The mediating role of psychological capital in the relationship between leader secure-base support and hotel employees' proactive customer service performance

As the hospitality industry becomes increasingly competitive, frontline employees, who act as a bridge between hotels and customers, must satisfy basic job requirements and be forward-looking, proactive, and perseverant in maintaining a customer-oriented business philosophy to display proactive customer service performance (PCSP). As such, how to trigger employees' motivation and enthusiasm at work has become a key area of focus among scholars in related disciplines (Rank, Carsten, Unger, & Spector, 2007; Raub & Liao, 2012). Drawing from literature on leader secure-base support (LSBS) in facilitating proactive behavior, this study proposed that LSBS was positively related to PCSP. In addition, we also proposed that psychological capital could mediated the relationship between LSBS and PCSP. Results from 231 supervisor-subordinate matched responses from hotels, we found that LSBS has positive effect on PCSP. Further, the results also demonstrated that psychological capital mediated the positive relationship between LSBS and PCSP. Our findings provide insights into the mediating role of psychological capital form the model of proactive motivation process proposed by Parker, Bindl, and Strauss (2010). Further implications for organizational research and practice are discussed.