Aging Stereotypes and the Customer Orientations of Older Hospitality Employees

ABSTRACT

While the older population generally and the older workforce in particular has been growing in most countries, scholars have not explored how the work performance of this group is affected by stereotypical views toward them. This study aims to explore older service employee (OSE) perceptions of aging stereotypes that are attributed to them by their colleagues and customers and to investigate their respective impacts on OSE customer orientations. Methodologically, this study adopts a quantitative approach and establishes a structural equation model that applies partial least squares. The findings show that OSE customer orientations are negatively impacted by the aging stereotypes of their colleagues. However, no significant relationship is evident between OSE customer orientations and the aging stereotypes attributed by customers. This study is one of the first to explore aging stereotypes in hospitality work settings and to model a relationship between aging stereotypes and OSE work performance. Practical contributions concerning the creation and maintenance of an inclusive work environment are also discussed.

摘要

在大多数国家, 中老年人口在普遍增多, 特别是中老年员工增多。与此同时, 学者们尚未探讨这一群体的工作绩效如何受到的人们对其刻板印象之影响。本项研究目的是探索同事与顾客对中老年服务员工之刻板印象, 并且调查他们各自对中老年员工的客户导向之影响。在研究方法上, 本研究采用了定量方法, 建立了应用偏最小二乘的结构方程模型。研究结果表明, 中老年员工的客户导向受到同事刻板印象之负面影响。然而, 中老年员工客户导向与客户对他们的刻板印象之间并没有明显的关系。本论文是首批探索酒店服务工作环境中刻板印象的研究之一, 亦是对刻板印象与中老年员工工作绩效关系建模的首批研究之一。本论文还讨论了有关创建与保持包容性工作环境的实践性贡献。

KEYWORDS:

• Aging stereotypes
• older service employees
• service orientation
• customer orientation
• hospitality
• China

关键词:

• 刻板印象
• 中老年服务员工
• 服务导向
• 客户导向
• 酒店服务
• 中国

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cindy Chen Yu

Cindy Chen Yu graduated from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China (E-mail: [email protected]).

Mehmet Ali Köseoglu

Mehmet Ali Köseoglu is Assistant Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China. His research focus is strategic management and knowledge domains in hospitality and tourism (E-mail: [email protected]).

Fuad Mehraliyev

Fuad Mehraliyev is Research Assistant Professor in the Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration at Open University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China. His research interests include power dynamics, network analysis, and ICT in Tourism (E-mail: [email protected]).

Brian King

Brian King is Associate Dean and Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China. His research interests include hospitality leadership and cultural tourism in Asia, destination management and integrated resorts (E-mail: [email protected]).