Customer-oriented front-line employees' voice behaviours in the hospitality industry: a comprehensive literature review

Purpose: Using employee voice to advocate for customers' requirements, improves hospitality service. Organizations must understand what motivates or deters employee customer-oriented voice behaviour (COVB) to achieve its goals and enhance performance. This research investigates the predictors and outcomes of COVB of front-line employees (FLEs) in the hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach: The study used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to steer the article search, screening, and inclusion. The research identified the extant studies conducted in both, high/low power distance countries that met the search criteria using the databases of SCOPUS, Web of Science, EBSCOHost and through snowballing of references. Findings: The content analysis of 55 selected studies identified four themes that explain FLEs’ COVB in the hospitality industry. These four themes include customer-related, employee-related, organizational and leadership factors. Moreover, it was found that theoretical frameworks of the most of published studies are dominated by social exchange and conservation resource theories. Practical implications: This study suggests hospitality firms to develop management strategies to foster FLEs COVB especially long-term personality trainings for FLEs is suggested for innovative and novel ideas. Originality/value: This is the first study, as per our knowledge, on the hospitality industry that has been conducted to analyse and synthesize the literature related to FLEs’ COVB.