Humble leadership: elevating service recovery in hospitality

Purpose This study examines the impact of humble leadership on the service recovery performance (SRP) of frontline service employees (FSEs) in the hospitality industry. It also explores the mediating underlying mechanisms of psychological empowerment and employee engagement, along with the moderating role of employee proactive personality. Design/methodology/approach To test our predictions, we used a cross-sectional research design, drawing on a sample of 456 frontline service employees in Egypt’s hospitality industry. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 27 and AMOS 22. Findings The study reveals a positive association between humble leadership and SRP, with psychological empowerment and employee engagement bridging this relationship. Furthermore, an employee’s proactive personality strengthens both the direct influence of humble leadership on these mediating mechanisms –psychological empowerment and engagement – and the indirect impact of humble leadership on SRP through these two mechanisms. Practical implications To foster SRP among frontline service employees, firms should promote humble leadership practices among their managerial and supervisory staff. In addition, leaders should enhance psychological empowerment and engagement among their employees while also seeking to recruit employees with proactive personalities. Originality/value This study extends the effect of humble leadership to SRP, an unexplored consequence in current scholarly literature. Findings about the underlying mechanisms of psychological empowerment and engagement and the conditional effect of proactive personality deepen our understanding of how and when humble leaders are more effective in shaping SRP.