The casual effects of human resource practices, supervisor support, and coworker support, influencing on organizational citizenship behaviour towards job performance of frontline employees in four-star hotels in Phuket, Thailand

Abstract

This study attempts to propose and examine a theoretical conceptual model that investigates the causal effects of hotel frontline employees’ perceptions of human resource (HR) practices, supervisor support, and coworker support, influencing on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) towards job performance in the context of four-star hotels in Phuket, Thailand. The mediating effects of OCB are also highlighted. HR practices in this study are in a form of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) consisting of selective staffing, rewards, training, empowerment, job security, and career opportunity. The three dimensions, namely OCB towards organization (OCB-O), OCB towards coworker (OCB-I), and OCB towards customer (OCB-C), are engaged in OCB construct as suggested by Ma and Qu (2011). The ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) theory and social exchange theory (SET) have been adopted to explain the relationship between organization – employees, supervisor – employees, and coworker – employees.

The theoretical framework for the study employed a quantitative research method and utilized a survey questionnaire as a research tool. Data were collected from 320 frontline employees of 16 participating hotels, member hotels of the Thai Hotel Association (THA), in Phuket as the subjects of this study. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and a series of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to gauge the hypothesized model. The SEM analysis reveals that the hypothesised model yielded a good fit to the data with X2/Df = 1.773, CFI = 0.916, RMSEA = 0.049, RMR = 0.021, and TLI = 0.910. Results suggest that only HR practices and coworker support have direct positive effect on job performance, while supervisor support has no direct effect relationship with job performance in this context. The finding reveals that HR practices, supervisor support, and coworker support, directly and positively influence job performance. OCB is confirmed to fully mediate the supervisor support and job performance relationship, and partially mediate the HR practices and job performance, and coworker and job performance relationship.

HR practices in the form of HPWPs are found to be one of the most compelling antecedents; thus managers should consider HPWPs as a mandatory and initially invest on HPWPs that improve frontline employees’ skills, knowledge, and ability, which in turn, boost employees’ positive work-related behaviours, OCB and job performance. Such practices, career opportunity has appeared to be the most vital indicator of HPWPs for hotel frontline employees, followed by job security, selective staffing, training, rewards, and empowerment. Generally, in the hotel context, exercising HR practices seem to be the most vital driver of employees’ behavioural outcomes. Interestingly, the study found that coworker support has the strongest effect on employees’ displayed OCB in the case of frontline employees in the hotel context followed by HR practices and supervisor support. In other words, employees’ willingness to display OCB are not only fostered by their tie with the organization (HR practices) and supervisor but seem to be better motivated by the emotional and instrumental supports received from their coworkers.