The Impacts of Cultural and Emotional Intelligence on Hotel Guest Satisfaction: Asian and Non-Asian Perceptions of Staff Capabilities

ABSTRACT

This study examines the impacts of frontline hotel employees’ emotional intelligence (EI) and cultural intelligence (CQ) on guests’ satisfaction, and uniquely captures guests’ perceptions of staff capabilities. The results of a survey conducted with Asian and non-Asian respondents suggest there is a strong positive relationship between employee EI and CQ. More significantly, non-Asian hotel guests perceived higher employee EI and CQ than Asian hotel guests. Finally, both employee EI and CQ had positive and significant impact on overall satisfaction, nevertheless, CQ had a much stronger prediction of overall satisfaction than EI. The paper examines the implications of these findings for human resource practices with particular reference to businesses targeting culturally diverse market segments. The conclusion also considers the potential for future studies to expand research based on consumer’s conceptions and perceptions of frontline staffs’ EI and CQ capabilities in alternative hospitality and service domains.

摘要

本研究检视了一线酒店员工的情绪智力 (EI) 与文化智力 (CQ) 对客人满意度之影响, 并独特地捕捉了客人对员工能力的看法。对亚洲人与非亚洲人受访者进行的调查结果表明:员工的情绪智力与文化智力之间存在较强的正向关系。更为显著的是, 非亚洲的酒店客人对员工情绪智力与文化智力看法比亚洲酒店客人要高。最后, 员工的情绪智力与文化智力对总体满意度都有显著的正向影响, 然而, 文化智力对总体满意度的预测性比情绪智力强得多。本文研究了这些发现对人力资源实践的影响, 特别是对那些针对多元文化市场细分的企业的意义。研究结论还考虑了未来研究的潜力, 以消费者对一线员工在其他酒店款待与服务领域的情绪智力和文化智力之理解和认知为基础, 扩大研究范围。

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural intelligence
• emotional intelligence
• guest perception
• guest satisfaction
• service
• staff capabilities

关键词:

• 文化智力
• 情绪智力
• 客人看法
• 客人满意度
• 服务
• 员工能力

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Lam

Rachel Lam is Lecturer in the College of Professional and Continuing Education at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, West Kowloon Campus, Hong Kong SAR, China. Her research interests include human resources management, organizational behavior, organizational psychology and tourist behavior (E-mail: [email protected]).

Catherine Cheung

Catherine Cheung is Associate Dean and Associate Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China. Her research interests include service quality management, human resources management, organizational behavior, hotel branding, and hospitality and tourism education (E-mail: [email protected]).

Peter Lugosi

Peter Lugosi is Professor in the Oxford School of Hospitality Management and Oxford Brookes Business School at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK. His research interests include organizational geography, consumer experiences and customer experience management, migration and labor, and family consumption (E-mail: [email protected]).