7.3. Limitations and future research
This study has a few limitations. First, the study sample concentrated around frontline service employees. The samples were theoretically appropriate since frontline service employees directly interact with customers; however, non-frontline managerial employees should also be considered for future studies. The theoretical model tested in this study should most likely hold among other employee samples, but this should be tested. Second, transformational leadership was measured from the perspective of the follower and could limit the findings of this study. As such, a multi-level or dyadic investigation of how transformational leadership influence service recovery performance could be useful for future contributions. In order to generalize these findings to the global hospitality industry, additional cultures should be examined. Future research should consider additional cross-cultural models to better understand the influence of culture on the relationship between transformational leadership, service recovery performance, and emotional labor. Lastly, future research should examine how other styles of leadership, such as transactional leadership can also influence service recovery performance via the mediating effect of emotional labor strategies. In fact, Bass (1985) argued that transformational and transactional leadership are separate concepts and that effective leaders can use both styles of leadership. Indeed, a meta-analysis (Judge and Piccolo, 2004) found that both transformational and transactional leadership are positively related to job performance.
