The impact of underdog expectations on hospitality employees’ service performance

Purpose Following self-consistency theory, this study aims to explore the implications of underdog expectations for hospitality employees’ service performance, considering self-esteem (SE) threat as a mediator and others’ approval of contingent self-esteem (OACSE) as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses were verified using three-wave and dual-source data from 206 dyads of hospitality employees and their immediate supervisors in nine hotels in Eastern China. Multiple regression analysis and bootstrapping were performed in SPSS 23.0 to test the hypotheses, while AMOS 21.0 was used for preliminary analyses. Findings Underdog expectations adversely affected hospitality employees’ service performance by threatening their SE, with these effects being more pronounced when employees OACSE was high as opposed to low. Practical implications Hospitality organizations should build a workplace atmosphere recognizing and appreciating employees and implement training programs or workshops focused on building employee self-confidence so as to lessen the adverse effect of underdog expectations on service performance. Originality/value This research applies self-consistency theory as a novel theoretical perspective in the study of underdog expectations, proposing SE threat as a new mediating mechanism and OACSE as a novel moderator to explain how and when underdog expectations affect hospitality employees’ service performance, thereby offering fresh theoretical insights into the field.