Background of the Study
In the global economy, the hotel industry serves as a key source of economic growth.
According to the 2019 annual analysis of the global economic impact of travel and tourism by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC, 2019), the travel and tourism industry was the second-fastest-growing sector which grew by 3.9%, only lower than the manufacturing sector, which grew by 4.0% and higher than the overall global economy’s growth, which grew 3.2%
in 2018. Further, the travel and tourism industry represented 10.4% of the total global GDP in 2018.
More specifically, the region which was the most important contribution to this industry is Asia-Pacific (WTTC, 2019). In this region, Thailand plays an important role in growth.
According to Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2019, Bangkok, the Thai capital, is the most visited city in the world (Hamel, 2019).
Also, In Thailand, tourism, particularly in the hotel industry, is the most important sector driving the economy. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand expects the number of tourists traveling to Thailand will reach a record 41.1 million in 2019 and suggests that the hotel industry has to prepare to serve the market demand (Yuvejwattana, 2019).
According to the market research by Euromonitor (2019), in 2018, Thailand had the luxury hotel as four-star and five-star hotels around 3,934 hotels (up from 3,535 hotels in 2016), mid-market hotel or three-star hotel around 3,715 hotels (up from 3,156 hotels in 2016), and budget hotel as one-star and two-star hotels around 3,450 (up from 3,014 hotels in 2016.) The rate of growth is increasing yearly, making the labor market extremely competitive, which high demand for quality hotel employees. All in all, this tourism trend in Thailand is one of human resource management challenges to identify the particular skills and personalities which are able to predict the organizational outcomes.
For organizational outcomes in the hotel industry, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is recognized as one of the major parts that influence company success in the hotel industry in Thailand (Phetphongphan & Ussahawanitchakit, 2015) and it also received attention as a performance of frontline employee (Salanova, Agut, & Peiró, 2005; Tsaur & Lin, 2004; Yen & Teng, 2013). Organ (1988) defined OCB as “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization” (p.4). The
reason behind how the hospitality jobs required OCB was those jobs including front and back office its always require extra-role performance behaviors which are not included in their formal job descriptions to support and fulfill their customer’s need and it may lead to long-term organizational success.
Nowadays, empirical studies on OCB in the hotel industry mainly focused on two factors: the human factors such as organizational commitment (Lavelle et al., 2009), organization-based self-esteem (Van Dyne, Vandewalle, Kostova, Latham, & Cummings, 2000), self-efficacy (Chen & Kao, 2011); the contextual factors such as perceived organizational support (Coyle‐Shapiro & Kessler, 2003), work environment (Involvement and task orientation) (Turnipseed, 1996), and procedural justice and interactional justice (Kessler, Coyle-Shapiro, & Purcell, 2004). According to the HRM challenges in the hotel industry in Thailand, this study specified the human factors which can predict OCB.
In recent years, many of Thailand's leading companies use psychometric test to measure the candidate's cognitive ability, characteristics, and personality, for example, measuring numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning and the Big Five personality (Sorensen, 2017). One additional personality trait that psychologists and HR professionals are paying attention to is grit, which was proposed as the predictor of success in a person’s life and workplace success (Duckworth & Gross, 2014). Grit is the “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”
(Duckworth et al., 2007, p. 1087). Grit has been mainly studied in educational settings, i.e., grit was a predictor of success among West Point cadets, Ivy League student to national spelling bee participants, surgical residents, and novice teachers (Duckworth, Kirby, Tsukayama, Berstein, & Ericsson, 2011; Kelly, Matthews, & Bartone, 2014; Robertson-Kraft
& Duckworth, 2014; Salles, Cohen, & Mueller, 2014).
The relationship between grit and OCB was grounded by the job demands-resources model. The recent framework proposed that both personal resources and job resources have similar potential on the model, which can refer to the personal resource is lead to positive organizational outcomes (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2007). In the present study, grit was considered as a personal resource; OCB represented an organizational outcome.
Furthermore, previous studies have revealed that extra-role performance has a strong relationship with organizational identification (Riketta, 2005) and also can moderate the relationship between the human factors (i.e., job satisfaction, leadership styles) and OCB (Vondey, 2010). Turner and Tajfel (1986) suggested that highly identified employees
organizational identification to examine the moderating effect of organizational identification between grit and OCB.
Problem Statement
Recently, the research on grit focused on academic outcomes, i.e., GPA, the retention rate of a postgraduate student, a student spelling competition (Duckworth et al., 2011; Kelly et al., 2014; Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014; Salles et al., 2014). However, in the workplace setting, there is a lack of empirical data which addresses how grit can affect the organizational outcomes in a business environment (Burkhart, Tholey, Guinto, Yeo, & Chojnacki, 2014; De Vera, Gavino Jr, & Portugal, 2015), especially within the hotel sectors in Bangkok, Thailand.
Hence, the present study aims to fill the gap by examining the relationship between grit and OCB, which is one of the key components of actual work performance in the hotel industry (Phetphongphan & Ussahawanitchakit, 2015).
Moreover, previous studies found that not only organizational identification has a strong relationship with OCB, but also can influence the turnover intention of employee (Bellou et al., 2005; Demircioglu & Giritli, 2015; Riketta, 2005). Therefore, organizational identification is also very important as OCB in this industry. As the job nature of the hospitality industry was characterized as low skilled, working long hours, irregular work scheduling, poorly paid, and limited promotion opportunities (Walmsley, 2004). All these factors can be considered as the major cause of the high turnover rate in this industry (Partington, 2016). To identify the factors related to organizational identification is very important for the hotel practitioner to retain their employee. Therefore, more research attention should be paid to this area.
Research Purposes
Based on the research background and problem statement outline earlier, the objective of this study is to examine the relationships among grit, organizational identification, and OCB of hotel employees in Bangkok, Thailand. Specifically, this study has two main research purposes. First, to investigate whether grit has a significant impact on OCB. Second, to examine the moderating role of organizational identification in the relationship between grit and OCB.
Questions of the Study
This study is mainly to examine the relationships among grit, organizational identification, and OCB. Two research questions are formulated as follows.
1. Will gritty employees result in increased OCB?
2. Will organizational identification moderate the effect of grit on OCB?
Significance of the Study
This research will contribute to both areas of human resource management and development, and redound to the benefit of the hotel industry, considering grit plays an important role in predicting work performance, especially, OCB. Also, extending to the factors can moderate the relationship between grit and OCB. Thus, organizational identification was included as a moderator.
The findings of this study are expected that in the human resource management field, particularly recruitment and selection, the hotel may consider including grit as one of the criteria to measure the candidate's personality when recruiting and selecting their prospective employees. Consequently, it makes the recruitment process more objective and more measurable.
Also, in the human resource development field, the hotel not only can consider designing proper training and development program to help current employees develop grit mindset, but also can target employees who may perform more extra-role performance behavior through seeing them through the lens of organizational identification.
Furthermore, even though the relationship between psychological factors and OCB is not a new topic in the literature, the previous studies have not been done on examining the relationship between grit and OCB in the hotel industry as well as the moderating effect between grit and OCB before. Besides, there had very few studies about grit in the workplace setting. Hence, by examining the relationship between grit and OCB, as well as the moderating effect of organizational identification between grit and OCB in the hotel industry, this present study would fill these research gaps.
Delimitations
1. This study is delimited to the hotel employees who have worked at four-star and five-star hotels in Bangkok, Thailand.
2. This study is delimited to collecting data by using the survey as the primary research tool.
3. This study is delimited to the investigation of only three variables, namely, grit, organizational identification, and OCB.
Definition of Key Terms Grit
Grit is defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Grit involves maintaining effort and sticking with the future, not just the month, but for years. In other words, the gritty individual will not give up under any circumstances. He or she will try again and again to make the expected consequences a reality (Duckworth & Gross, 2014; Duckworth et al., 2011; Duckworth et al., 2007).
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) relates to the behaviors of individuals that are discretionary, not be recognized in the employee rewards system, and those behaviors support the organization's performance targets (Organ, 1988).
Although organizational citizenship behavior consists of five sub-dimension: altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue, as this study focuses on the antecedent of organizational citizenship behavior rather than comparative strengths or weaknesses of organizational citizenship behavior’s sub-dimension, all sub-dimensions were combined as a whole.
Organizational Identification
Identification means “appropriation of and commitment to a particular identity or series of identities” (Foote, 1951, p.17). Therefore, organizational identification refers to a feeling of being a part of the organization where employees defined themselves as a member of their organization (Mael & Ashforth, 1992).