How hotel staff reacts to guests (un) fair treatment by the hotel

Abstract

This paper suggests that hotel staff perceiving signs of (un) fair treatment to customers by hotels will make responsible of this to the hotel, and depending on whether that treatment is fair or unfair, they increase or decrease their customer-oriented behaviors (COB). Data were collected from 204 surveyed employees at eight luxury hotels in the Canary Islands (Spain). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Results demonstrate that the more employees perceive interactional and procedural justice toward guests, the more they engage in customer-oriented behaviors (COBs). These findings suggest the need to prevent events of guest mistreatment by the hotel, especially those visible to employees, in order to promote customer-oriented behaviors (COBs). This is the first empirical study in which both organizational justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional) and citizenship behaviors (OCBs) both directed at customers (COBs) and performed by employees are modeled together.