Empowering frontline service employees: examining the link between psychological empowerment, prosocial motivation and proactive behavior through the lens of horizontal collectivism

Purpose Elucidating self-determination and psychological empowerment theories, the current study aims to examine the link between psychological empowerment and proactive behavior. Additionally, it delves into the mediating role of prosocial motivation and assesses the moderating effects of horizontal collectivism between psychological empowerment and proactive behavior, examining the moderated-mediation effects of horizontal collectivism. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was distributed in three waves (T1, T2 and T3) among frontline service hotel workers, out of which only 507 were retained and found useful for analysis. The study employed PROCESS macro models 4 and 8 for the analyses. Findings The results indicated that psychological empowerment is connected to proactive behavior through the partial mediation of prosocial motivation. Further, when horizontal collectivism is high, the favorable association between psychological empowerment and proactive behavior via prosocial motivation is stronger. Originality/value Proactive service workers have an innate tendency to contribute optimally to their organization. Yet, research is insufficient about the factors that lead to proactive behavior among frontline service hotel workers. To date, there are hardly any empirical studies that have examined the buffering effects of horizontal collectivism between psychological empowerment and proactive behavior, which contributes to the originality and novelty of our research. In addition, this study offers practical implications related to ways to improve psychological empowerment among frontline service hotel workers in the ever-increasing era of automation.