Would Emotionally Intelligent Service Employees Stay Longer? The Moderating Role of Internal Service Climate

Abstract

Employee turnover intention is huge challenge for employers, especially in the highly stressful service industry. This study surveyed 1,236 front line casino employees across 29 organizations in Macau, the Casino paradise. Findings reveal that emotional intelligence (EI) plays a crucial role in allowing employees to cope with environmental demands and pressures successfully. Our results demonstrate that job satisfaction and occupational commitment can relieve the turnover intention of employees. Additionally, we investigated the moderating effect of an internal service climate (ISC) that is an organizational contextual factor (including psychological environment and resources available for employees). Our findings suggest that when the ISC is high, satisfied and committed employees have lower turnover intentions. ISC offers a well being and supportive environment that helps bring down the turnover intention in the very stressful service industry. Our study recommends that companies should provide a positive ISC for employees to reduce turnover intension among employees.