Emotional contagion and collective commitment among leaders and team members in deluxe hotel

Emotional contagion is important in predicting employees’ behaviors and organizational performance, as people are inevitably affected by emotions. This study examines the effects of emotional contagion among deluxe hotel employees on burnout and collective commitment. It also studies the moderating impact of employees’ coworker exchange and leader–member exchange on the relationships between emotional contagion, burnout, and collective commitment. A survey was carried out among 281 employees in Food & Beverage departments at 10 deluxe hotels in Seoul, South Korea. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the measured items, and a structural equation modeling was utilized to verify that the proposed hypotheses were correct. The analysis showed that the employees with higher emotional contagion showed a high level of burnout. When the employees’ level of burnout was higher, their collective commitment decreased. In addition, emotional contagion was found to have a significantly indirect negative effect on collective commitment via burnout. When the degree of interaction with superiors and coworkers was low, the negative influence of burnout on commitment was maximized. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.