Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this research examines the relationship between managers’ servant leadership and frontline employees’ customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors by considering career meaningfulness as an underlying mechanism. Furthermore, this study investigates a moderated mediation model by proposing work centrality as a boundary condition in the relationship between career meaningfulness and customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors.
Two-source (manager-frontline employee dyad) data were collected through a survey questionnaire from hospitality organizations at three different points in time. Hayes’ PROCESS macro was used to analyze the data.
Findings show that managers’ servant leadership fosters frontline employees’ customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors directly and through career meaningfulness. Frontline employees’ work centrality moderates the relationship between career meaningfulness and customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors (second stage) and the indirect effect of servant leadership (through career meaningfulness) on customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors (moderated mediation).
The findings imply that managers should exhibit servant leadership behaviors to enhance frontline employees’ sense of career meaningfulness and customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors. Additionally, hospitality organizations and managers are encouraged to prioritize work centrality when hiring frontline employees and implement training programs to cultivate work centrality.
This study’s originality lies in exploring career meaningfulness as the underlying mechanism linking servant leadership to customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors while also examining work centrality as a second-stage moderator in this relationship.
