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As a step toward more firmly establishing factors to promote retention among younger employees in the hospitality industry, this study aims to focuses on fun in the workplace (fun activities, manager support for fun and coworker socializing) and training climate (organizational support, manager support and job support) as potential antecedents of turnover in a European context.

Logistic regression was used to analyze the impact of fun and training climate on turnover with a sample of 902 employees from Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands. Data on fun and training climate were obtained through surveys, which were paired with turnover data from organizational records.

With respect to fun in the workplace, group-level manager support for fun and coworker socializing were significantly related to turnover, but not fun activities. With respect to training climate, individual-level job support was significantly related to turnover, but not organizational support and manager support.

As the data were obtained from employees from one organization, further research would be valuable with additional samples to substantiate the generalizability of the results.

Given the challenge of turnover, organizations should foster informal aspects of fun in the workplace and learning opportunities to promote retention.

The study examined the fun–turnover relationship in a context outside of the USA where previous fun–turnover research has been conducted, and it examined fun relative to training climate, which has not been studied heretofore. This study also investigated group- and individual-level effects of both fun and training climate on turnover.

Despite previous research indicating that fun in the workplace has favorable outcomes, the effect of fun on turnover has not been definitively determined. The present study analyzed the direct effects on turnover of three dimensions of fun: fun activities, coworker socializing and manager support for fun, and the moderating influence of managed fun (e.g. whether fun is perceived as contrived).

Logistic regression was used to analyze the fun in the workplace-turnover relationship with a sample of 491 hourly associates from 141 stores of a US national retailer. Data on the fun were obtained through surveys that were paired with turnover data collected six months afterward from corporate records.

Fun activities were only found to be associated with a lower turnover when employees perceived fun as less managed. When employees perceived fun as more managed, fun activities had no effect on turnover. Coworker socializing was associated with a lower turnover when fun was perceived as less managed and higher turnover when fun was perceived as more managed.

As the data were obtained from employees from one organization, further research would be valuable with additional samples to substantiate the generalizability of the results.

Given the challenge of turnover and the increasing prevalence of efforts to promote fun in the workplace, organizations should allow fun activities to be less managed (and thus more organic) to help reduce turnover.

While previous research has addressed managed/less managed fun in qualitative research, the present study represents the first investigation to examine this aspect of fun in the workplace from a quantitative perspective and to examine its relationship with employee turnover.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether fun in the workplace inadvertently leads to greater incidences of unwanted sexual attention. Specifically, this research examined the relationship between three dimensions of fun and unwanted sexual attention – fun activities, coworker socializing and manager support for fun.

Multiple regression was used to analyze survey data from three Qualtrics business panels.

Fun activities were related to greater incidences of unwanted sexual attention, while manager support for fun was related to fewer instances. With respect to fun activities, mandatory attendance and holding the activities on nights and weekends were associated with further increased unwanted sexual attention. The presence of non-employees during activities was associated with fewer incidences.

The data on fun in the workplace and unwanted sexual attention were obtained at one point in time. Future research would be valuable that obtains data collected at multiple points in time to more fully substantiate cause-and-effect relationships.

Employers may seek to foster a climate in which managers encourage employees to have fun on the job as well as one that explicitly focuses on preventing sexual harassment. Curbing unwanted sexual attention during fun activities may be facilitated by involving non-employees, refraining from holding activities at night and on weekends and keeping employee participation voluntary.

From the perspective of fun in the workplace, this research has demonstrated fun activities may have unintended, adverse consequences. From the perspective of sexual harassment, this research has identified antecedents not typically be considered to be contributing factors of unwanted sexual attention.

As employers are purportedly becoming more receptive to tattoos, the question arises whether tattooed employees are nonetheless subject to unfavorable treatment. In this light, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of different tattoo characteristics on four outcomes: annual earnings, fair interpersonal treatment from supervisors, perceived discrimination and perceived overqualification. The specific tattoo characteristics were tattoo number, visibility and content.

Survey data from a sample of 162 tattooed hospitality employees were obtained from a Qualtrics research panel and analyzed using regression.

The results demonstrated that employees with a greater degree of dark tattoo content (content of a more threatening and intimidating nature) received less favorable treatment, as demonstrated by significant relationships with fair interpersonal treatment, perceived discrimination and perceived overqualification. Tattoo number was related to increased perceived discrimination and perceived overqualification. At the same time, tattoo number was related to increased annual earnings, signaling a benefit.

Measures of tattoo characteristics and workplace outcomes were collected in a single survey. An analysis of data collected at different points would potentially provide a more definitive test of cause and effect.

On one front, organizations should establish grooming policies that specify what is acceptable with respect to tattoos. To help minimize personality-related tattoo stereotypes from influencing hiring decisions, organizations could use personality assessments to make the hiring process more objective. Moreover, diversity training could address tattoo-related stereotypes, bias and prejudice.

Even though prior studies have demonstrated that tattooed people are viewed as less suitable for employment, research focused on the relationship between tattoos and actual discrimination has been limited. The results from this study highlight that employees with tattoos may still be subject to maltreatment, despite the mainstreaming of tattoos.

The purpose of this paper is to extend research on fun in the workplace by focussing on its relationship with job embeddedness among Millennials. This research examined the influence of four dimensions of fun, including fun activities, manager support for fun, coworker socializing, and fun job responsibilities, on embeddedness. In addition, this research assessed the impact of fun relative to other aspects of the employment experience.

Data were obtained from 234 full-time working Millennials via survey methodology.

Fun job responsibilities were the most dominant predictor of embeddedness followed by perceived career opportunities and praise and rewards. The other dimensions of fun accounted for significant variance in embeddedness, yet their influence was more modest.

The research demonstrated that fun plays a role in enhancing Millennials’ embeddedness, accounting for significant additional variance beyond other important aspects of the employment experience. At the same time, some aspects of fun were more dominant predictors of embeddedness than others, and other aspects of the employment experience were more dominant predictors than certain aspects of fun. These findings should be interpreted in the context of the primary limitation that the data were cross-sectional.

Workplace fun may play a role in enhancing embeddedness, but organizations should not lose sight of other human resource management practices.

The present study examined the role of workplace fun in a more nuanced perspective by examining its relationship on embeddedness relative to other important constructs.

This paper aims to examine the validity of the Managerial Practices Survey (MPS). Despite voluminous work on leadership styles, few studies have examined the specific behaviors of effective leaders in the hospitality industry.

Data were collected from two different samples through surveys to assess the construct validity of the MPS in the hospitality industry.

The proposed four meta-category and 18 component behavior MPS framework fit the data well and both the meta-categories and component behaviors were predictive of leadership effectiveness.

While meta-categories may be conceptually and theoretically relevant, component leadership behaviors are more useful for applied uses, such as leadership development. When behaviors are assessed at the component level, leaders can be provided with feedback and coaching on the specific actions they can take to improve their decision-making and problem-solving capabilities and ultimately become more effective leaders.

This research provides a validation of the MPS and useful insights for which behaviors are most useful for managers in hospitality contexts.

As tattoos increase in popularity, questions persist regarding their impact on customer perceptions. To help shed light into this issue, this paper aims to explore the impact of tattooed restaurant servers in the context of service failures. Through the agency and communion theory, the authors propose that a female server with tattoos induces higher levels of negative word of mouth (WOM) intention than her male counterpart. Furthermore, the authors propose that perceived competence mediates this effect.

Through a 2 (tattoos status: yes, no) × 2 (server’s gender: male, female) experimental design, a panel of consumers were exposed to a restaurant service failure scenario with a photograph of a server. Depending on the condition, the server was either a male or female and had (or not) a tattoo on their left arm and neck. The same tattoo design was used for both genders.

The findings indicate that, in a service failure context, customers’ propensity to generate negative WOM does not differ across tattooed (vs non-tattooed) servers. However, contrary to the expectations of the authors, people tend to react more negatively to a male (vs female) server with tattoos.

Research on tattoos in the customer service context is scant, especially in hospitality. Furthermore, no previous study on tattoos has empirically tested a mediation process explaining differences in customer perceptions. Contrary to previous findings, this study demonstrates that an exposure to male (vs female) tattooed servers increases customers’ propensity to generate negative WOM. In other words, the type of profession coupled with the employees’ gender might influence customer perceptions. Furthermore, as customers’ propensity to generate negative WOM did not increase when served by a tattooed (vs non-tattooed) employee, managers in aesthetic labor industries, such as the foodservice business, can be more accepting of employees with tattoos.

The purpose of this paper is to start a conversation on achieving a shared understanding among hospitality service co-creation participants. Adopting a stakeholder and service eco-systems approach, attention is drawn to the necessity for all service experience participants to have a shared understanding of the service experience and their role within it, for a sustained competitive advantage to be realized. Informed by community of practice (CoP) thinking, a road map of research questions is advanced encouraging insight into a macro level phenomenon that, traditionally, is only ever considered at the micro service encounter level.

A thorough multidisciplinary review of the literature was undertaken, providing an opportunity to present a viewpoint on the strategic implications of providing a sustainable competitive advantage via the hospitality service experience.

To achieve a shared understanding across the Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System, potential tensions among stakeholders are highlighted. Accounting for such barriers, institutional arrangements, combining organizational CoPs that are bridged by designated boundary objects, is advanced. Given the novel approach of applying a traditionally organizational phenomenon at a macro multi-stakeholder level, several research questions are proposed to inform thinking about this neglected perspective.

Acknowledging the innovation, agility and resources required to maintain a competitive service experience, the paper emphasizes the importance of adopting a macro perspective to effective service management. The hope is to stimulate academic interest to inform understanding as to how to build this capability as well as enhance practitioner interest in promoting stakeholders’ CoP for the benefit of the entire Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System.

While personality is often deemed important, few studies have examined the relationship between general mental ability (GMA) and job performance for entry‐level service employees. As such, the present study aims to examine the impact of GMA, along with the Big Five personality dimensions, on performance in this context.

Data were collected on servers from multiple units of two large restaurant chains. The employees completed GMA and personality assessments. Managers in Sample 1 provided ratings of service performance and two dimensions of contextual performance – interpersonal facilitation and job dedication. In Sample 2, sales performance data were obtained from company records.

Unlike the Big Five taxonomy, GMA was the only variable to significantly predict all performance criteria.

Successful job performance requires more than habits and motivation rooted in personality; it also requires knowledge acquisition and ongoing problem solving facilitated by GMA.

Managers should consider GMA along with personality in hiring decisions to maximize the prediction of employee performance.

The paper demonstrates that GMA impacts multiple dimensions of server performance, including task and contextual performance.

The annual holiday party is a long-standing tradition in many organizations, yet academic research has largely left the holiday party unexamined. The present study sheds light on this significant social event by exploring what factors help differentiate successful events from less successful ones.

First, the authors developed a taxonomy of characteristics of good holiday parties using a critical incident technique in which stories of holiday party experiences were analyzed following a mixed-method approach. Second, the authors quantitatively examined the relationships between these characteristics and three outcomes, including perceived organizational support, positive interpersonal interactions, and experienced fun.

The critical incident analysis revealed 11 key characteristics that distinguish good from bad holiday parties. Primary findings from the quantitative study are that games and activities, music, good food, and notable positive leader behavior are key characteristics of more successful events.

As the data were obtained using a traditional survey methodology, further research would be valuable that adopts an experience sampling methodology to capture employee experiences, perceptions, and feelings about holiday parties in real-time before, during, and after an event has occurred.

From an event planning standpoint, this research provides a framework for designing holiday parties and provides evidence as to which features matter most. From a strategic leadership perspective, this research signals that different features of holiday parties can influence different outcomes.

Beyond merely identifying important characteristics, this research provides a framework for further research on holiday parties and identifies theories that can be used in future research to explore the mechanisms that influence how and under what conditions holiday parties impact employees’ experiences at work.