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Stress Reliever

Improving Frontline Employee Well-Being with a Theoretical Approach
Category:Blog
By: Brian Riback
August 07, 2020

    Dr. Rick Oh just recently celebrated his 1-year anniversary as an Assistant Professor at Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and already he has made a valuable impact on the school community. He taught students in his Revenue Management and Accounting classes, led a team of students to New York City to compete in the STR Market Study Competition, and recently published an academic article in the Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism. Needless to say, it’s been a busy year for Dr. Oh.

    As things have settled down this summer, Dr. Oh is devoting his time to new research that he is working on through the Institute. “The main focus will be frontline employees right now. What are the factors that affect their work performance? Some factors may enhance frontline employees’ work outcomes, but at the same time, many factors will demotivate or degrade work outcomes”, he explains. Dr. Oh’s studies are centered on the restaurant industry; however he expressed interest in expanding this to encompass hotel employees as well into the future. According to Dr. Oh, his research is based on 3 fundamental pillars: The individual employee, the team, and the leadership. Dr. Oh is no stranger to these concepts. The research (external link, opens in new window)  he published in 2019 looked at the factors that enhance Team-Member Exchange (TMX) as a way to increase servers’ emotional intelligence, job performance, and ultimately, tip size.

    Today, Dr. Oh is continuing research from his PhD on the factors that affect frontline employees to do more improvisation in their workplace in the restaurant industry. Dr. Oh explains: “Service improvisation refers to the employees’ ability to deviate from the current situation in order to overcome unexpected situations by producing novel solutions”, noting that frontline employees are key players in alleviating tension for many situations not covered in pre-scripted manuals since they can often respond more quickly than management.

    One example he gave of service improvisation was of a Wendy’s employee helping an elderly gentleman to his car during a rainstorm and using a large patio umbrella to keep him dry when no other suitable alternative was available. This example demonstrates the three qualifications for service improvisation that Dr. Oh listed as “be creative, use current resources, and be an immediate reaction”. While limited research has been conducted on the topic, Dr. Oh feels that it is an important area to study that directly impacts servers and customers alike. He says, “by looking at a leadership, TMX quality, and an internal locus of control standpoint, I’ll see if these variables affect frontline employee service improvisation”.

    Dr. Oh cites his 10 years of experience, which includes being a frontline employee in the hospitality industry as what inspired him to research this area of organizational behaviour in the first place. “Based on my work experience, I always thought about what would be a way to provide a better work environment for frontline employees”, he explains. Dr. Oh described how frontline employees are vulnerable to hostility from customers and the demanding nature of the job while working long and irregular hours, often on minimum wage. “The big theme is to see overall employee well-being and see how management teams can create a good work environment, enhancing overall job performance and reducing negative side effects”. He continues explaining his hopes to contribute something to frontline employees after experiencing the stress and difficulty that comes with the job firsthand, and ends off stating, “I want to be a person to take care of them indirectly”, words of a researcher driven by his empathy and generosity.

    As a researcher, Dr. Oh needs to consider his work’s practical implications for the industry with the theoretical implications for the literature. “By doing research based on statistical evidence, I like the fact that I can reveal some relationships. I try to show numbers and a theoretical background to prove the relationship, leading me to explain the situation more confidently”, says Dr. Oh on his quantitative approach to research. 

    For Dr. Oh, it has been fascinating to see the connection between his industry work experience and the existing organizational behaviour literature. “It was really fun for me to take a look at the fancy terms which translate into my real life”, which he says include latent factors such as emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and turnover intention. As a researcher with so much experience in hotels and restaurants, Dr. Oh has a unique perspective of his research topic and its related themes. He has clearly developed a soft spot for the people on the front lines of the industry after being among their ranks for nearly a decade. Dr. Oh encapsulates his research purpose in a few words: “I can see many articles that explain about what I’ve been through, so I wanted to see the research gap and make a contribution to the literature and the industry”.

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Dr. Oh poinitng left in Cara Commons