Search results

The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential mediating role of employee engagement in the relationship between gratitude and subjective well-being (SWB) of employees working in the information technology (IT) sector in India. The study investigated a moderated mediation model for gratitude and SWB, treating employee engagement as a mediator and gender as a moderator.

Data was collected from 162 professionals working IT sector in India. Process Macro, AMOS and IBM SPSS 22 were used to analyze the mediation and moderation effects.

The results depicted that employee engagement fully mediates the positive association between gratitude practice and the SWB of employees as well as the demographic variable; gender also demonstrated a full moderation effect between them.

This research may be one of the few studies from the Indian context that explore whether gratitude practiced by employees working in the IT sector can play a significant role in impacting their SWB. Past research models had not introduced employee engagement’s indirect impact on the examined variables.

Benevolent leadership is a leadership style in which leaders show consideration for their employees' work and life. Empirical studies have shown inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and employees' voluntary behaviors. Therefore, this study examined benevolent leadership's mediating (gratitude) and moderating (trust) mechanisms.

Overall, 792 questionnaires were collected from Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) and continuing education students at a public university in Taiwan. The research model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and the PROCESS module.

Benevolent leadership influenced three voluntary behaviors of employees directly and indirectly through enhanced gratitude. Emotional trust moderated the relationship between work care and employee gratitude such that the positive relationship was stronger for employees with higher emotional trust levels.

Benevolent leadership is an effective leadership style that cares about employees' work and lives, enhancing their gratitude and engagement in voluntary behaviors.

The mediating effect of gratitude and the moderating effect of trust provide a possible explanation for the inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and voluntary behaviors.

Employee gratitude is often associated with positive customer-related benefits. However, our understanding of employee gratitude is notably underdeveloped within the service literature. To address this issue, this study aims to position employee gratitude within the service profit chain (SPC) framework as a complementary mediator. Further, the authors empirically examine service climate as a central antecedent to employee gratitude and employee customer-oriented behavior as an outcome that triggers an internal and external reciprocal social exchange.

The examination of the research questions was done across two studies, using employee self-reported data (Study 1) and employee–customer dyadic data (Study 2). In Study 1, the authors investigate how employee gratitude mediates the relationship between service climate and customer-oriented behavior, with employee interpersonal influence functioning as a moderator. In Study 2, the authors examine how customer-oriented behavior, an outcome of Study 1, influences customer satisfaction and customer avoidance, with customer gratitude functioning as a mediator.

Results from both Study 1 and Study 2 support the proposed relationships. These studies contribute to the service literature by evaluating how and why employee gratitude functions as a significant factor in determining employee and customer behavior within the service context.

This work enriches the gratitude literature by empirically testing a novel theoretical perspective on employee and customer gratitude in service encounters. In doing so, the authors provide a more nuanced understanding of how internal and external processes are connected and potentially reinforced in SPC.

Drawing from the social exchange theory, the job demands-resources theory and the employee–organization relationship framework, this article aims to investigate underlying mechanisms through which organizational resources impact frontline service employees’ (FLEs) core service performance and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

An empirical study was conducted based on a multi-source data from 211 employee–customer pairs, with structural equation modeling used to test hypotheses.

FLE felt gratitude toward the firm fully mediates the impacts of supervisory guidance and employee-oriented relationship investment in influencing employees’ service performance and customer-oriented OCB. The study further finds that when the perceived job autonomy is low, providing supervisory guidance is more effective in eliciting employee gratitude than employee-oriented relationship investments. In contrast, when the perceived job autonomy is high, employee-oriented relationship investment elicits higher employee gratitude than supervisory guidance.

First, as cross-sectional pair data were used to test the proposed hypotheses, a stronger case might be made for the use of longitudinal data. Second, the current study uses a large variety of industries to study the phenomenon of employee gratitude and customer-oriented performance. Third, given recent globalization trends, it is increasingly important for researchers to address how the knowledge gained within an US context is applicable on a global scale. Finally, the two types of organizational resources included in the study are both positive resources.

The findings offer insights about how firms can strategically invest organizational resources to favorably influence FLE gratitude and customer outcomes as well as how job autonomy plays a role in leveraging the impacts of those resources.

This study is one of the few to advance our understanding of how FLE felt gratitude serves as an intervening mechanism through which functional and social resources invested by service organizations lead to desirable customer outcomes. In addition, this study explores the moderating role of FLE perceived job autonomy, suggesting the contingent nature of organizational resources in affecting customer-oriented FLE behaviors, which was rarely attended in previous research.

This study investigates why and when leader favorable feedback inhibits employees’ withdrawal behaviors. The authors propose that leader favorable feedback reduces employees’ withdrawal behaviors via employees’ gratitude toward the leader. The authors further posit that this mediation is contingent on leader-member exchange, arguing that as the quality of leader-member exchange increases, employees are more likely to feel grateful and are less likely to withdraw from work.

Two-wave, multisource field data collected from 662 employees were used to test our hypotheses.

Employees’ feelings of gratitude mediated the negative relationship between leader favorable feedback and employees’ withdrawal behavior. The negative effect of gratitude on withdrawal behavior was stronger under higher levels of leader-member exchange, as was the indirect effect of leader favorable feedback on withdrawal behavior via employees’ gratitude.

These results contribute to a social exchange-based understanding of gratitude as an emotional mechanism underlying the feedback and withdrawal relationship and provide important practical implications for managers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use, effectiveness, and dark sides of gratitude communications in workplace organizations. From the perspective of the subordinate employee, this study offers managers applicable insight into best practices for expressing appreciation.

The original research incorporates a two-part study; narratives from three focus groups, and quantitative survey responses from 883 full-time professionals across a spectrum of industries.

The usage of various gratitude mediums (verbal, electronic, handwritten, monetary, etc.) is discussed. Most employees prefer verbal one-on-one gratitude to any other form. Sincerity is highly important to employees, which was found to be indicated by specificity, personalization, timeliness, and equivalency.

Although it is presumed the majority of the 883 survey participants were from the USA, they were never asked to indicate their location. Conducting the same research in another country with a different value of gratitude could yield different results. While this study focusses on managerial expression of gratitude to their employees, there’s a compelling need to explore the converse: best practices for how employees should express appreciation to their managers. To complete the organizational ecosystem, it would also be valuable to explore the most effective methods of gratitude in peer-to-peer workplace relationships.

The synthesis of experiential themes offers practical applications for executives, managers, and corporate communication leaders seeking to improve day-to-day operations and overall employee satisfaction in their organizations.

In the corporate communication landscape, the results of this study should cause management professionals and scholars to reflect on gratitude communication in managerial interactions with employees and the resulting employee satisfaction (or lack thereof).

Understanding how employees like to be thanked can have great value for organizations seeking to maintain a productive, satisfied workforce.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between gratitude and workplace friendship with affective well-being (AWB) at work amongst millennial employees. Specifically, it details the mediating effect of workplace friendship in explaining the linkages between gratitude and AWB at work.

This study used a sample of 272 millennial workers in this study. A survey invitation was sent out to all of the respondents through email. A 20-item job-related AWB (Van Katwyk et al., 2000) scale was used to measure AWB. Workplace friendship was measured using six-items of the workplace friendship scale (Nielsen et al., 2000) and gratitude was measured using McCullough et al.’s (2002) six-item gratitude questionnaire (GQ-6).

The study found that gratitude and workplace friendship enhanced workplace AWB among millennial workers. Workplace friendship functioned as a mediator, which delivered the effect from gratitude towards workplace AWB. Gratitude was found to positively predict workplace friendship and subsequently workplace friendship positively predicted workplace AWB.

Nurturing positive feelings at work through excellent psychosocial resources and healthy work friendships would improve millennial workers well-being. Henceforth, encouraging millennial employees to cultivate workplace friendships, can help the manager to enhance millennial employees’ feeling of belongingness, and thus, promote better AWB.

Investment on employee’s human capital and values can be valuable resources to increase millennial employees’ performance at work. Millennial workers are a unique generation that put emphasis on the subjective experience. Hence, capitalising on their subjective experience can be one of the keys to better increase their well-being and performance at work.

This study aims to investigate the psychological mechanisms underlying hospitality employees’ social exchange relationships at work by applying the social aspects of work and the social exchange theory.

MTurk was used for conducting a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, targeting frontline employees who were working in full-service restaurants. Descriptive statistic, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed.

Customer-employee exchange had a positive relationship with gratitude. Moreover, gratitude was positively associated with both role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service. Leader-member exchange and coworker exchange were positively related to obligation. Obligation had positive association with both role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service. The mediating effects of gratitude and obligation were statistically significant.

Employees’ social exchange relationship with customers promotes prosocial behaviors by arousing gratitude in them. Moreover, their social exchange relationships with supervisors and coworkers lead to prosocial behaviors by provoking obligation from them.

This research shows the importance of the social aspects of work to contribute to employees’ prosocial behavior in the hospitality industry. Moreover, it proves the critical roles of emotions to guide employees’ decisions about social exchange.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of company decisions to reshore manufacturing activities on employee citizenship behaviors (OCBs). The research considers both company motives for the reshoring decision perceived by employees and gratitude felt toward the organization as antecedents to OCBs.

The authors conducted a survey based on a sample of employees belonging to an Italian manufacturing company that had implemented a reshoring decision.

The employee attributions of intrinsic motives for reshoring and gratitude are shown to positively affect OCBs. Specifically, intrinsic motives influence both OCBIs and OCBOs through the mediating role of gratitude felt by employees, whereas extrinsic motives do not affect, directly or indirectly through mediation of gratitude, OCBs.

The research illustrates the importance of managing internal communications to employees of company motives for reshoring, which ultimately affect employee gratitude and OCBs.

The research contributes to the knowledge of the effects of reshoring on employees and their relationships with the firms and co-workers and introduces a new area for inquiry.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between workplace toxicity and psychological capital (PsyCap). It also investigates the moderating role of gratitude in the toxicity–PsyCap link.

The study is based on explorative-cum-descriptive research design. The sample comprises 411 employees engaged in banking, insurance, IT, automobile and oil and gas companies. The collected data is explored for reliability, validity, multicollinearity and common method variance estimates. Also, the relationship between workplace toxicity and PsyCap and the moderating effect of gratitude are examined using structural equation modelling.

The findings report a negative association between toxicity and PsyCap. Also, the study concludes a significant moderating effect of gratitude. The study recommends the institutionalisation of a gratitude-based organisation to reduce the impact of workplace bullying and uncivil behaviour.

The study is based on primary data and one of the few studies that explore psychological capital as a dependent variable, which is influenced by toxic behaviours at work.