High-performance work practices and hotel employee performance: The mediation of work engagement

Abstract

This study proposes and tests a research model that investigates whether work engagement functions as a mediator of the effects of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) on job performance and extra-role customer service. These relationships were assessed through LISREL 8.30 using structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were obtained from full-time frontline hotel employees and their managers in the Poiana Brasov region in Romania. The results suggest that work engagement acts as a full mediator of the effects of HPWPs on job performance and extra-role customer service. Specifically, HPWPs, as manifested by frontline employees' appraisal of training, empowerment, and rewards, enhance work engagement. Such HPWPs in turn trigger job performance and extra-role customer service. Implications of the results are discussed and avenues for future research are offered. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.