| It is important to select employees whose basic abilities can be developed into appropriate guest contact skills. The literature describes helpfulness, openness, warmth, friendliness, and concern as basic traits of hospitality employees. This study has developed an instrument to measure an employee's orientation to service.; Furthermore, the research explored the Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) construct and its relationship with service orientation and service performance. OCB traits include extra-role behaviors such as helpfulness, punctuality, and willingness to cooperate. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of service orientation on service performance and the potential mediating role of organizational citizenship.; Service employees in the front office, valet, restaurants and lounge departments of participating full-service hotels were surveyed. The employee's service orientation was examined by self-reports by the employees, OCB was tested by peer ratings and employee service performance was evaluated by supervisors.; A new variable of interest in describing employee behaviors in the hospitality industry surfaced in this study. From the data collected, OCB significantly predicts service performance. Service orientation as measured by the scenario-based instrument in this study was not related to OCB or service performance.; The author suggests additional avenues for employee behavior research in the hospitality industry. Further research might develop the scenario-based instrument to be used in hospitality training programs. |
