Linking employee voice to service recovery performance in the hotel sector: The mediating role of tacit knowledge sharing and employee innovation

Abstract

PURPOSE: In reality, service failures are inevitable. However, poor service recovery can decrease customer trust and exacerbate customer dissatisfaction. Previous studies have focused on service failure types, reasons for failure, and successful recovery actions from the customers’ perspective. Accordingly, this study aims to present adifferent view by investigating the factors that could improve hotel recovery performance from the employees’ perspective. Therefore, amodel was developed to study the influence of employees’ voice, tacit knowledge sharing, and employee innovation on service recovery performance. METHODOLOGY: This quantitative study used an online survey to gather data from employees in the hotel industry in Jordan. Atotal of 214 valid responses were obtained. Participants were targeted randomly, mainly through Facebook groups for hotel employees. PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling) was employed in this research to analyze the data using Smart PLS 3 software. FINDINGS: The results indicated that employee voice is positively associated with tacit knowledge sharing. Furthermore, it was found that tacit knowledge sharing is positively related to employee innovation. The findings demonstrated that tacit knowledge plays apartial mediating role in the association between employee voice and employee innovation. Additionally, it was discovered that employee innovation has apositive association with service recovery performance. Finally, the results indicate that employee innovation partially mediates the relationship between tacit knowledge and service recovery performance. IMPLICATIONS: Hoteliers are suggested to create asupportive work climate where employees can express their thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of retribution. Furthermore, hotel managers are advised to establish clear expectations for employees regarding the significance of their opinions and insights, and recognize and reward innovative ideas that can hopefully enhance hotels’ performance. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: This research provides new insights and contributes to the understanding of the role of employee voice, tacit knowledge sharing, and employee innovation in enhancing service recovery performance, particularly in acontext that has received little attention from researchers, which is the hotel sector, and in adeveloping country, Jordan. Compared to past studies, this study offers amodel that demonstrates how to leverage service recovery efforts in hotels by illustrating structured relationships between employee voice and service recovery performance through the mediation of tacit knowledge sharing and employee innovation.