Understanding the Role of Servant Leadership in the Hospitality Sector: AN INTERNAL MARKETING STRATEGY PERSPECTIVE

Almomani, Mohammad

Abstract

The main purpose of the study is to understand the importance of servant leadership, which is considered to be a critical component of internal marketing, in influencing Jordanian hotel frontline employees’ constructive deviance. This study proposes to deepen the understanding of the two fundamental mechanisms by which servant leadership influences the outcome variable, constructive deviance. Based upon self-determination theory (SDT), this study will examine how psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between servant leadership and organisational constructive deviance behaviours. At the same time, social identity theory will be used to understand how brand identification may moderate the relationship between psychological empowerment and constructive deviance among frontline employees from an internal marketing strategy perspective.
Within this context, a conceptual framework is provided incorporating servant leadership as the independent variable, psychological empowerment as the mediating variable, and constructive deviance of the hotel’s frontline employees as the outcome variable. In addition, the moderating role of brand identification on the relationship between psychological empowerment and constructive deviance of the hotel frontline employees will also be explored. The conceptual model is empirically examined via exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, beginning with a poll-card game with 98 frontline employees and specific in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews with 25 frontline employees and supervisors working in four-and five-star hotels across Jordan. Following a quantitative study using a large sample of time-lagged data from frontline employees working in twenty-one different hotels across Jordan, the analysis is carried out on 781 questionnaires using structural equation modelling (utilising AMOS) with a more than 50% response rate; after validation and purification, the goodness of fit of the measurement and structural models provided good fit estimates across absolute, incremental and parsimonious measures.

The analysis emphasises the significance of servant leadership, as a crucial component of internal marketing, in psychologically empowering and promoting frontline employees’ constructive deviance, thereby feeding into excellent service delivery for hotel customers. The findings of the structural equation modelling revealed that servant leadership positively influenced frontline employees’ constructive deviance behaviours, and this influence was partially mediated by psychological empowerment. Moreover, the moderation path analysis demonstrated that frontline employees’ brand identification positively moderates the relationship between psychological empowerment and constructive deviance behaviours. This mixed-methods empirical study provides evidence for the effectiveness of servant leadership in promoting constructive deviance behaviours in the hotel sector. The findings also highlighted the importance of psychological empowerment and brand identification in the relationship between servant leadership and constructive deviance as important mediating and moderating mechanisms, respectively. Apart from methodological and theoretical contributions, the study proposes practical implications and directs future researchers in applying internal marketing to empower and promote constructive deviance behaviours among hotel frontline employees in Jordan through servant leadership.

Citation

Almomani, M. (2023). Understanding the Role of Servant Leadership in the Hospitality Sector: AN INTERNAL MARKETING STRATEGY PERSPECTIVE. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: May 30, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 25, 2024
• Keywords: Internal Marketing, Strategic Marketing, Internal Branding, Servant Leadership, Constructive Deviance, Brand Identification, Psychological Empowerment
• Award Date: Jun 2, 2023