Effect of Favoritism on Service Recovery Performance in 3 and 4 Star Hotels in North Cyprus

The purpose of this study is to investigate effects of favouritism (FA) on beneficiary employees’ service recovery performance (SRP) through mediating roles of both Job Security (JSEC)and Job Satisfaction(JS) in family-run hotel organizations in 3- 4 star hotels in North Cyprus. In addition, this study has offered a unique theoretical contribution to existing research on customer perceptions of service recovery performance in a favoritistic hospitality setting by testing the serial mediation model. Social Identity theory (SIT), this study examines effects of favouritism on service recovery performance from the perspective of beneficiaries of favoritism, which seems to have been conducted for the first time in 3 and 4 star hotels in North Cyprus. Thus, this is a significant gap that needs to be addressed, as these relationships were not investigated before. Consequently, the sample consisted of 184 frontline employees and 118 customers who got service from them in each hotel by questionnaires distributed to full-time hotel employees and customers. The findings showed that favouritism is positively related to JSEC of beneficiary employees, and a positive relationship between JSEC and employee JS. In contrast, the study revealed the negative effect of FA on SRP from the perspective of beneficiaries indirectly. It also revealed negative effects of beneficiary employees’ JSEC and JS feelings directly on their SRP. Keywords: favouritism, job security, job satisfaction and service recovery performance.