Linking leader humility with service performance: the role of service climate and customer mistreatment

This study investigates the influence of leader humility on employee service performance. New conceptual observations are presented through the integration of leadership and service climate literature. Grounded in social information processing theory, this study explores how leader humility and customer mistreatment support the improvement of service climate and employee service performance. Data are collected from multiple sources of 294 hotel employees at three points of time in China. Results reveal that leader humility positively influences employee service performance through service climate. Besides, leader humility shows a strong relationship with the service climate for employees when frontline service employees observe customer mistreatment.