Abstract
Purpose – The paper examines the effects of social perceptions, as related to restaurant managers’ warmth and competence, on frontline employees’ job attitudes and turnover intentions. The study aims to enhance the literature related to the influence of social perceptions which casual dining restaurant employees may adopt regarding their restaurant managers. Design/methodology/approach – The data came from 781 employees of a large casual dining restaurant franchise group that had 43 restaurants in the United States. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed, followed by multilevel path and post-hoc mediation analyses to assess the effects of the proposed model. Findings – Results demonstrated that managers’ warmth and competence represented a single factor, instead of two distinct constructs, thus contradicting several socio-psychological studies. Moreover, this factor had an indirect effect on employees’ turnover intentions through job attitudes. Practical implications – Knowing that employees develop improved job attitudes and lower turnover intentions when they evaluate their managers as warm and competent individuals, restaurant operators should focus on both of these social characteristics when designing interviewing processes, management training and performance appraisal programs. Originality/value – By studying a casual dining restaurant franchise group that operates a single brand, thus minimizing variation in policies and procedures, this paper fulfills an identified need to examine two essential social dimensions often employed in professional settings, and which have not been vastly studied in organizational behavior or hospitality literature. Keywords: Casual dining restaurant managers, frontline employees, social perceptions, job attitudes, turnover intentions.
