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Service robots are increasingly prevalent in the hospitality industry. While studies have explored the concept of service robot risk awareness (SRRA) – an employee’s perception of service robots posing a threat to human labor – the impact of SRRA on robot abuse and its emotional mechanism through which it affects employees remains unclear. This research leverages emotional appraisal theory to investigate the mediating role of fear of robots in the relationship between SRRA and robot abuse. Additionally, considering the influential role of leadership in shaping emotional appraisal, this study aims to examine the moderating impact of transformational leadership.

To test the proposed model, time-lagged survey data were collected from 283 employees working under 54 leaders in 18 hotels in China. The model was analyzed using multilevel modeling in Mplus 7.3.

At the individual level, SRRA indirectly increases robot abuse through the mediation of fear of robots. However, there is a cross-level moderation: the indirect relationship is alleviated when leaders exhibit high levels of transformational leadership.

This study pioneers the concept of robot abuse in hospitality and tourism settings. It extends emotional appraisal theory by highlighting the significant mediating role played by fear of robots. Furthermore, demonstrating how transformational leadership can mitigate the effects of SRRA offers valuable insights for leadership selection and training to facilitate the successful implementation of service robots.

服务机器人在酒店业中日益普及。虽然研究已探讨了服务机器人风险意识（SRRA）的概念——即员工对服务机器人构成对人力劳动的威胁感知, 但SRRA对辱虐机器人及其对员工的情绪机制的影响仍不清楚。本研究利用情绪评估理论调查了恐惧对SRRA与机器人滥用之间关系的中介作用。此外, 考虑到领导在塑造情绪评估中的重要作用, 本研究还考察了变革型领导力的调节影响。

为了测试提出的模型, 收集了来自中国18家酒店中54位领导下的283名员工的时滞调查数据。该模型使用Mplus 7.3中的多层建模进行分析。

在个体水平上, SRRA通过恐惧对机器人的中介作用间接增加了辱虐机器人。然而, 研究发现跨层次调节变量：当领导展现出较高水平的变革型领导力时, 间接关系得到缓解。

本研究首创了服务在酒店和旅游领域的辱虐机器人行为概念。它通过突出恐惧对机器人的重要中介作用, 扩展了情绪评估理论。此外, 展示了变革型领导如何缓解SRRA的影响, 为领导选聘和培训提供了有价值的见解, 促进了服务机器人的成功实施。

Drawing on the leader–member exchange (LMX) theory, we examine the role of empowering leadership in employee organizational commitment and the organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, we examine if these relationships are explained by factors such as follower trust in the leader and leader authenticity.

We draw on survey data from 153 individuals serving the hospitality industry sector. The data are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results show that trust in a leader positively mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and organizational citizenship behavior as well as organizational commitment. We also find a direct association between empowering leadership and the two organizational outcomes. However, we do not find evidence of the moderating role of leader authenticity in empowering leadership and trust in leader–leader relationship.

This paper brings to light the significance of empowering leadership, especially for hospitality workers who often operate in stressful and deeply hierarchical organizational environments. Our study findings provide a pathway for how supervisors should follow an empowering form of leadership annculcate trust in employees for better organizational outcomes. The findings indicate significant theoretical and practical implications and offer recommendations for future research.