Attitudinal dimensions of professionalism and service quality efficacy of frontline employees in hotels

• Published in: International journal of hospitality management Vol. 41; pp. 140 - 148
• Main Author: Lee, Kyoung-Joo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2014
• Subjects: Customer orientation; Knowledge; Professionalism; Self-efficacy; Self-management; Sense of calling; Self-management; Customer orientation; Sense of calling; Professionalism; Knowledge; Self-efficacy
• ISSN: 0278-4319; 1873-4693
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2014.05.015

•This study distinguishes between structural and attitudinal professionalism.•Reconceptualization of attitudinal professionalism includes knowledge pursuance, self-management, sense of calling, and customer orientation.•This study empirically analyzes the positive impact of professional attitudes on employees’ self-confidence on both functional and interactive service quality.•This study discusses the values of forming professional attitudes for personal capability and service quality improvement of hotel organizations. The professionalism of a workforce is critical for the development of the tourism and hospitality industry. This study addresses the issues of conceptual confusions in professionalism constructs and distinguishes the attitudinal dimensions of professionalism at the individual level from the structural aspects at the occupational level. This paper focuses on knowledge pursuance, self-management, sense of calling, and customer orientation as significant factors in the professional attitude of service providers and analyzes their impact on the service provider's service quality (SQ) efficacy. A survey analysis of frontline employees at hotels in Seoul, Korea, suggests that knowledge pursuance has a positive impact on the interactive SQ efficacy, while self-management orientation is positively related with functional SQ efficacy. More significantly, it shows that a sense of calling and customer orientation are essential professional attitudes, having a positive and significant impact on both functional and interactive SQ efficacy.