BE CAREFUL WITH THE ATTITUDE OF EMPLOYEES IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY: ARE THEY AFFECTED BY TIPS AND TIPPING

Abstract

Purpose – Little is known about tipping practices on the tip receiver side (employees of the service industry). This paper fills in this gap by investigating the attitudes of employees admits customers' tipping habits. Methodology – A face-to-face (F2F) self-administered questionnaire was used and a sample of 233 was retained and used for analysis. With a response rate 77.66% far above the required threshold of 60%. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for analysis due to it aptness in revealing the contribution of a construct to a latent variable. Findings – Results show that; tips positively and statistically influence the job attitudes of servers, and the satisfaction of employees with management mechanisms of tips positively affects servers’ attitudes. Hence, both domestic and international tourists are better off whether they offer servers tips or not in the study context. Though tips positively influence the work attitudes of servers, it is important for consumers to understand that, they are not discriminated upon not tipping. Meanwhile, managers should not interfere in tip management, as servers prefer keeping all tips to themselves rather than sharing. Contribution – This paper contribute to the existing literature by not just investigating the effect of tipping phenomenon on servers’ attitudes but equally by analysing this social norm across several service occupations and accustom the tipping practice into an uncovered area in an attempt to give a clue of the effect of tips on server’s attitudes to practitioners and academicians.