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IJCHM
25,4
614
Received 5 June 2012
Revised 28 September 2012
1 November 2012
Accepted 12 November 2012
International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality
Management
Vol. 25 No. 4, 2013
pp. 614-634
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-6119
DOI 10.1108/09596111311322952
The effects of work overload and
work-family conflict on job
embeddedness and job
performance
The mediation of emotional exhaustion
Osman M. Karatepe
Faculty of Tourism, Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose – The present study seeks to propose and test a research model that investigates emotional
exhaustion as a mediator of the effects of work overload, work-family conflict, and family-work
conflict on job embeddedness and job performance.
Design/methodology/approach – The study evaluated the aforementioned relationships using
LISREL 8.30 through structural equation modeling (SEM) based on data collected from 110 full-time
frontline hotel employees and their managers in Romania.
Findings – The results of SEM suggest that emotional exhaustion functions as a full mediator of the
effects of work overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict on job embeddedness and job
performance. Specifically, employees who have heavy workloads and are unable to establish a balance
between work (family) and family (work) roles are emotionally exhausted. Such employees in turn are
less embedded in their jobs and display poor performance in the service delivery process.
Research limitations/implications – In future studies having longitudinal data would be useful
for drawing causal inferences among study variables. Employing cross-cultural research in future
studies would also be helpful.
Practical implications – Management of the hotels should take decisive steps to establish and
maintain a supportive work environment because such an environment would help employees to
balance their work (family) and family (work) roles and lead to reduced emotional exhaustion.
Otherwise, it would be very difficult to retain high performing employees in the workplace. Hiring
individuals who fit well with the job and organizational culture via objective tests and experiential
exercises would also be helpful for employee retention.
Originality/value – The current study contributes to the existing knowledge base by testing
emotional exhaustion as a mediator of the impacts of work overload, work-family conflict, and
family-work conflict on job embeddedness and job performance through data gathered from frontline
hotel employee-manager dyads in Romania.
Keywords Emotional exhaustion, Hotel employees, Job embeddedness, Job performance, Romania,
Work-family conflict, Work overload, Hotels, Working practices, Role conflict
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Frontline employees in the hospitality industry are the main actors in service delivery
and complaint handling processes. This is not surprising, because frontline employees
have boundary-spanning roles and their attitudes and behaviors determine customers’
perceptions of service quality. However, they often carry heavy workload and
experience work-family conflict and family-work conflict that are conflicts in the Effects of work
work-family interface (e.g. Choi and Kim, 2012; Davidson et al., 2011; Deery, 2008). overload
Work-family conflict refers to “a form of interrole conflict in which the general
demands of, time devoted to, and strain created by the job interfere with performing
family-related responsibilities” and family-work conflict refers to “a form of interrole
conflict in which the general demands of, time devoted to, and strain created by the
family interfere with performing work-related responsibilities” (Netemeyer et al., 1996, 615
p. 401).
Frontline employees in the hospitality industry experience conflicts in the
work-family interface due to the unavailability of a family-supportive work
environment (Magnini, 2009). That is, since many hospitality firms are devoid of
family-friendly programs and benefits, employees are unable to establish a balance
between their work (family) and family (work) roles. These stressful and demanding
situations engender emotional exhaustion, which is the initiator of the burnout
syndrome and is a psychological response to stressors on the job (Cordes and
Dougherty, 1993). Specifically, emotional exhaustion is associated with the depletion of
energy and emotional resources due to heightened stressors on the job (Boles et al.,
2000).
Heavy workload and conflicts in the work-family interface, coupled with emotional
exhaustion, impede retention of employees and result in poor service delivery.
Therefore, there is a need for closely examining employee retention in the hospitality
industry (Davidson et al., 2010). As an employee retention strategy, job embeddedness
consists of three dimensions: links, fit, and sacrifice. Links are defined as “formal or
informal connections between a person and institutions or other people” and fit refers
to “an employee’s perceived compatibility or comfort with an organization and with his
or her environment” (Mitchell et al., 2001, p. 1105). Finally, sacrifice refers to “the
perceived cost of material or psychological benefits that may be forfeited by leaving a
job” (Mitchell et al., 2001, p. 1105). When employees are confronted with excessive job
demands and cannot manage two directions of conflict between work and family roles,
they experience emotional exhaustion. Such employees in turn are less embedded in
their jobs and display poor job performance. According to the health impairment
process of the job demands-resources ( JD-R) model, the presence of job demands
(e.g. work overload) heightens strain (e.g. emotional exhaustion) that in turn leads to
negative or undesirable employee outcomes (e.g. ineffective job performance) (Bakker
and Demerouti, 2007; Hakanen et al., 2006).
Grounded in this backdrop, this study proposes and tests a research model whether
emotional exhaustion mediates the effects of work overload, work-family conflict, and
family-work conflict on job embeddedness and job performance. These relationships
are evaluated using data obtained from frontline hotel employees and their managers
in Romania, which is an under-represented country in job embeddedness research.
The current study contributes to the hospitality management and marketing
literature in the following ways. First, a scrutiny of extant research reveals that there
are empirical studies associated with the consequences of job embeddedness. Such
consequences are low levels of turnover intentions/voluntary turnover and elevated
levels of in-role and extra-role performances (e.g. Halbesleben and Wheeler, 2008;
Karatepe and Ngeche, 2012; Lee et al., 2004; Sun et al., 2011). However, very little is
IJCHM known about the antecedents of job embeddedness (Holtom et al., 2012; Ng and
25,4 Feldman, 2011).
Only a handful of empirical studies examined individual and/or organizational
variables that made employees become embedded in their jobs. For example, in a study
of employees in a state department of corrections, Bergiel et al. (2009) demonstrated
that compensation, growth opportunity, and supervisor support predicted job
616 embeddedness. Sun et al. (2011) found that psychosocial capital enhanced job
embeddedness among nurses in China. In Ng and Feldman’s (2011) study conducted
with managerial employees in various industries, it was reported that contract
non-replicability and social networking behaviors acted as full mediators in the
relationship between internal locus of control and job embeddedness. Karatepe and
Ngeche’s (2012) recent study showed that work engagement was an antecedent to job
embeddedness for a sample of frontline hotel employees in Cameroon.
The abovementioned studies delineate variables enhancing employees’ job
embeddedness. However, there is a dearth of empirical research pertaining to
individual, situational, and/or organizational variables reducing employees’ job
embeddedness (Holtom et al., 2012). Poor training, insufficient pay, excessive job
demands, conflicts in the work-family interface, unsocial work hours, and job
insecurity appear to be among problems facing the global hospitality industry
(e.g. Davidson et al., 2011; Poulston, 2008; Ryan et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2012). Such
problems appear to hinder employee retention and erode employee performance. Work
overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict are three stressors that are
frequently experienced by frontline employees in the hospitality industry (e.g. Deery,
2008; Karatepe, 2008). Frontline employees also often experience (emotional)
exhaustion (Kim et al., 2007; Liang, 2012). Recognizing this void in the current
literature, this study investigates emotional exhaustion as a mediator of the effects of
work overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict on job embeddedness.
Second, an inspection of extant research depicts mixed findings regarding the
effects of work-family conflict and family-work conflict on job performance (Gilboa
et al., 2008; Karatepe, 2008). Empirical evidence pertaining to the relationship between
(emotional) exhaustion and job performance is not clear-cut, either (Castanheira and
Chambel, 2010; Karatepe, 2011). Using self-report data might have been partially
responsible for inconsistent findings concerning the relationship between two
directions of work-family conflict and job performance (cf. Witt and Carlson, 2006) and
the association between emotional exhaustion and job performance (cf. Castanheira
and Chambel, 2010). With this realization, unlike the majority of past and recent
studies, the present study tests emotional exhaustion as a mediator of the effects of
work overload and conflicts in the work-family interface on job performance with
manager ratings.
Third, frontline employees are always expected to provide quality services to
customers and display successful recovery efforts in the organization. Unless
management is committed to mitigating the detrimental effects of stressors and strain
on employees’ job performance, any efforts to increase their job performance are
doomed to failure from the start. From an internal marketing perspective, it is
important for managers to do a great job with their employees if they want them to be
high performers in the workplace (cf. Ahmed et al., 2003). Therefore, the results of this
study would provide useful implications for managers for business practice.
Research model and hypotheses Effects of work
Research model overload
The research model that includes the relationships among study constructs is
demonstrated in Figure 1. According to the model, work overload, work-family conflict,
and family-work conflict are three stressors that heighten employees’ emotional
exhaustion. A synthesis of the current literature suggests that work overload, conflicts
in the work-family interface, and emotional exhaustion are among the stressors and 617
strain leading to negative job outcomes (Deery, 2008; Kusluvan et al., 2010). Work
overload is defined as “the perceived magnitude of work-role demands, and the feeling
that there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them” (Parasuraman
et al., 1996, p. 280). Deliberate understaffing and unrealistic task criteria are among the
factors that make employees have work overload in the hospitality industry (Deery,
2008).
Employees (managerial or non-managerial) in frontline service jobs in the
hospitality industry are emotionally exhausted. This is not surprising, because
employees who carry heavy workload and experience heightened work-family conflict
and family-work conflict display higher emotional exhaustion (O’Neill and Xiao, 2010;
Yavas et al., 2008). When employees are emotionally exhausted, their desire to stay on
the job decreases. In other words, emotionally exhausted employees display low levels
of job embeddedness. Such employees are unable to have high quality performance in
service delivery process. As depicted in the model, emotional exhaustion functions as a
full mediator of the effects of work overload, work-family conflict, and family-work
conflict on job embeddedness and job performance.
To be consistent with previous and recent studies (e.g. Goodwin et al., 2011; Hung
et al., 2012; Ng and Feldman, 2011; Wayne et al., 2004), gender is included as a control
variable in the model. This is because it may significantly influence study variables

Figure 1.
Research model
IJCHM and confound the relationships. For example, Ng and Feldman (2011) found that
25,4 women had higher perceptions of organizational embeddedness. In a study of frontline
hotel employees, Hung et al. (2012) also indicated that male employees displayed higher
job performance ratings than their counterparts.

Direct effects
618 Excessive job demands elevate employees’ emotional exhaustion, because emotional
exhaustion develops as a reaction or a response to excessive job demands or work
overload in frontline service jobs. This is also valid for the effects of conflicts in the
work-family interface on emotional exhaustion. That is, employees feel emotionally
exhausted, while trying to deal with problems associated with work-family conflict and
family-work conflict. There is empirical evidence to support these assertions. For
instance, past research showed that work overload increased emotional exhaustion for
a sample of nurses in The Netherlands ( Janssen et al., 1999). In their empirical study,
Yavas et al. (2008) found that both work-family conflict and family-work conflict
exacerbated emotional exhaustion among frontline hotel employees in Turkey.
Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H1a. Work overload is positively related to emotional exhaustion.
H1b. Work-family conflict is positively related to emotional exhaustion.
H1c. Family-work conflict is positively related to emotional exhaustion.
According to Maertz and Campion (2004), affective force is one of the motivational
forces of attachment and withdrawal. Specifically, employees show psychological
comfort or discomfort as affective responses with respect to their organization.
Employees with comfort are likely to have intentions to stay, while the ones with
discomfort are likely to have intentions to leave the organization or display quitting
intentions. When employees are emotionally exhausted, they are devoid of energy and
feel that their emotional resources are depleted. Employees appear to have quitting
intentions due to discomfort in the workplace caused by high levels of emotional
exhaustion.
In addition, employees may not be tightly connected to the organization, because
they cannot cope with difficulties surfacing from emotional exhaustion due to the lack
of links with other people (e.g. managers, coworkers) in the workplace. They may not
feel attached to the organization, since they find that their personal values, career
goals, and skills do not fit well with the demands of frontline service jobs and
organizational culture. Under these circumstances, they are likely to have lower job
embeddedness, and therefore, display tardiness, absenteeism, or turnover intentions
(cf. Holtom et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2004).
Employees who experience heightened emotional exhaustion cannot fulfill their
responsibilities and have poor performance in service delivery process (cf. Cordes and
Dougherty, 1993). However, there are mixed findings pertaining to the relationship
between emotional exhaustion and job performance in the current literature. For
example, in a study of software professionals in India, Advani et al. (2005) showed that
emotional exhaustion had a strong positive effect on job performance. In Castanheira
and Chambel’s (2010) study conducted with Portuguese salespeople, it was reported
that exhaustion reduced service-oriented organizational behavior citizenship, while it
had no bearing on in-role performance. Karatepe and Uludag (2008) demonstrated that Effects of work
emotional exhaustion heightened job performance among frontline hotel employees in overload
Northern Cyprus. The results of another empirical study conducted with frontline hotel
employees in Nigeria revealed that emotional exhaustion did not significantly
influence job performance (Karatepe and Aleshinloye, 2009). On the other hand,
Karatepe (2011) found that exhaustion mitigated in-role performance among frontline
hotel employees in Iran. Such mixed findings call for more research regarding the 619
relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance.
In short, this study suggests that employees with elevated levels of emotional
exhaustion are unlikely to be embedded in their jobs and cannot perform effectively in
the workplace. Hence, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H2. Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to (a) job embeddedness and (b)
job performance.

Mediating effects
The JD-R model is a general model that can be applied to many occupations and
organizations and is widely considered in occupational stress research (e.g. Bakker and
Demerouti, 2007; Bakker et al., 2005). It has been proposed to explain how employees’
working conditions influence their health and job outcomes (e.g. organizational
commitment, job performance) (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Llorens et al., 2006).
Therefore, the JD-R model can be used as the guiding theoretical framework to develop
the relationship concerning emotional exhaustion as a full mediator of the effects of
work overload and conflicts in the work-family interface on job embeddedness and job
performance. Specifically, the JD-R model proposes that job demands and job resources
appear to be two broad categories of work characteristics, although every occupation
has its own characteristics emerging from the work domain (Bakker and Demerouti,
2007). Work overload, emotional dissonance, work-family conflict, and perceptions of
organizational politics are examples of job demands, while work social support,
rewards, performance feedback, and training are examples of job resources. The JD-R
model assumes two different processes: the health impairment process and the
motivational process (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Llorens et al., 2006).
The health impairment process contends that chronic job demands or poorly
designed jobs may sap employees’ physical and emotional resources, and therefore,
may lead to burnout/emotional exhaustion and to negative health and job outcomes
(Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Llorens et al., 2006). According to the motivational
process, the presence of job resources, due to their motivational role, reduces job
demands and fosters employees’ growth, learning and development (Bakker and
Demerouti, 2007; Llorens et al., 2006).
Consistent with the guidelines provided by the health impairment process of the
JD-R model, emotional exhaustion fully mediates the effects of work overload and
work-family conflict on job embeddedness and job performance. Specifically,
employees who are frequently faced with work overload and conflict between work
and family roles feel emotionally exhausted. Such employees in turn are not embedded
in their jobs and cannot have high quality performance in service delivery process.
When employees find that they cannot cope with excessive job demands and deal with
family roles due to heightened work responsibilities, they experience emotional
exhaustion as a psychological response to these stressors. Employees are unlikely to
IJCHM handle problems arising from stressors and strain, when there is an absence of links
with other people (e.g. managers, coworkers) in the organization. Employees
25,4 struggling with stressors and strain find that their personal values, career goals, and
skills do not fit well with the demands of frontline service jobs and organizational
culture. Such employees can also sacrifice benefits and opportunities in the
organization due to elevated levels of stressors and strain. Subsequently, they will
620 withdraw from these unfavorable work situations or negative experiences by paying
less attention to their work roles or commitments, decreasing their work effort, or
considering quitting the organization (cf. Holtom et al., 2012).
In line with the work of Bakker et al. (2005), this study goes one step further by
examining family-work conflict in the JD-R model. That is, family-work conflict can
also have a relationship with emotional exhaustion, which in turn influences employee
outcomes. Employees who are incapable of allocating sufficient time and energy to the
work role due to family responsibilities suffer from emotional exhaustion. If such
employees cannot cope with or avoid emotional exhaustion, they are not tied to people
and work, cannot apply their skills for fulfilling their responsibilities, and are likely to
even sacrifice valued things to withdraw from negative experiences. Consequently,
their job embeddedness and job performance decrease.
In short, the health impairment process in the JD-R model provides the theoretical
underpinning to develop the relationship regarding the full mediating role of emotional
exhaustion. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H3. Emotional exhaustion fully mediates the effect of work overload on (a) job
embeddedness and (b) job performance.
H3. Emotional exhaustion fully mediates the effect of work-family conflict on (c)
job embeddedness and (d) job performance.
H3. Emotional exhaustion fully mediates the effect of family-work conflict on (e)
job embeddedness and (f) job performance.

Method
Sample and procedure
This empirical research was conducted with a sample of full-time frontline hotel
employees and their managers during peak season in the Poiana region that is one of
the most important winter tourist destinations in Romania. Although Romania is a
European Union (EU) country, it loses its talented staff to other EU countries because
of the relatively poor pay conditions (Ineson and Berechet, 2011). With this realization,
it is important for managers to retain talented staff that would be expected to display
high performance in the workplace (Deery, 2008). Frontline employees (e.g. front desk
agents, wait staff, bell attendants, guest relations representatives, bartenders, door
attendants) who participated in this study had frequent face-to-face or voice-to-voice
interactions with customers. Such employees often carry heavy workload, experience
conflicts in the work-family interface and emotional exhaustion (e.g. Deery, 2008;
Karatepe and Uludag, 2008; Liang, 2012).
At the time of this study, there were seven 4-star hotels and only one 5-star hotel in
the Poiana region. The researcher contacted management of these hotels through a
letter that consisted of the purpose of the study and permission for data collection.
Though they agreed to participate in the empirical study, they did not allow the
researcher to directly contact their frontline employees. Under these circumstances, Effects of work
managers distributed the questionnaires to employees. However, managers were overload
requested to distribute the questionnaires to a wide range of frontline employees.
Each questionnaire used in this study contained information about the assurance of
anonymity and confidentiality. The employee questionnaire included the work
overload, work-family conflict, family-work conflict, emotional exhaustion, and job
embeddedness measures. It also consisted of items about respondents’ profile (e.g. age, 621
education). Using self-report data is prone to common method bias that leads to
measurement error and is a potential threat to the magnitudes of relationships among
study variables. As highlighted in various studies, common method bias should be
controlled through multiple sources of data (Line and Runyan, 2012; Podsakoff et al.,
2003). Therefore, the present study gathered data for measuring frontline employees’
job performance with manager ratings. Specifically, the manager questionnaire
contained the job performance measure. In each hotel one manager rated frontline
employees’ job performance under his or her supervision. As a result, eight managers
who participated in the study evaluated frontline employees’ job performance under
their supervision.
The researcher prepared a master list that included the name of each frontline
employee. An identification number that was assigned to each employee was also
written on each questionnaire. Each frontline employee and manager self-administered
the questionnaire, sealed it in an envelope, and put it in a special box to keep
anonymity and confidentiality. Finally, the researcher obtained the questionnaires
from this box and was able to match the employee questionnaires with the manager
questionnaires based on the identification number.
A total of 123 questionnaires were distributed to frontline employees. A total of 114
questionnaires were retrieved by the cut-off date for data collection. Four
questionnaires were eliminated because of incomplete information. Consequently,
110 questionnaires were retrieved, yielding a response rate of 89.4 percent. In addition
to the employee questionnaires, the researcher obtained 110 questionnaires from
managers.
The sample included 64 male respondents (58 percent) and 46 female respondents
(42 percent). Seven respondents (six percent) had primary school education, while 55
respondents (50 percent) had secondary and high school education. A total of 48
respondents (44 percent) had college education or beyond. A total of 41 respondents (37
percent) ranged in age from 18-27 years, while 43 respondents (39 percent) were
between the ages of 28-37. The rest were older than 37 years. A total of 73 respondents
(66 percent) had tenures of five years or less. The rest had been with their hotel for
more than five years. A total of 51 respondents (46 percent) were single or divorced and
59 respondents (54 percent) were married. A total of 62 respondents (56 percent) had
children between one and two, while 40 respondents (36 percent) had children between
three and four. The rest had children more than four. The previously mentioned results
showed that all respondents had children (i.e. single parents, divorced mothers/fathers,
married individuals with children).

Measures
All constructs were measured with well-established scales used in extant research.
Specifically, work overload was operationalized with four items from Price (2001).
IJCHM Items for work-family conflict and family-work conflict came from Netemeyer et al.
25,4 (1996). Each of these constructs included five items. Consistent with other studies
(e.g. Babakus et al., 1999; Karatepe and Uludag, 2008), emotional exhaustion was
measured via eight items from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson,
1981). Seven items from Crossley et al. (2007) were used to measure job embeddedness.
Five items adapted from Babin and Boles (1998) were used to operationalize job
622 performance. Gender was coded as a binary variable (0 ¼ male and 1 ¼ female).
Responses to items in all variables were elicited on five-point scales that ranged from 5
(strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). After reversing one negatively coded item in
job embeddedness, higher scores demonstrated higher levels of each construct
(e.g. emotional exhaustion, job performance).
This study employed the back-translation method for both employee and manager
questionnaires. All items in the employee and manager questionnaires were originally
prepared in English and then translated into Romanian via the back-translation
method (Parameswaran and Yaprak, 1987). Two different pilot studies were
conducted. The employee questionnaire was subjected to a pilot study conducted
with ten frontline employees. The manager questionnaire was tested with a pilot
sample of five managers. Consequently, frontline employees and their managers did
not report any problems regarding the understandability of items. Therefore, no
changes were deemed necessary in the employee and manager questionnaires.

Data analysis
A two-step approach that included confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and SEM was
used in this study (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). The first step was associated with the
assessment of measures in terms of convergent and discriminant validity (Anderson
and Gerbing, 1988; Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The second step was related to the
comparison of models using the x2 difference test. That is, the fully mediated model
was compared with two partially mediated models through the x2 difference test. This
is also congruent with the recommendations provided by James et al. (2006) for testing
the mediating effects based on the comparison of alternative models.
The hypotheses were evaluated using the results of SEM. Consistent with the works
of Kong et al. (2012) and Ryu and Han (2010), Sobel test was used for the significance of
mediating effects. For example, the coefficient between work overload (predictor
variable) and emotional exhaustion (mediator) is multiplied by the coefficient between
emotional exhaustion and job embeddedness (criterion variable). Then, the significance
level is computed based on Sobel test. These calculations are repeated for all mediation
tests.
The overall x2 measure, comparative fit index (CFI), incremental fit index (IFI), root
mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root mean square
residual (SRMR) were used to assess model fit. As stated before, the sample size of this
study is 110. However, it seems to be consistent with the majority of suggestions that
pertain to the minimum sample size of 100 for SEM (Hair et al., 2010). Composite
reliabilities were also calculated (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). The abovementioned analyses
were made using LISREL 8.30 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1996). Finally, composite scores
were generated for each independent and dependent variable to report means, standard
deviations, and correlations.
Results Effects of work
Measurement results overload
Several items were dropped due to correlation measurement errors during CFA. One
item each from the work overload, work-family conflict, family-work conflict, and job
embeddedness measures and two items from the emotional exhaustion measure were
discarded. The results revealed that the proposed six-factor measurement model fit the
data acceptably (x2 ¼ 519.34, df ¼ 335; x2/df ¼ 1.55; CFI ¼ 0.91; IFI ¼ 0.91; 623
RMSEA ¼ 0.071; SRMR ¼ 0.070). All standardized loadings ranging from 0.58 to
0.96 were significant. The average variance extracted by each latent variable was
greater than 0.50. These results showed that there was evidence of convergent validity
(Anderson and Gerbing, 1988; Fornell and Larcker, 1981). There was evidence of
discriminant validity, since the shared variances (F2) between pairs of variables were
not larger than the average variance extracted by each latent variable (Fornell and
Larcker, 1981). The measures also proved to be reliable, because each construct’s
composite reliability was greater than the recommended threshold value of 0.60
(Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Table I delineates scale items and CFA results.
Means, standard deviations, and correlations of study variables are shown in
Table II. The results regarding the correlations between predictor variables (e.g. work
overload, work-family conflict), mediator (i.e. emotional exhaustion), and criterion
variables (e.g. job embeddedness) were significant.

Structural model results

Table III illustrates the results of model comparison. Consistent with the suggestions
made by James et al. (2006), the fully mediated model is compared with the partially
models based on the x2 difference test ( p , 0.05). The fully mediated model appears to
have a better fit than the partially mediated models A and B. Specifically, when the
fully mediated model is compared with the partially mediated model A, the result
shows a non-significant difference in fit (Dx2 ¼ 7.31, Ddf ¼ 6). The result remains the
same, when the fully mediated model is compared with the partially mediated model B
(Dx2 ¼ 6.25, Ddf ¼ 3). The partially mediated models do not result in improvement in
model fit and the fully mediated model appears to be the most parsimonious.
Consequently, the results for the fully mediated model are used to assess the
relationships depicted in the research model.
As presented in Figure 2, the fully mediated model fits the data acceptably
(x2 ¼ 542.52, df ¼ 364; x2/df ¼ 1.49; CFI ¼ 0.91; IFI ¼ 0.91; RMSEA ¼ 0.067;
SRMR ¼ 0.082). The results of SEM in Figure 2 demonstrates that work overload is
a significant determinant of emotional exhaustion (b41 ¼ 0.47, t ¼ 4.82). Therefore,
H1a is supported. H1b and H1c are also supported, since work-family conflict
(b42 ¼ 0.30, t ¼ 2.67) and family-work conflict (b43 ¼ 0.22, t ¼ 2.02) are significant
predictors of emotional exhaustion. According to the results of SEM, emotional
exhaustion significantly and negatively influences job embeddedness (b54 ¼ 2 0.28,
t ¼ 2 2.87) and job performance (b64 ¼ 2 0.28, t ¼ 2 2.67). Hence, there is empirical
support for H2a and H2b. Overall, the results suggest that all standardized direct
effects are significant.
The results in Figure 2 indicate that all standardized indirect effects are significant,
and therefore, all hypotheses concerning mediating effects are supported. Specifically,
the indirect impacts of work overload (2 0.13, t ¼ 2 2.64), work-family conflict (2 0.08,
IJCHM
Standardized
25,4 Scale items loadings t-value AVE CR

Work overload 0.68 0.86

I do not have enough time to get everything done in my job 0.75 8.94
My workload is heavy on my job 0.96 12.72
624 I have to work very hard in my job 0.74 8.75
I have to work very fast in my joba – –

Work-family conflict 0.81 0.95

The demands of my work interfere with my home and
family life 0.90 11.99
The amount of time my job takes up makes it difficult to
fulfill family responsibilities 0.92 12.43
Things I want to do at home do not get done because of
the demands my job puts on me 0.91 12.31
My job produces strain that makes it difficult to fulfill
family dutiesa – –
Due to work-related duties, I have to make changes to my
plans for family activities 0.87 11.43

Family-work conflict 0.66 0.88

The demands of my family or spouse/partner interfere
with work-related activitiesa – –
I have to put off doing things at work because of demands
on my time at home 0.87 11.05
Things I want to do at work do not get done because of the
demands of my family or spouse/partner 0.81 9.93
My home life interferes with my responsibilities at work
such as getting to work on time, accomplishing daily
tasks, and working overtime 0.72 8.45
Family-related strain interferes with my ability to perform
job-related duties 0.83 10.23

Emotional exhaustion 0.60 0.90

I feel emotionally drained from my work 0.71 8.27
I feel used up at the end of the workdaya – –
I feel fatigued when I get up in the morning and have to
face another day on the job 0.80 9.94
Working with people all day is really a strain for me 0.83 10.35
I feel burned out from my work 0.86 11.04
I feel frustrated by my job 0.58 6.45
I feel I am working too hard on my joba – –
I feel like I am at the end of my rope 0.82 10.18

Job embeddedness 0.78 0.96

I feel attached to this hotel 0.91 12.35
It would be difficult for me to leave this hotel 0.95 13.27
I am too caught up in this hotel to leave 0.90 12.13
I feel tied to this hotel 0.93 12.75
I simply could not leave the hotel that I work fora – –
Table I. It would be easy for me to leave this hotel 0.77 9.39
Scale items and CFA I am tightly connected to this organization 0.83 10.56
results (continued)
 Standardized
Effects of work
Scale items loadings t-value AVE CR overload
Job performance 0.66 0.91
This employee is a top performer 0.87 11.09
This employee is in the top 10 percent of frontline
employees here 0.88 11.41 625
This employee gets along better with customers than do
others 0.83 10.31
This employee knows more about services delivered to
customers than others 0.76 9.08
This employee knows what his/her customers expect
better than others 0.72 8.52
Model fit statistics: x2?519.34, df ¼ 335; x2/df ¼ 1.55;
CFI?0.91; IFI ¼ 0.91; RMSEA?0.071; SRMR?0.070
Notes: All loadings are significant at the 0.01 level; AVE=Average variance extracted;
CR=Composite reliability; CFI=Comparative fit index; IFI=Incremental fit index; RMSEA=Root
mean square error of approximation; SRMR=Standardized root mean square residual; aDropped
during CFA Table I.

t ¼ 2 2.04), and family-work conflict (2 0.06, t ¼ 2 1.70) on job embeddedness

through emotional exhaustion are significant based on Sobel test. In addition, the
indirect effects of work overload (2 0.13, t ¼ 2 2.48), work-family conflict (2 0.08,
t ¼ 2 1.96), and family-work conflict (2 0.06, t ¼ 2 1.66) on job performance via
emotional exhaustion are significant based on Sobel test. Collectively, these results
suggest that H3a-H3f are supported and emotional exhaustion fully mediates the
effects of work overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict on job
embeddedness and job performance.
As a control variable, gender is significantly related to only job embeddedness
(g51 ¼ 0.28, t ¼ 3.05) and job performance (g61 ¼ 0.19, t ¼ 1.98). These results suggest
that female employees are more embedded in their jobs and display better performance
in the workplace. Despite such significant effects, gender does not act as a confounding
variable. The results explain 1 percent of the variance in work overload, 2 percent in
work-family conflict, 1 percent in family-work conflict, 66 percent in emotional
exhaustion, 17 percent in job embeddedness, and 12 percent in job performance.

Discussion
Evaluation of findings
The present study proposed and tested a research model that investigated emotional
exhaustion as a mediator of the impacts of work overload, work-family conflict, and
family-work conflict on job embeddedness and job performance based on data obtained
from frontline hotel employees in Romania. Three contributions of this study to the
hospitality management and marketing literature are of note. First, recent studies
indicate that there is a dearth of empirical research regarding the antecedents of job
embeddedness (Holtom et al., 2012; Ng and Feldman, 2011). Limited empirical studies
have focused on individual and/or organizational variables enhancing employees’ job
embeddedness (e.g. Bergiel et al., 2009; Sun et al., 2011). Unlike these studies, the
current study centers upon stressors and strain that mitigate job embeddedness.
 25,4

626

variables
Table II.
IJCHM

deviations, and
Means, standard

correlations of study
Variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Gender 0.42 0.50 1.00

2. Work overload 2.99 0.90 0.06 1.00
3. Work-family conflict 2.61 1.00 20.14 * 0.38 * * * 1.00
4. Family-work conflict 2.28 0.88 20.06 0.34 * * * 0.67 * * * 1.00
5. Emotional exhaustion 2.66 0.76 20.08 0.60 * * * 0.62 * * * 0.56 * * * 1.00
6. Job embeddedness 3.23 0.88 0.27 * * * 20.16 * * 2 0.29 * * * 20.32 * * * 2 0.26 * * * 1.00
7. Job performance 3.37 0.93 0.20 * * 20.16 * * 2 0.27 * * * 20.15 * 2 0.26 * * * 0.29 * * * 1.00
Notes: Composite scores for each variable were computed by averaging respective item scores; Gender was coded as a binary variable (0 ¼ male and
1 ¼ female); The scores for study variables ranged from 1 to 5; Higher scores demonstrated higher levels; SD ¼ Standard deviation; *p , 0.10;
* * p , 0:05; * * *p , 0.01
 Effects of work
Model
Models x 2
df Dx 2
Ddf comparison overload
1. Fully mediated model 542.52 364
WL, WFC, FWC ! EE; EE ! JE, JP
2. Partially mediated model A 535.21 358 7.31 6 1 and 2
WL, WFC, FWC ! EE, JE, JP; EE ! JE, JP 627
3. Partially mediated model B 536.27 361 6.25 3 1 and 3
WL, WFC, FWC ! EE, JE; EE ! JE, JP
Notes: The fully mediated model seems to be superior to the partially mediated models A and B; Table III.
WL ¼ Work overload; WFC ¼ Work-family conflict; FWC ¼ Family-work conflict; EE ¼ Emotional Results of model
exhaustion; JE ¼ Job embeddedness; JP ¼ Job performance comparison

Figure 2.
Structural model results
IJCHM Specifically, this study investigates emotional exhaustion as a full mediator of the
25,4 effects of work overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict on job
embeddedness.
Second, a scrutiny of the extant literature suggests that there are inconsistent
findings concerning the effects of conflicts in the work-family interface and emotional
exhaustion on job performance (Castanheira and Chambel, 2010; Gilboa et al., 2008). By
628 measuring frontline employees’ job performance with manager ratings, this study
focuses on emotional exhaustion as a mediator of the relationship between conflicts in
the work-family interface and job performance.
Third, from internal marketing perspective, it is important for managers to do a
great job with their frontline employees if they want them to display high quality
performance in the workplace (cf. Ahmed et al., 2003). Therefore, the results of this
study would provide useful guidelines for managers concerning the reduction of the
detrimental effects of work overload, conflicts in the work-family interface, and
emotional exhaustion on job embeddedness and job performance. The results
concerning the hypothesized relationships are discussed below.
Work overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict are significant
predictors of emotional exhaustion. These findings are congruent with other empirical
studies ( Janssen et al., 1999; Yavas et al., 2008). However, work overload has a stronger
impact on emotional exhaustion than work-family conflict/family-work conflict. Such
findings suggest that excessive job demands or work overload are rampant in the hotel
industry and lead to detrimental outcomes such as emotional exhaustion. It appears
that the effect of work-family conflict on emotional exhaustion is stronger, when
compared with that of family-work conflict. This is consistent with the results of a
recent meta-analysis (Amstad et al., 2011). Overall, stressors associated with the work
domain are more influential on emotional exhaustion.
According to the results reported in this study, emotional exhaustion reduces job
embeddedness and impedes high quality performance in service delivery process. The
results suggest that emotionally exhausted employees show discomfort as an affective
response with respect to their organization and are less embedded in their jobs. The result
pertaining to the negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance
also appears to shed a light on mixed findings in this research stream (e.g. Castanheira and
Chambel, 2010). More importantly, emotional exhaustion fully mediates the effects of work
overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict on job embeddedness and job
performance. Consistent with the precepts of the health impairment process of the JD-R
model (e.g. Bakker and Demerouti, 2007), work overload and conflicts in the work-family
interface facing frontline employees deplete their physical and emotional resources that
lead to high levels of emotional exhaustion. Such employees in turn are less embedded in
their jobs and have poor performance in service delivery process. These results also seem
to shed a light on inconsistent findings and add to the current literature that the effects of
work-family conflict and family-work conflict on job performance are fully mediated by
emotional exhaustion (e.g. Gilboa et al., 2008; Karatepe, 2008).

Management implications
Hotel managers can use the findings of this study to reduce the negative effects of
stressors and strain on job embeddedness and job performance. Specifically,
management of the hotels should be committed to establishing and maintaining a
family-supportive work environment that would include various family-friendly benefits Effects of work
such as flexible work arrangements, onsite child care services, and financial support for overload
life insurance. This environment should consist of family-supportive supervisors who
are trained to encourage non-supervisory employees to take advantage of these benefits.
Management of the hotels should also make sure that employees’ careers are not
endangered due to the use of the abovementioned benefits. Consequently, the presence of
such an environment would enable employees to establish a balance between their work 629
(family) and family (work) roles. As one of the high-performance work practices,
work-family balance would lead to elevated levels of job embeddedness and job
performance. Otherwise, it would not be possible to retain high performing employees, if
they are unable to handle work and family responsibilities successfully.
Another management implication is related to mentors who provide vocational
support, psychosocial support, and role modeling (Lankau et al., 2006). Mentors can
provide psychosocial support to junior employees regarding the management of work-
and family-related problems. They can also help these employees to cope with problems
arising from emotional exhaustion. This is important, because psychosocial support
increases employees’ sense of competence and identity (Lankau et al., 2006). However,
employing mentors appears to create additional costs for the firm. With this realization,
management of the hotels can benefit from the current senior employees as potential
mentors for providing professional assistance to junior employees. Despite such
managerial practices, if employees are still unable to manage their work (family) and
family (work) roles and suffer from emotional exhaustion, managers may want to replace
these employees with the ones who can benefit from the family-supportive work
environment and use professional assistance from senior employees when needed.
The last management implication of this study is associated with hiring the right
individuals in frontline service jobs. That is, managers should use objective tests and
experiential exercises to make sure that they hire individuals who fit well with the
demands of frontline service jobs and organizational culture. This practice would
enable managers to increase employee retention in the organization.

Conclusion
The present study proposed and tested a research model that investigated whether
emotional exhaustion acted as a mediator of the impacts of work overload, work-family
conflict, and family-work conflict on job embeddedness and job performance. These
relationships were evaluated through data gathered from frontline hotel
employee-manager dyads in Romania. The results suggested that the model was
viable and all hypotheses received empirical support. Specifically, work overload and
conflicts in the work-family interface influenced job embeddedness and job
performance only via emotional exhaustion.
It seems that management of the hotels should take into consideration the
establishment and maintenance of a family-supportive work environment, effective
hiring practices for frontline service jobs, and mentors or senior employees as potential
mentors providing professional assistance to employees.

Limitations and implications for future research

Several limitations of this study along with its implications for future research should
be highlighted. First, using cross-sectional data precludes drawing conclusions in
IJCHM terms of causality. Therefore, collecting longitudinal data in future studies would allow
25,4 making causal inferences among study variables. Second, the results reported here are
associated with a single industry in a single country. This may raise concerns about
the issue of generalizability. However, using a single industry seems to eliminate
problems emerging from the effects of industry differences (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996).
Third, the sample size of the study is small. Despite this, the measures proved to be
630 reliable and had sound convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, the
hypotheses received support from the empirical data. Nevertheless, using large sample
sizes in replication studies would be useful. Fourth, as indicated earlier, managers were
requested to distribute the questionnaires to a wide range of frontline employees. If
they had not done so, this data collection practice might have created a potential
selection bias (cf. Blair and Zinkhan, 2006). With this realization, in future studies
distributing the questionnaires directly to frontline employees would be among the
remedies for minimizing this potential problem.
Fifth, future studies can incorporate personal and other important organizational
variables into the research model. For example, the presence of a political work
environment can heighten employees’ emotional exhaustion, leading to low levels of
job embeddedness. As a dispositional variable, negative affectivity can also influence
job embeddedness through emotional exhaustion. Including perceptions of
organizational politics and negative affectivity in the research model would enhance
the understanding about variables reducing job embeddedness. In future studies
inclusion of supervisor support and coworker support as independent or moderating
variables in the research model would also be useful.
Sixth, this study focused on frontline employees only in the four- and five-star hotels in
Romania. The number of frontline employees in the four- and five-star hotels led to the
selection of these hotel categories. However, in future studies including different hotel
categories (e.g. three-star hotels) as well as other small sized hotels in Romania would be
useful for broadening the database and making generalizations. In closing, Romania
appears to be a collectivist society. With this realization, employing cross-cultural research
in future studies would be helpful. In these studies, culture should be clearly modeled, the
moderating relationships developed, and the findings compared across cultures.

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Corresponding author
Osman M. Karatepe can be contacted at: osman.karatepe@emu.edu.tr

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