The Influence of Employee Happiness on Conflict Handling Behavior and Creative Performance: A Study of the Indian Hospitality Industry

This study empirically examines the influence of employee happiness on conflict handling behavior and creative performance within the Indian hospitality sector. Data were collected from 674 hospitality employees across 64 hotels, including establishments of 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star ratings. The research employed validated instruments including the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, conflict avoidance scale (Fitzpatrick & Indvik, 1982), happiness at work measures, and creative performance behavior assessments (Ramamoorthy et al., 2005; Zhang & Bartol, 2010). The analysis revealed that conflict avoidance is the predominant conflict handling style among hospitality employees, with 49% of respondents demonstrating this approach. Through mediation analysis, the study found that conflict avoidance acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between happiness at work and creative performance behavior, accounting for 20.5% of the total variance in the relationship. The findings contribute to organizational behavior theory by establishing the mediating role of conflict handling behavior in the happiness-creativity relationship within the hospitality context. Practical implications include the need for hospitality organizations to develop comprehensive employee well-being programs that consider both happiness enhancement and culturally appropriate conflict management training