Purpose – Due to the important role of hotel frontline employees in the service encounter, hotel
firms strive to understand factors influencing frontline employees’ working attitudes and
behaviors. The main purpose of the current study is to enrich this understanding by examining the
interrelationships among tourism involvement, organizational commitment and organizational
citizenship behaviors (OCBs).
Design –Based on the recovery theory, tourism involvement was hypothesized to influence both
organizational commitment and OCBs. Committed employees were hypothesized to be more likely
to perform OCBs. The current study further hypothesized a mediating role of organizational
commitment in the relationship between tourism involvement and the OCBs.
Methodology –Measurements of tourism involvement, organizational commitment, and the OCBs
were developed. A total of 336 frontline employees from 20 international hotels in Taiwan
voluntarily participated in the current study. Their responses were examined by using independent
t -tests, confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modelling.
Findings –The outcomes demonstrate that tourism involvement positively influenced
organizational commitment. Both tourism involvement and organizational commitment positively
influenced the OCBs. The organizational commitment was found to be a mediator between tourism
involvement and the OCBs.
Originality of the research –The most extant studies examined factors influencing the development
of organizational commitment and the OCBs by using work-related variables. However, they
ignored contributions made by tourism to employees’ work life. The originality of the current study is the link of the non-work variable to work-related attitude and behavior. As such it provides a
new insight to managing tourism human resources.
