Employee psychological well-being, transformational leadership and the future of hospitality jobs

Abstract

Employee psychological well-being is a central concern for hospitality establishments as it impacts talent retention. This empirical research explores the  relationship between transformational leadership and employee psychological well-being. This relationship is tested through a mediation model where  transformational leadership is proposed to explain the effect on the psychological well-being of hospitality employees (hedonic and eudaemonic well-  being) through the affective mediators thriving at work and employees’ amplification of pleasant emotions and employee engagement. The cross-  sectional data came from 133 5-star hotel employees in the Netherlands. Analysing the responses showed that eudaemonic well-being had to be split  into four new variables: growing and giving, liveliness, self-esteem and managing oneself. Furthermore, thriving at work and employee engagement fully  mediated between transformational leadership and hedonic well-being, thriving at work fully mediated between transformational leadership and  growing and giving, while thriving at work and employees’ amplification of pleasant emotions fully mediated between transformational leadership and  self-esteem. A direct relationship was found between transformational leadership and managing oneself. Practical and theoretical implications are  discussed in detail.