How capricious supervisors affect hospitality employees’ service performance? A diary study from the employees’ emotional perspective

Drawing on the affective events theory, this study examined the detrimental effects of supervisors’ emotional expression variability on hospitality employees’ emotional experience variability and service performance, and whether employees’ emotion management buffers such negative impacts. The research hypotheses were examined using longitudinal data collected from 145 hotel employees of multiple hotel companies who completed surveys in four phases: Time 1 (i.e., daily surveys for seven workdays to assess supervisors’ emotional expression variability), Time 2 (i.e., daily surveys for 7 workdays to assess employees’ emotional experience variability), Time 3, and Time 4 (i.e., a survey rated by supervisors). The results show that supervisors’ emotional expression variability has an indirect effect on employees’ service performance through employees’ emotional experience variability, and employee emotion management mitigates the related detrimental effects. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed for hospitality researchers and practitioners.