Autor/a

Victoria Bellou (University of Thessaly, Greece)

Coautor/es

Nikolaos Stylos (University of Bristol, UK)

Emotional contagion among front-line employees and customers in the hospitality sector

So far, numerous researchers have shown that employee behavior significantly impacts customer satisfaction. Along this line of thinking, evidence suggests that front-line employees' emotions, mood, and affect influence customers’ emotions, mood, and affect, contributing hence to the latter’s service experience. Even more, a handful of researchers have argued that the opposite impact is also true, namely that customer’s emotions have a significant positive impact on front-line employees’ emotions. Given their frequent and repeated contact with customers, and the fact that front-line employees add largely to the image of the organizations formulated in the eyes of customers, this study investigates the influence that guests’ affect has on receptionists’ willingness to engage in extra-role behavior, assuming that employees’ affect will mediate this relationship. The present study investigated 120 contacts between receptionists and customers of 4 and 5 start hotels in Greece and offers support to our hypothesized relationships. The implications of these findings are discussed both at theoretical and at practical levels.

Palabras clave: Guests, front-line employees, emotional contagion, hospitality