

Cognition-based trust:McAllister (1995) six item scale (alpha=0.96)

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MethodologyMeasurement of variables:

Emotional intelligence:Schutte et al. (1998) 33 item scale (alpha=0.95)

Overall job satisfaction:Brayfield and Rothe (1951) five item scale (alpha=0.90)

Organizational commitment:Allen and Meyer (1990) three item scale (alpha=0.89)

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Results

Hypothesis testing was performed by using LISREL to estimate completely standardized parameter estimates and t-values. The overwhelming majority of the fit statistics reveal that the model fits the data well (χ2 = 248.47; df = 176; p <.001; GFI = .89; AGFI = .85; NFI = .94; NNFI = .98; CFI = .98; IFI = .98; RMSEA = .046).

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Results

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Hypothesized PathStandardized

Path CoefficientT-value Hypotheses Testing

H1: Exercise Hours -> Emotional Intelligence .25 3.50*** supported

H2: Emotional Intelligence -> Cognition-based Trust .37 5.17*** supported

H3: Emotional Intelligence -> Affect-based Trust .36 4.47*** supported

H4: Emotional Intelligence -> Job Satisfaction .21 2.91** supported

H5: Cognition-based Trust -> Job Satisfaction .46 3.00** supported

H6: Affect-based Trust -> Job Satisfaction -.04 -0.29 not supported

H7: Job Satisfaction -> Org. Commitment .84 10.74*** supported

Note: **p < .01, ***p < .001

Results

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Exercise Hours

Emotional Intelligence

Cognition-based Trust

Affect-based Trust

Job Satisfaction

Org. Commitment

.25***

.37***

.36***

.21**

-.04

.46**

.84***

Note: **p < .01, ***p < .001

Limitations

• Exercise intensity

• Self-reported data

• Korean respondents

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Research Implications

• This research found that exercise frequency does in fact lead to higher levels of EI among hotel workers. Such a finding appeared in a 2007 article in the Journal of Health Psychology (Saklofske et al.), but the current study extends this exercise EI link to a business context.

• This research was the first to provide empirical evidence in support of emotional intelligence cognition-based / affect-based trust linkages.

• The EI job satisfaction link, on the other hand, has previously been identified by researchers (e.g. Chiva and Alegre, 2008), but we were the first to examine this association in a hotel context.

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Research Implications

• A number of past studies have analyzed the impact of trust on job satisfaction (e.g. Dirks and Ferrin, 2001; 2002), but none have looked specifically at cognition-based and affect-based facets.

• Our finding that only cognition-based (and not affect-based trust) has a significant influence on job satisfaction provides novel insight and highlights the need to study additional mediating and moderating variables.

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Managerial Implications

• The importance of exercise to the hotel firm

• Assess EI in the selection process and offer EI training

• “Evidence of trustworthiness”

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Thank you.

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