Promoting Service Quality with Employee Empowerment in Tourist Hotels: The Role of Service Behavior

Abstract

Although some prior studies have discussed the relationship between employee empowerment and service quality, this study is the first empirical study to examine how service behavior mediates the relationship between employee empowerment and service quality in the tourist hotel. To link the viewpoints of organization and customer and appropriately reflect the true relationships among dimensions, we measure the dimensions of employee empowerment and service behavior from the employees' viewpoint, and the service quality dimension from the customers' viewpoint. The results indicate that the more empowerment the employees perceive, the better service quality customers perceive. In addition, the findings reveal that the relationship between employee empowerment and service quality exert a mediating effect. Implications for managerial practice and directions for further research are discussed.