Authoritarian Versus Benevolent Leadership Styles: A Moderated Mediation Model of Paternalistic Leadership, Engagement, Job Status and Hospitality Employee Service Performance

Abstract

This study examined whether work engagement mediated the impact of paternalistic leadership styles on the service performance of hospitality employees and further investigated if job status (full-time vs. part-time) moderated the impact of paternalistic leadership styles, based on the affective event and partial inclusion theories. Through an analysis of matching data from 286 restaurant employees and their 2129 customers in Thailand, the study found that work engagement mediated the effect of authoritarian leadership, a dimension of paternalistic leadership (father-like) on service interaction quality rated by customers, and that the mediation effect was stronger for full-time employees than for their part-time counterparts. However, the effect of benevolent leadership, the other dimension of paternalistic leadership (mother-like) was neither mediated by work engagement, nor moderated by job status. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed for hospitality researchers and practitioners.