A Theoretical Framework Development for Hotel Employee Turnover: Linking Trust in Supports, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Reduced Personal Accomplishment at Workplace

Abstract

The present research was an empirical endeavor to build a sturdy theorization linking trust in supervisor and co-worker supports, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduced personal accomplishment, and hotel employee turnover at workplace. A quantitative approach and survey methodology were utilized. This research successfully explored the intricate associations between trust-in-support factors and burnout dimensions and uncovered the possible influence of such relationships on employee turnover in the hotel context. In addition, emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment among burnout constituents significantly affected turnover. These variables also strengthened the influence of trust in supervisor support on hotel employee turnover, acting as significant mediators. A salient role of emotional exhaustion in escalating employee turnover was unearthed. Overall, this research demonstrated the importance of trust in support and its role in reducing the burnout phenomenon among hotel employees and explaining their voluntary turnover decision formation in a satisfactory manner.

1. Introduction

Severe competition is unavoidable in the hospitality and tourism sector due to the growing numbers of firms (e.g., hotels, restaurants, resorts, tourism-related companies) across the globe [1,2,3]. Many firms, particularly in the hotel industry, pursue service excellence as the core strategy to survive in the increasingly competitive marketplace [4]. Hotels often tend to make it obligatory for employees to deliver superb and extra services to guests in order to meet/exceed guest expectations [1,3]. This tendency is a common and major cause of employees’ work-related psychological stress and burnout phenomenon [5,6], which ultimately results in a high turnover rate [7]. Employee turnover is undoubtedly a focal concern for hotel companies [8,9]. The high turnover rate brings a considerable increase in costs as it induces expenses related to employee recruiting and training [6]. In addition, high turnover interrupts the inner functioning of the hotel organization, which negatively affects the organization’s success [7,8,10]. Accordingly, retaining employees by minimizing turnover rates is one of the top priorities for every hotel company.

In the extant literature, diverse endeavors have been made to explore the factors that influence employees’ turnover and their desire to search for a new/alternative job/workplace [7,9,11,12,13]. Recent studies indicate that supervisor and co-worker supports, which lead workers to believe that their co-workers try very hard to provide comfort/assistance for handling/overcoming work-related challenges, are of importance in employee turnover decision formation and behaviors [2,6,14]. These researchers agree that employees’ trust in these supervisor and co-worker supports at the workplace can reduce turnover rate. Burnout is also one of the reasons affecting employees quitting their current organization [13,15]. Prior studies indicated that employee burnout results in a drop in work performance and employee turnover decision/behavior that is unhelpful for the organizational success [7,15,16]. The burnout phenomenon is particularly serious in the service industry including the hotel sector [7,13,17].

Although trust in support has been researched in prior studies, its influence on hotel employee turnover decision formation has been rarely unearthed in the extant hospitality and tourism literature. In addition, little research has examined the combined role of trust in supervisor support and trust in co-worker support at the workplace in minimizing emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment among employees. Moreover, even if the hotel management provides a valuable platform, hotel employees still experience inadequate development opportunities, low salaries, excessive workloads and unsocial working hours [8,13,17]. When the demands of the job remain unfulfilled, the phenomenon of burnout will occur [13,17]. Additionally, due to the characteristics of hotel services where encounters between employees and guests are common, hotel staff suffers higher burnout rates as compared to other sectors [5,8,13]. Nevertheless, the hotel literature has not brought the concept of burnout and its constituents into the framework bridging the association between trust-in-support factors and employee turnover.

The present study aimed to fill this gap in the literature. Therefore, this research was designed to develop a theoretical framework encompassing trust in supports (supervisor and co-worker supports) and burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment) for clearly explicating the process of hotel employee turnover at workplace. In addition, the present study attempted to explore the convoluted associations between trust-in-support dimensions and employee burnout constituents, and to unearth the relative importance among research constructs in determining employee turnover. Moreover, we aimed to uncover the mediating role of burnout factors within the proposed conceptual framework. In the following section, the literature review is presented. Research methods and empirical results are then provided. Afterward, the discussion of the findings and implications are presented.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Trust in Support

Trust between an employee and his/her supervisor [8,12] and trust between an employee and his/her co-workers [11] have long been essential issues due to their importance in eliciting positive employee responses and behaviors at workplace. Employees have a certain degree of trust in their supervisors, co-workers, and organization/company [12,18,19,20]. Trust towards supervisor support and trust towards co-worker support are two core dimensions of trust in social support that employees perceive/receive at workplace [21,22]. Supervisors and co-workers are crucial social exchange partners of employees in the workplace [2,6,20,21]. In recent years, how supervisor and co-worker support influences employee responses/behaviors is increasingly becoming prominent as team collaboration in the workplace is believed to be essential for team productivity, problem solving, and service excellence [7,13,22].

Supervisor support refers to the employee’s belief that his/her supervisor willingly provides any work-associated help in the execution of his/her duties at workplace [12]. Likewise, co-worker support refers to the employee’s belief that his/her co-workers readily provide any task-related help when performing his/her roles/duties in the workplace [2,20]. Trust indicates one’s confidence in the integrity of a person/object/company [11,23]. In addition, whether the person/object/company is trustworthy is based on belief [12,23]. Given this, trust in supervisor/co-worker supports is based on employees’ confidence and belief in his/her supervisor/co-worker and their willingness to provide work-related support during the execution of duties. This support can be both task-associated assistance/information and emotional helping (e.g., care, empathy) [11,18,24].

Studies in the extant literature have evidenced that trust-in-support factors have a significant relationship with major employee cognitive/affective responses (e.g., psychological distress, burnout, job satisfaction, mental health, well-being, commitment) and behaviors (e.g., job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, turnover) [6,21,25,26]. For instance, Loi et al. [21] found that co-worker support is significantly associated with voice behavior and psychological stress among foreign workers. In the airline industry, Limpanitgul et al. [2] explored the fact that trust in co-worker support along with customer cooperation increases employees’ job attitude, comprising their feeling of accomplishment and emotional fulfillment as its constituents. More recently, Clercq et al. [6] examined employee turnover decision formation. Their empirical findings revealed that trust in human/social support in the workplace lessens job stress and ultimately contributes to reducing employee turnover decision in diverse sectors including service companies, retail stores, manufacturing firms, banks, and academic institutions. Taken together, the evidence of these studies indicates the possible linkages between trust-in-support factors and burnout phenomenon.

2.2. Hotel Employee Burnout and Its Dimensions

Burnout is described as a state of emotional, psychological/mental, and physical exhaustion derived from substantial involvement in demanding/challenging situations [15,27]. Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment are generally regarded as core dimensions of employee burnout [15,16,17]. Indeed, these are three core response syndromes in the work exhaustion situation, which are likely to result in a high turnover rate and absenteeism and in low job performance [16]. Emotional exhaustion indicates individuals’ emotionally drained feeling due to diverse interactions with people [7,28]. Depersonalization indicates non-emotional and callous responses toward others needing services/care, treating them like impersonal objects [17]. In addition, according to Yu et al. [7], reduced personal accomplishment indicates a lack of individuals’ feeling, interest, and concern about the goal attainment in the situation of working with others.

The term “burnout” has long been treated as a crucial concept in the employee behavior literature [6,9,15,28]. Particularly, burnout phenomenon among employees more frequently occurs in the hospitality/service industry where employee and customer contacts (service-encounters) are ordinary and frequent as compared to other sectors [7,8,17,29]. These researchers agree that a typical group of workers exposed to burnout in the hospitality/service sector are hotel employees. Indeed, recent research asserted that many hotel workers often experience burnout symptoms, suffering emotional annoyance and psychological/mental stress [5,13,29]. Such symptoms become more serious when the number of contacts with guests increases, when service complaints are processed, and when rotating shift works including night shift are frequent [7].

The consequences of employee burnout have been examined in the extant studies [8,15,30]. Empirical efforts have been devoted to uncovering the negative role of employee burnout in minimizing the possibility of a company’s success [13,30,31,32]. For instance, Shih et al. [15] investigated the role of work exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment among information technology workers. Their findings showed that these burnout factors are highly associated with job performance and turnover. In the hotel context, Kim et al. [13] examined job stress and its influence on employee responses and behaviors. Their empirical results revealed that employee burnout increases employees’ negative attitude toward the hotel and boosts turnover rate. More recently, Yu et al. [7] uncovered the fact that hotel employee burnout is the significant determinant of job satisfaction, turnover, and job performance. Their research also revealed that a green physical environment at the workplace contributes to reducing emotional exhaustion and increasing personal accomplishment. This evidence all supported the considerable role of employee burnout in alleviating employee turnover rate.

2.3. The Proposed Theoretical Model

The proposed conceptual model is shown in Figure 1. The framework encompasses trust in supervisor support, trust in co-worker support, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment as direct predictors of hotel employee turnover. A total of nine research hypotheses were incorporated into our theoretical framework linking the research variables.

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

Trust in supervisor support has a negative influence on emotional exhaustion.

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

Trust in supervisor support has a negative influence on depersonalization.

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Trust in supervisor support has a negative influence on reduced personal accomplishment.

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Trust in co-worker support has a negative influence on emotional exhaustion.

Hypothesis 5 (H5).

Trust in co-worker support has a negative influence on depersonalization.

Hypothesis 6 (H6).

Trust in co-worker support has a negative influence on reduced personal accomplishment.

Hypothesis 7 (H7).

Emotional exhaustion has a positive influence on hotel employee turnover.

Hypothesis 8 (H8).

Depersonalization has a positive influence on hotel employee turnover.

Hypothesis 9 (H9).

Reduced personal accomplishment has a positive influence on hotel employee turnover.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Measures and Survey Questionnaire

The study was designed to quantify the hotel employee responses using a cross-sectional survey questionnaire (quantitative approach). The measures for the research constructs were adopted from the established literature in the employee behavior and tourism literature [7,17,18,21,33,34]. Multi-items with a 7-point scale [“strongly disagree” (1)/“strongly agree” (7)] were utilized as exhibited in the Appendix A. Specifically, a total of 4 items (i.e., reliability, considerateness, confidence, and integrity) were used to measure trust in supervisor support (e.g., “I can rely on my supervisor.”). We also used 4 items (i.e., reliability, considerateness, confidence, and integrity) to evaluate trust in co-worker support (e.g., “I can rely on those I work with in this group.”). In addition, 4 items were used to measure emotional exhaustion (e.g., “I feel emotionally drained from my work.”). Depersonalization was assessed with 3 items (e.g., “I have become more callous towards people since I took this job.”). Reduced personal accomplishment was measured with 3 items (e.g., “I have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job.” [Reverse coded]). Lastly, 2 items were employed to measure hotel employee turnover (e.g., “I often think about quitting”). The draft version of the survey questionnaire included these measures along with an introductory letter encompassing research description. To enhance the questionnaire’s validity, the study used hotel scholars in the pre-tested stage. A minor correction was made. The survey questionnaire was then thoroughly reviewed by academic experts in the hospitality and hotel management field and improved accordingly. This section may be divided by subheadings. It should provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.

3.2. Data Collection and Sample Characteristics

Data were gathered using the web-based survey. A survey link was generated and delivered to employees at hotels located in metropolitan cities in South Korea. Trained surveyors approached the potential survey participants and explained our research project and its objectives either through face-to-face or telephone communication. Upon their agreement of survey participation, the survey link was sent to them using an e-mail or mobile phone message. The potential respondents were requested to click the survey link for accessing the questionnaire. All participants were asked to follow the survey instructions carefully before filling out the questionnaire. The surveyors selected only participants who were actively working in the lodging industry, including international chained and franchised hotels with a potential sample targeted of 300 respondents. Through this procedure, the surveyors obtained a total of 280 usable responses. These cases were retained for data analysis.

Of 280 participants, about 54.6% (n = 153) were female employees whereas 45.4% (n = 127) were male employees. Regarding the survey respondents’ marital status, about 63.9% were single, and 36.1% were married. The participants’ education level was asked. A majority of them reported that they had a university degree (62.0%), followed by two-year/community college graduates (23.3%), graduate-degree holders (13.6%), and high-school graduates or less (1.1%). Most participants reported that their employment status was regular/full-time workers (70.7%) whereas about 28.9% were contract/temporary workers. Regarding the years of service, about 49.6% indicated 2–5 years, followed by 10 years or more (30.4%), less than 2 years (13.2%), and 6–10 years (6.8%). Lastly, the participants’ annual income was asked. About 33.6% reported their income between $25,000 and $35,999, followed by the income of $24,999 or less (28.9%), between $40,000 and $54,999 (27.9%), between $55,000 and $69,999 (7.9%), and $70,000 or more (1.8%).

4. Results

4.1. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Measurement Model Assessment

Prior to that, an initial data screening process was established including data normality, outliers, and missing items. SPSS 20 was utilized to do the descriptive analysis, meanwhile AMOS 20 was utilized for the confirmatory and hypothesis testing of the study. Our assessment revealed that the goodness-of-fit statistics of the model were adequate (χ² = 405.969, df = 151, p < 0.001, χ²/df = 2.689, RMSEA = 0.078, CFI = 0.933, IFI = 0.933, TLI = 0.915).

Table 1. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	Mean (SD)	CR	AVE
(1) TISS	1.000	–	–	–	–	–	4.571 (1.433)	0.893	0.676
(2) TICWS	0.533 a (0.284) b	1.000	–	–	–	–	5.221 (1.128)	0.898	0.689
(3) EE	−0.374 (0.140)	−0.121 (0.015)	1.000	–	–	–	4.704 (1.697)	0.926	0.757
(4) DE	−0.132 (0.017)	−0.166 (0.028)	0.736 (0.542)	1.000	–	–	3.768 (1.629)	0.807	0.589
(5) RPA	0.338 (0.114)	0.340 (0.116)	−0.221 (0.049)	−0.232 (0.054)	1.000	–	4.818 (1.013)	0.750	0.502
(6) HET	−0.482 (0.232)	−0.243 (0.059)	0.597 (0.356)	0.495 (0.245)	−0.319 (0.102)	1.000	4.166 (1.880)	0.827	0.708

Note. TISS: Trust in supervisor support, TICWS: Trust in co-worker support, EE: Emotional exhaustion, DE: Depersonalization, RPA: Reduced personal accomplishment, HET: Hotel employee turnover. Goodness-of-fit statistics for the measurement model: χ² = 405.969, df = 151, p < 0.001, χ²/df = 2.689, RMSEA = 0.078, CFI = 0.933, IFI = 0.933, TLI = 0.915. ^a Correlations between constructs; ^b Squared correlations.

illustrates the results for measurement model of the study. The values for composite reliability (trust in supervisor support = 0.893, trust in co-worker support = 0.898, emotional exhaustion = 0.926, depersonalization = 0.807, reduced personal accomplishment = 0.750, and hotel employee turnover = 0.827) were also acceptable, exceeding the minimum value of 0.7 [35]. The construct validity was assessed. As proposed by Hair et al.’s (2010), the average variance extracted (AVE) must be ≥ 0.5. As reported in Table 1, the AVEs of (trust in supervisor support = 0.676, trust in co-worker support = 0.689, emotional exhaustion = 0.757, depersonalization = 0.589, reduced personal accomplishment = 0.502, and hotel employee turnover = 0.708) were greater than cut-off value proposed by literature. In addition, these values were all greater than the between-variable correlations (squared) (see Table 1). Thus, confirming that the validities of the convergent and discriminant were not an issue of the study.

4.2. Structural Equation Modeling and Proposed Framework Assessment

A structural equation modeling was run using a maximum likelihood estimation approach. The generated model fulfils the requirements of the goodness-of-fit statistics (χ² = 434.032, df = 156, p < 0.001, χ²/df = 2.782, RMSEA = 0.080, CFI = 0.927, IFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.911). As exhibited in

Table 2. Results of the structural equation modeling.

Hypothesized Links.			β	t-Values
H1: Trust in supervisor support	→	Emotional exhaustion	−0.486	−6.287 **
H2: Trust in supervisor support	→	Depersonalization	−0.382	−4.611 **
H3: Trust in supervisor support	→	Reduced personal accomplishment	−0.294	−3.499 **
H4: Trust in co-worker support	→	Emotional exhaustion	0.135	1.881
H5: Trust in co-worker support	→	Depersonalization	0.016	0.833
H6: Trust in co-worker support	→	Reduced personal accomplishment	−0.254	−3.499 **
H7: Emotional exhaustion	→	Hotel employee turnover	0.579	4.335 **
H8: Depersonalization	→	Hotel employee turnover	0.072	0.531
H9: Reduced personal accomplishment	→	Hotel employee turnover	0.252	4.015 **
Variance explained: R2 (hotel employee turnover) = 0.526 R2 (emotional exhaustion) = 0.188 R2 (depersonalization) = 0.140 R2 (reduced personal accomplishment) = 0.227		Goodness-of-fit statistics for the structural model: χ2 = 434.032, df = 156, p < 0.001, χ2/df = 2.782, RMSEA = 0.080, CFI = 0.927, IFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.911 ** p < 0.01

and Figure 2, the model had a sufficient level of anticipation ability for hotel employee turnover. Specifically, it explained 52.6% of the variance in hotel employee turnover. In addition, our proposed conceptual framework having trust-in-support factors and burnout dimensions explained about 18.8% variance in emotional exhaustion, 14.0% for depersonalization and 22.7% of the variance in personal accomplishment.

The hypothesized effect of trust in supervisor support on hotel employee burnout factors was tested. As expected, trust in supervisor support exerted a significant and negative influence on emotional exhaustion (β = −0.486, p < 0.01), depersonalization (β = −0.382, p < 0.01), and reduced personal accomplishment (β = −0.294, p < 0.01). This result supported Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. The hypothesized effect of trust in co-worker support on burnout factors was tested. Our result showed that trust in co-worker support has a significant and negative impact on reduced personal accomplishment (β = −0.254, p < 0.01). However, its impact on emotional exhaustion (β = 0.135, p > 0.05) and depersonalization (β = 0.016, p > 0.05) was not significant. Therefore, while Hypothesis 6 was supported, Hypotheses 4 and 5 were not supported. Next, the proposed influence of burnout dimensions on turnover was assessed. The findings revealed that both emotional exhaustion (β = 0.579, p < 0.01) and reduced personal accomplishment (β = 0.252, p < 0.01) exerted a significant effect on hotel employee turnover. Yet, the impact of depersonalization on turnover was not significant (β = 0.072, p > 0.05). Accordingly, Hypotheses 7 and 9 were supported whereas Hypothesis 8 was not supported.

An indirect effect of research variables was assessed.

Table 3. Indirect impact and total impact assessment.

On	Indirect Effect of
	Trust in Supervisor Support		Trust in Co-Worker Support
Emotional exhaustion	–		–
Depersonalization	–		–
Reduced personal accomplishment	–		–
Hotel employee turnover	−0.383 **		0.015
Total impact on hotel employee turnover: β emotional exhaustion = 0.579 ** β depersonalization = 0.072 β reduced personal accomplishment = 0.252 ** β trust in supervisor support = −0.383 ** β trust in co-worker support = 0.015		Goodness-of-fit statistics for the structural model: χ2 = 434.032, df = 156, p < 0.001, χ2/df = 2.782, RMSEA = 0.080, CFI = 0.927, IFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.911 ** p < 0.01

includes the details about indirect associations among study constructs. Our result showed that trust in supervisor support significantly affected hotel employee turnover indirectly through employee burnout factors (β = −0.383, p < 0.01). However, the indirect influence of trust in co-worker support on turnover was not significant (β = 0.015, p > 0.01). This result indicated that hotel employee burnout factors, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment played a significant mediation role in the trust-in-support factors and turnover. The total impact of research constructs was examined. As shown in Table 3, emotional exhaustion has the greatest total effect on turnover (β = 0.579, p < 0.01), followed by trust in supervisor support (β = −0.383, p < 0.01), reduced personal accomplishment (β = 0.252, p < 0.01), depersonalization (β = 0.072, p > 0.05), and trust in co-worker support (β = 0.015, p > 0.05).

5. Discussion and Implications

The study is an empirical effort to develop a robust theoretical framework for hotel employee turnover. The possible associations among trust in supervisor support, trust in co-worker support, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment in the workplace, which have been scarcely unearthed in the hotel sector, were explored. The hypothesized relationships linking study variables were generally supported. The prominent role of emotional exhaustion in increasing hotel employee turnover was identified. In addition, the association between trust in supervisor support and employee turnover was mediated by burnout factors. Our conceptual framework included a sufficient level of prediction power, satisfactorily accounting for the total variance in employee turnover. Given that little is understood about trust in supervisor/co-worker supports and burnout phenomenon among hotel employees, the findings of the present research successfully offer an apparent comprehension regarding the formation of their turnover decision by taking such trust-in-support and burnout constituents into account.

Support from supervisors and co-workers are irrefutably key social supports that workers possibly receive in the workplace [2,12,21]. In the present research, we demonstrated the significance of trust in supervisor support in weakening emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment and the importance of trust in co-worker support in fortifying personal accomplishment among hotel employees. This result implies that solely dealing with the reward/incentive system for hotel employees is not enough to minimize burnout phenomenon. Based on our evidence, building a work environment where employees can rely on supervisors and other workers and where every worker and supervisor has confidence in one another is more essential in order to effectively deal with hotel employee burnout phenomenon and lower employee turnover. Hotel entrepreneurs therefore need to place an emphasis on creating a work environment in the organization in which employees easily feel social support and have belief/confidence that their supervisors, and co-workers willingly assist them while working.

The total effect of emotional exhaustion on hotel employee turnover was found to be greater than other research constructs (see Figure 3). Emotional exhaustion as a core burnout factor played a significantly greater role in inducing turnover among hotel employees (p < 0.01). On the basis of this evidence, it is obvious that hotel entrepreneurs need to make every endeavor to reduce employees’ emotional exhaustion in the workplace for the reduction in employee turnover rate. Shih et al. [15] asserted that increasing employees’ beliefs about the possible rewards from the company/managers and decreasing their workload can be essential in minimizing their emotional exhaustion. Therefore, hotel entrepreneurs should be active in developing adequate/fair reward programs for employees and reducing their workload. Workplace green atmospherics can be another fundamental factor. Indeed, Han and Hyun [36] claimed that workplace green atmospherics are of criticality for employees’ psychological stress relief and emotional exhaustion. It is accordingly essential to design and build green workplace (e.g., green walls, fresh air, green items, green rest areas/spaces, natural scent, green interior/exterior). This effort can be an effective tactic for lowering emotional exhaustion, which eventually results in lessened turnover among hotel employees.

The present research demonstrates the active role of hotel employee burnout factors as mediators within the hypothesized conceptual framework. Specifically, emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment mediated the effect of trust in supervisor support on employee turnover in a significant manner. This result implies that hotel employee turnover is maximized when they feel emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment in the workplace. This finding in the hotel sector supported the previous studies of employee behaviors that stressed the essential mediating nature of burnout [7,30]. Our result contained a crucial theoretical meaning since it offers an apparent view of the function of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment in explicating hotel employees’ turnover decision-making process and behaviors. Recognizing this important mediating mechanism of burnout factors, hotel academics and entrepreneurs should dynamically exploit emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment in order to make best use of the influence of trust in supervisor support on lessening turnover among hotel employees.

Limitations

Although this research included the vital meanings for theory/practice, it contained several limitations. First, the proposed theoretical model was tested using hotel employees in South Korea as samples. However, hotel employee responses and behaviors can differ in other countries/cultures. Therefore, our findings need to be interpreted with caution. In order to avoid this generalizability issue, the sampling of a subset of a larger population in diverse countries/cultures is necessary for future research. Furthermore, as we know that the majority of hotel employees are female, further research may include a gender perspective in the conceptualization of this phenomenon, analyze the differences in gender, and investigate in depth whether the gender differences between men and women have the same impact on their work when they generate the phenomenon of burnout. Second, the present research centered on trust-in-support factors and burnout dimensions to explicate hotel employee turnover. Yet, there are many decisive variables that drive/hinder turnover among employees (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment, rewards, well-being, workplace green designs) [2,15,36,37]. Future research should take these essential constructs into consideration to extend the proposed theoretical framework and boost its explanatory ability.

6. Conclusions

In closing, in this research, a meaningful improvement in theory and practice was made to the extant hotel employee burnout/turnover studies in the workplace. Specifically, this research effectually broadened the existing burnout/turnover studies by taking into account such vital constructs as trust in supervisor support and trust in co-worker support. The empirical evidence of the present study provides valuable insights into research on hotel employee turnover decision-making process and behavior. Given the steady growth of the hotel industry across the globe, employee burnout phenomenon and turnover rate are increasingly becoming critical issues. The present study provides an essential guiding framework that helps hotel academics and entrepreneurs to minimize the burnout phenomenon and employee turnover, efficiently dealing with trust in supervisor and employee supports. Meanwhile, on the basis of this research, companies need to increase training for supervisors’ leadership skills and role as a positive contributor within the team in order to help employees, reduce burnout, and avoid excessive employee turnover when the phenomenon of burnout occurred. This study goes beyond the extant literature of hotel employee behaviors in the workplace by demonstrating the decisive role of trust-in-support concepts.