Study of The Mediating Role of Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry is the most favorable industry among people in a Western context because it is the back that provides customer service, quality of employee-customer relationships and other factors. In this review, organizational citizenship behavior becomes main facets in the hospitality industry because of the challenges and contributions should be accepted into consideration to ensure management can improve this industry in the future.

During the past few decades, OCB in Hospitality Industry become a major area of attention to practitioners and academic researchers. Furthermore, a number of empirical studies indicate a positive relationship between job satisfaction and OCB. Therefore, one of the key strategies for understanding determinants and consequences of Organizational Citizenship Behavior for Hospitality Industry is very important. World-class organizations have people who go beyond their formal job responsibilities and are ready to devote their extra bit of time and energy to the work. This phenomenon is known as ‘Organizational Citizenship Behavior’ (OCB) although this orientation is uncommon in many service industries but can prove to be very helpful in not only combating the competition but also developing a culture of cooperation and successful performances.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) has three characteristics: First OCB is considered as a thought of as discretionary behaviors, which are not part of the job description, and are performed by the employee as a result of personal choice. Second, OCB is an enforceable requirement of the job description. Finally, OCB contributes positively to overall organizational effectiveness. Organ’s classification of various dimensions of OCB may be summarized as 5 main determinants which will be used as a tool to analyze the relationship between OCB, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and loyalty in this study:

1. Altruism, “helping other members of the organization in their tasks” (e.g. voluntarily helping less skilled or new employees, and assisting co-workers who are overloaded or absent and sharing sales strategies);
2. Courtesy, “preventing problems deriving from the work relationship” (e.g. encouraging other co-workers when they are discouraged about their professional development);
3. Sportsmanship, “accepting less than ideal circumstances” (e.g. petty grievances, real or imagined slights);
4. Civic virtue, “responsibly participating in the life of the firm (e.g. attending meetings/functions that are not required but that help the firm, keeping up with changes in the organization, taking the initiative to recommend how procedures can be improved);
5. Conscientiousness, “dedication to the job and desire to exceed formal requirements in aspects such as punctuality or conservation of resources” (e.g. working long days, voluntarily doing things besides duties, keeping the organization's rules and never wasting work time).

The tourism industry is often cited as the largest industry in the world, contributing 10% of the world’s GDP. In 2014 there were over 1.1 billion international tourists: that’s a substantial economic impact and movement of goods and services. Tourism is also considered an export and is unique in the sense that the consumers come to the product where it is consumed on-site. According to United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) the definition of Tourism can be highlighted as “A social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. These people are called visitors (which may be either tourists or excursionists; residents or non-residents) and tourism has to do with their activities, some of which imply tourism expenditure”. When looking at tourism it’s important to consider the term hospitality. Some define hospitality as “the business of helping people to feel welcome and relaxed and to enjoy themselves.” In in a more subtle perspective, the hospitality industry is the combination of the accommodation and food and beverage groupings, collectively making up the largest segment of the industry.

The hotel industry is an economic activity within the hospitality industry, which combines spatial and functional accommodation services with the services of nutrition, including related services. It is often said that the hotel industry is a representative catering activity because it is specific for its spatial, technical and technological, organizational and personnel capabilities, which allows achieving full catering service of accommodation, food and beverage within one unit. The basic units of hotel are hotels, as the best known and most widely spread facilities for providing accommodation, with particularly high quality of accommodation services, personnel and space decoration as well as meeting the demands of modern travellers. Modern distribution and development of hotel industry in the world.

The history of the founders of the hotel industry shows that some of the most influential people in the field of hotel industry such as the Statler, Hilton, Marriott and Wilson introduced innovations in hotels, shaped and laid the foundations of the modern hotel industry. Ellsworth Statler developed a hotel chain “Stalters”, starting with the hotel in Buffalo in New York State in the United States. Conrad Hilton became a successful hotelier after the Second World War when he bought several farms in Texas during the expansion of the oil industry in the region. By purchasing the “Stalters” chain in 1954, Hilton created the first great modern American hotel chain – a hotel group that monitors standardized operating procedures, marketing, reservations, quality of service, food and beverages, technical maintenance and accounting. Hilton Hotels today include “Hilton Garden” and “Hampton”, “Embassy” apartments, “Red Line” hotels and inns, “Harrison” conference center and so on.

Hotel industry, as well as tourism in general, from its beginnings until today, has never been more dynamic. Modern technologies, smart phones, social networks, the Internet, the availability of large quantities of information everywhere and at all times, have influenced numerous changes in the hotel business in recent years and this trend is continuing rapidly. In addition to the progress of technology and its direct impact on the hotel business, there is their indirect impact on the hotel business over tourists, the users of hotel services that are changing their habits and have new needs.