Momentary well-being matters : daily fluctuations in hotel employees’ turnover intention

Abstract

Drawing on affective events theory and the unfolding model of voluntary turnover, the dynamic nature of emotional dissonance, job autonomy, subjective well-being (SWB), and turnover intention are examined in a daily diary study. The study's design employs an experience sampling method. Participants are full-time employees in guest-facing positions in full-service or luxury hotels in the United States. Sixty-five participants completed a one-time baseline survey and a daily diary study twice per day for at least five working days, resulting in a total of 416 day-level observations. Within-person variance in turnover intention is predicted by day-level within-person SWB and emotional dissonance. This study shows that SWB and turnover intention are not stable phenomena among frontline hotel employees. Moreover, the study emphasizes the important moderating role of daily job autonomy and the moderating effects of person-level trait resilience. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed.