호텔직원의 공감능력과 직업소명의식, 고객지향성, 친사회적 서비스행동간 구조적 인과관계 분석에 관한 연구

Recently the value of empathy is emerging as a way to solve the social problems of the hotel industry. This study examines how the empathic ability of hotel employees affects the improvement of pro-social service behavior through the mediating role of occupational calling and customer orientation. A total of 262 effective samples from six 5-star hotels located in the Seoul metropolitan area in Korea, were selected for empirical analysis on the structural causal relationship among them, and a questionnaire was distributed. For empirical analysis, frequency analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were performed in parallel with the SPSS ver 24.0 and AMOS ver 24.0 statistical packages, and structural model analysis was conducted based on the items for which validity and reliability were secured. As a result, the empathic ability of hotel employees had a significant positive effect on the sense of calling, customer orientation, and prosocial service behavior. A sense of calling, on the other hand, was found to have a significant positive effect on customer orientation and pro-social service behavior. Finally, customer orientation appeared to have a significant positive effect on prosocial service behavior. A mediating effect analysis was conducted and found that sense of calling and customer orientation had significant indirect mediating effects. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed based on the results of empirical analysis, especially focussed on that empathy is a very important and essential value in the hospitality industry. The result implies hotel industry should provide various know-how and tips so that service employees can effectively empathize with customers.