Emotional Contagion in the Workplace: A Moderated Mediation Model of Psychological Well-Being, Job Performance, and Turnover Intention in Hotels

The hotel industry is widely induced by emotional transactions between frontline employees and their guests leading to unintentional transfer of emotions, a phenomenon known as emotional contagion (EC). EC can result in positive or negative outcomes in the workplace influencing employees’ well-being and performance. This research paper explored direct effects of emotional contagion (EC) on (H1) employees’ well-being (PW), (H2) job performance (JP), and (H3) turnover intention (IL). Based on the affective events theory (AET) and the social exchange theory (SET), employee’s psychological well-being was employed as a mediating factor (H6-H7) and leader–member exchange (LMX) as a moderator variable that might alleviate the adverse consequences of EC (H8). Cross-sectional survey data were collected online from 792 frontline employees. The proposed model was evaluated with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that EC can significantly weaken PW, which accordingly decreases JP and increases IL. Nonetheless, strong levels of LMX can alleviate these harmful influences, emphasizing the main significant role of LMX in regulating emotional dynamics in the service workplace. This study expands our understanding of how emotional mechanisms and LMX practices can adjust employee resilience, retention, and performance in the context of high-emotion service.