The Impact of the Perceived Challenge and Hindrance Stressors on the Hotel Frontline Employees Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: An Empirical Investigation to the Moderating Role of the Psychological Capital

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to examine the dynamics of the relationships between the challenge and hindrance stressors and the employees’ levels of engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) by applying the social exchange theory within the hotel industry context. Furthermore, the study sought to explore the moderating role of the hotel frontline employees’ capacities of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) (Self-Efficacy, Hope, Optimism, and Resiliency) on the relationship between the challenge stressors and hindrance stressors and their OCBs. Data for this survey-based study were collected from 213 frontline employees who work in hotels in the United States of America.

The results of correlation and moderated hierarchical regression tests showed that challenge and hindrance stressors had a negative weak statistically significant relationship with OCB-I, both types of stressors had weak positive, yet statistically significant relationships with OCB-O at the .01 level of statistical significance. To test for the moderation role of PsyCap in the aforementioned relationships, the results showed that when the interaction term of the psychological capital with each independent variable of challenge stressors/hindrance stressors was entered into the model for each relationship, PsyCap can predict higher levels of employees’ engagement on OCB-I and OCB-O. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed along with limitations and areas for future research.