Theses supervised by Osman M. Karatepe
12 theses · Eastern Mediterranean University
Psychological Capital in the Airline Industry: Antecedents and Outcomes
This thesis aims to develop and test a research model that investigates the effects of servant leadership and psychological capital on work engagement and the effects of psychological capital and work engagement on service recovery performance and life satisfaction. Data were collected from flight attendants and their pursers in the three private airline companies in Iran. The relationships among study variables were tested using structural equation modeling. According to the results of the study, servant leadership enhances flight attendants’ psychological capital. Flight attendants high in psychological capital are more engaged in their work. These results suggest that psychological capital has a mediating role in the relationship between servant leadership and work engagement. The results demonstrate that psychological capital and work engagement positively influence service recovery performance and life satisfaction. The results also show that work engagement increases service recovery performance and life satisfaction. These results suggest that work engagement has a mediating role in the relationship between psychological capital and service recovery performance and life satisfaction. In the thesis management implications are offered, limitations of the empirical study are given, and implications for future research are provided at the end of the thesis. Keywords: Airline Services; Flight Attendants; Life Satisfaction; Psychological Capital; Servant Leadership; Service Recovery Performance; Work Engagement
The Effects of High-Performance Work Practices and Psychological Capital on Hotel Employees’ Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a research model that examines the interrelationships of high-performance work practices, psychological capital, work engagement, quitting intentions, creative performance, and extra-role performance. To serve this purpose, data were collected from customer-contact employees and their immediate supervisors in the international five- and four-star hotels in Romania. Data were obtained from customer-contact employees with a time lag of two weeks in three waves. The results reveal that all hypotheses shown in the research model are supported. Specifically, high-performance work practices, as manifested by selective staffing, job security, training, empowerment, rewards, teamwork, and career opportunities, enhance hotel employees’ psychological capital and work engagement. Psychological capital triggers also work engagement. These results show that psychological capital is a mediator in the abovementioned relationships. In addition, both psychological capital and work engagement foster creative and extra-role performances, while they alleviate employees’ intent to quit. Work engagement is a mediator in the relationships given above. The theoretical and practical contributions to the relevant literature are discussed in light of the study findings and recommendations for future research are given. Keywords: Employee outcomes, High-performance work practices, Psychological capital, Romania, Work engagement
Perceived Crowding, Emotional Dissonance, and Their Effects on Emotional Exhaustion and Job Outcomes: A Study in the Airline Industry
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a conceptual model that examines the mediating role of emotional dissonance in the relationship between perceived crowding and emotional exhaustion. The model also examines emotional exhaustion as a mediator of the impact of emotional dissonance on service recovery performance, turnover intentions, and absenteeism. In this thesis, data were collected from ground staff members and their supervisors in a low cost airline company in Turkey. The previously given relationships were tested through structural equation modeling. The results suggest that emotional dissonance plays a full mediating role in the relationship between perceived crowding and emotional exhaustion. The results also suggest that emotional dissonance influences turnover intentions and absenteeism only through emotional exhaustion. Contrary to the study hypotheses, the results suggest that emotional dissonance increases emotional exhaustion that in turn leads to higher service recovery performance. Management implications are offered and implications for future research are given. Keywords: Absenteeism; Airline Industry; Emotional Dissonance; Ground Staff; Perceived Crowding; Service Recovery Performance; Turnover Intentions
The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Flight Attendants’ Job Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a conceptual model that investigates the effect of corporate social responsibility on work engagement, career satisfaction, and employee voice behavior. This model also tests work engagement as a mediator in these relationships. Corporate social responsibility is represented by the ECON, LEG, ETHIC, and PHIL practices. Data were collected from flight attendants with a time lag of two weeks in three waves in an airline company in Turkey. The aforementioned relationships were tested through structural equation modeling. The results revealed that the indicators of corporate social responsibility were the ECON, LEG, ETHIC, and PHIL practices. The results demonstrated that corporate social responsibility positively influenced career satisfaction and voice behavior directly and indirectly via work engagement. In short, all hypotheses were supported. The aforesaid findings are discussed and their theoretical and managerial implications are presented. Limitations and future research directions are also given in this thesis.
Antecedents of Work-Related Depression among
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a research model that examines burnout as a full mediator of the effects of customer verbal aggression and perceptions of organizational politics on work-related depression. Data were collected from service employees (i.e., employees with intense face-to-face or voice-to-voice interactions with customers) in the four- and five-star hotels in Iran. Such data were collected with a one-week time lag. These relationships were tested using LISREL 8.30 through path analysis. According to the results, customer verbal aggression and perceptions of organizational politics exacerbated burnout (i.e., exhaustion and disengagement). The results demonstrated that exhaustion did not have any significant effects on depression. However, the results showed that disengagement triggered depression. The results of this study revealed that disengagement fully mediated the effects of customer verbal aggression and perceptions of organizational politics on depression. Based on the study findings, implications for management and limitations and implications for future studies are also presented in this thesis. KeyWords: Burnout, Customer Verbal Aggression, Employees’ Perceptions of Organizational Politics, Iran, Work-Related Depression.
Does Job Embeddedness Mediate the Effects of High-Performance Work Practices on Turnover Intentions? A Study in the Airline Industry
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a conceptual model that investigates the effects of high-performance work practices on job embeddedness and turnover intentions. In this model, the mediating role of job embeddedness was also tested. Data were gathered from flight attendants in the three private airline companies in Iran to test the relationships among study variables. These relationships were tested via LISREL 8.30 through structural equation modeling. The results show that the indicators of high-performance work practices (i.e., selective staffing, job security, training, empowerment, rewards, teamwork, career opportunities) increase flight attendants‟ job embeddedness. The results also show that such high-performance work practices reduce flight attendants‟ turnover intentions. The results of this study demonstrate the partial mediating role of job embeddedness between these high-performance work practices and turnover intentions. In this study, management implications are presented and limitations and future research directions are provided. Keywords: Flight Attendants; High-Performance Work Practices; Job Embeddedness; Turnover Intentions
Consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the Hotel Industry
This thesis aimed to examine the association between corporate social responsibility and employees’ promotive and prohibitive green voice behavior. Workplace spirituality was tested as a mediator in the abovementioned associations. Front desk employees working in the five * hotels in Northern Cyprus were selected for data collection. This thesis used a temporal separation of measurement (a time lag of 1- week in 3 waves). It utilized multiple sources of data as well (green voice behavior as rated by the immediate supervisors of the employees). The findings showed that corporate social responsibility predicted employees’ workplace spirituality. The findings also showed that workplace spirituality enhanced employees’ promotive and prohibitive green voice behavior. As expected, workplace spirituality was a full mediator between corporate social responsibility and the abovementioned green voice outcomes. Several theoretical and practical implications as well as future study directions were provided in this study. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, Environmental sustainability, Green prohibitive green voice behavior, Green promotive green voice behavior, Hotel employees, Workplace spirituality.
Antecedents and Outcomes of Career Adaptability: An Empirical Study in the Hotel Industry
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a research model that examines the interrelationships of high-performance work practices, career adaptability, met expectations, creative performance, and extra-role performance. In the model, career adaptability is treated as a mediator in the abovementioned relationships. In other words, high-performance work practices influence met expectations, creative performance, and extra-role performance through the mediating role of career adaptability. These relationships were tested with data collected from full-time customer-contact employees and their immediate supervisors in the four- and five-star hotels in Mashhad in Iran. Data were collected with a time lag of two weeks in three waves. The aforementioned relationships were tested using structural equation modeling. The results demonstrate that selective staffing, job security, training, empowerment, rewards, teamwork, career opportunities, and work-life balance as the indicators of high-performance work practices jointly trigger career adaptability. The results also indicate that career adaptability increases met expectations, creative performance, and extra-role performance. Career adaptability has a mediating role in these relationships. Specifically, career adaptability fully mediates the effects of high-performance work practices on met expectations, creative performance, and extra-role performance. The abovementioned findings are discussed and their theoretical and managerial implications are given in this thesis. Limitations and future research directions are also provided in this thesis.
An Empirical Investigation of Job Crafting Among Flight Attendants
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a conceptual model that examines the interelationships of job crafting, work engagement, turnover intentions, and service recovery performance. Data were obtained from flight attendants and their pursers in the three private airline companies in Iran. The relationships among study variables were gauged using structural equation modeling. According to the results of the study, job crafting fosters work engagement and service recovery performance. Job crafting also mitigates turnover intentions. These results refer to the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between job crafting and turnover intentions. On the contrary, the results demonstrate no significant association between work engagement and service recovery performance. In this case, work engagement does not act as a mediator of the impact of job crafting on service recovery performance. In the study implications for managers are offered, limitations of the empirical study are given, and implications for future research are presented. Keywords: Air Transport Services; Flight Attendants; Job Crafting; Service Recovery Performance; Turnover Intentions; Work Engagement
The Effects of Servant Leadership and Psychological Capital on Hotel Salespeople’s Critical Job Outcomes
This thesis aims to develop and test a research model that investigates the effects of servant leadership and psychological capital on hotel salespeople‘s lateness attitude, intention to remain with the organization, service-sales ambidexterity, and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Data gathered from salespeople and their immediate supervisors employed in the four- and five-star hotels in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, were used to test the relationships in the model. Data were collected with a time lag of two weeks in three waves. The interrelationships of the aforementioned variables were tested through structural equation modeling. The results confirmed that servant leadership exerted a significant positive effect on salespeople‘s psychological capital. Salespeople high on psychological capital had lower levels of lateness attitude and higher levels of intentions to remain with the organization. Such salespeople also displayed higher levels of service-sales ambidexterity and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. The results further revealed that servant leadership influenced the abovementioned outcomes through psychological capital. In this thesis, the findings given above were discussed and their theoretical and practical implications were provided. Limitations of the empirical study and its future research directions were highlighted in this thesis.
The Effect of Organization Mission Fulfillment on Emotional Exhaustion and Job Outcomes
The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a conceptual model that examines the effect of organization mission fulfillment on emotional exhaustion, turnover intentions, lateness attitude, job performance, and extra-role customer service. Data collected from employees in the international five-star chain hotels in Dubai, the tourism center in the United Arab Emirates. These frontline employees had frequent face-to-face or voice-to-voice interactions with customers. This study used a time lag of two weeks. Data relating to performance variables were obtained from the immediate supervisors of these employees. The results revealed that emotional exhaustion mediated the effect of organization mission fulfillment on turnover intentions, lateness attitude, job performance, and extra-role customer service. That is, employees’ perceptins of organization mission fulfillment reduced their emotional exhaustion. In this case, employees displayed lower turnover and lateness intentions, while they had higher performance in the workplace. Based on the aforementioned findings, management implications were given and limitations of the study and future research directions were provided. Keywords: Emotional Exhaustion; Extra-Role Customer Service; Job Performance; Lateness Attitude; Organizational Mission; Turnover Intentions
Linking Challenge and Hindrance Stressors to Employees’ Behavioral and Attitudinal Outcomes through Work Engagement
The purpose of this study is to develop and test a research model that examines the interrelationships of challenge and hindrance stressors, work engagement, quitting intentions, service recovery and job performances as well as creative performance. Broadly speaking, this model aims to test: (1) the effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on work engagement, quitting intentions, service recovery performance, job performance, and creative performance; (2) the impact of work engagement on quitting intentions, service recovery performance, job performance, and creative performance; and (3) the mediating role of work engagement in the aforementioned relationships. Data were collected from customer-contact employees and their immediate supervisors in the international four- and five-star chain hotels in Nigeria. The results demonstrate that both challenge and hindrance stressors trigger quitting intentions. Work engagement alleviates quitting intentions, while it fosters service recovery, job and creative performances. However, the signs of effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on work engagement are not consistent with our expectations. Therefore, there are unexpected findings about the mediating role of work engagement. Management implications as well as future research implications are also given in light of the study findings. Keywords: Challenge and Hindrance Stressors, Hotel Employees, Nigeria, Overall Job Performance, Quitting Intentions, Work Engagement.