The Impact of Perceived Forgiveness Climate on the Attitudes and Work Behaviors of Employees of Mashhad Apartment Hotels and Hostels

Extended Abstract: Even though the benefits of the perceived forgiveness climate have been acknowledged in organizations, most services businesses, especially in relation to the tourism industry, have neglected this important category. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the perceived forgiveness climate on learning behavior, job satisfaction, and intention to quit, as well as the mediating role of learning behavior in the relationship between independent and dependent variables. This is an applied research in terms of objective, and a survey research in terms of method, because a questionnaire was used to determine the quantity and type of relationships between variables to find an answer for a scientific question in the real world. According to the statistics and existing data (at the time of the study), the study population consisted of 580 receptionists of Mashhad apartment hotels and hostels.
The results indicated that the perceived forgiveness climate has a positive impact on job satisfaction and learning behavior of employees. However, contrary to the research hypothesis, the relationship between the perceived forgiveness climate and intention to quit was not confirmed. Moreover, the mediating role of learning behavior in the relationships between the perceived forgiveness climate, job satisfaction, and intention to quit was confirmed.
Hospitality organizations always face potential errors (e.g. service failure) and are quite familiar with the negative effects of such mistakes. They commonly use sophisticated technologies, planned strategies, and excessive and strict controls over the behaviors of employees involved in delivering customer services, and hence neglect to focus their attention on positive organizational behaviors. Nevertheless, it is quite impossible to eliminate or prevent human errors. Therefore, the workplace forgiveness climate is vital for the service sector. In service organizations where there is a lack of forgiveness and those who make mistakes are punished, the cause of error is usually ignored and employees are reluctant to talk about their mistakes. Therefore, learning behavior never occurs and it is likely that the organizations face employees’ low job satisfaction and high intention to quit.
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the perceived forgiveness climate, employee learning behavior, job satisfaction, and intention to quit, as well as the mediating role of learning behavior in the relationship between the perceived forgiveness climate and job attitudes (job satisfaction and intention to quit).
This is an applied research in terms of objective and a questionnaire was using to collect the data. The questionnaire’s items were selected from Guchait studies (2016) for the perceived forgiveness climate (3 items) and the learning behavior (5 items), Saks studies (2006) for job satisfaction (3 items), and Nadiri and Tanova studies (2010) for intention to quit (3 items). Factor analysis was used to assess the construct validity of the questionnaire. According to existing data, the population consisted of 580 receptionists who worked in Mashhad apartment hotels and hostels.
The Cochran formula was used to determine the sample size from a given finite population. According to an initial pretest performed on a sample of 30 questionnaires, the minimum sample size was determined 231 people. Then, a total of 235 questionnaires were collected. Data analysis was carried out using various statistical methods, namely Pearson’s zero-order correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling for evaluating the structural equation model fitness with the collected data, using AMOS and SPSS.
In this research, eight hypotheses were formulated and seven were confirmed. The study results for the given population indicated a positive relationship between the perceived forgiveness climate, learning behavior, and job satisfaction. Learning behavior is positively related to employee job satisfaction, while its relation with intention to quit is negative. Furthermore, job satisfaction has a negative impact on intention to quit. Findings of the study suggest that learning behavior has a mediating role in the relationship between the perceived forgiveness climate and intention to quit. Therefore, it can be concluded that the increased learning behavior of the receptionists can increase their job satisfaction but decrease their intention to quit. However, the research hypothesis about the negative relationship between the perceived forgiveness climate and intention to quit was rejected, which can be attributed to the cultural and economic issues, as well as incompatibility in personality traits and the desired job.
According to the research findings, the perceived forgiveness climate plays an important role in reducing job stress, which contributes to job satisfaction and reduced intention to quit through the occurrence of learning behaviors. Therefore, managers of tourism organizations are required to strengthen the perceived forgiveness climate within their organizations in order to maintain skilled human resources, as a prerequisite for providing services to meet their customers’ need. Dissemination of learning behavior among employees of the tourism industry can be achieved through the perceived forgiveness climate. Therefore, managers of tourism organizations need to develop policies, plans, and strategies to engage employees in learning behavior to produce positive results (namely, reducing the intention to quit the job). Achieving this goal, to some extent, depends on creating a safe work environment (i.e. the perceived forgiveness climate) within the organization.