HR Practices and Hotel Employee Service Innovative Behavior: The Moderating Role of Creative Self-Efficacy

ABSTRACT Drawing from the theory of social exchange and the theory of self-efficacy, there are two components to the objective of this paper: to investigate the impact of HR practices on employee service innovative behavior (ESIB) of hotel employees and to explore the moderating effect of creative self-efficacy (CSE) in this relationship. We hypothesized that hotel employees would demonstrate high ESIB should the relationship between HR practices and service innovative behavior is higher among employees with high CSE. Accordingly, survey data were collected from 293 employees and 101 immediate supervisors from 20 3-star hotels in Nigeria. The proposed model was then analyzed using Smart PLS 3.0. We found that hotel employee perceptions of information sharing, training, and development, and supportive supervision were directly and positively related to ESIB. However, the relationship between compensation system and ESIB was not supported in this study. In addition, the effects of training, compensation system, and supportive supervision on ESIB were moderated by CSE, in such a way that these relationships had stronger effects on the ESIB of employees with high levels of CSE rather than employees with low levels of CSE. Therefore, it is essential that the management invest in employees’ growth and development, particularly through information sharing, training and development, and supportive supervision in driving innovative behavior among its employees; and thus, the management should also be concerned about the levels of CSE in order to improve the ESIB of its employees.