Mediating Effects of Trust in Leaders and Supervisor Support on the Soft Skills of Hotel, Airline, and Tourism and Service Business Workers’ Job Performance

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Tippawan Jantamaneechot
Sippavit Wongsuwatt
Wipada Thaothampitak

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This study focused on exploring how soft skills influence job performance and investigating the role of trust in leaders and supervisors support from among hotel, airline, and tourism and service industry employees based on affective event theory. Using a quantitative method, data was collected from 420 participants who were working in hotel, airline, and tourism and service businesses located along Thailand’s Andaman coast using quota sampling, which represents an 84.5% response rate to the online questionnaires distributed for data gathering. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), this research highlights the direct and indirect effects of trust in leaders and supervisors’ support on soft skills’ effects on job performance. The results indicate a significant impact by soft skills on job performance, trust in leaders, and supervisors’ support. The findings showed that trust in leaders and supervisor support significantly mediated the impact soft skills on job performance. Soft skills, trust in leaders, and supervisor support are currently viewed as an essential element for workers, especially in the tourism and hospitality sector, to enhance their job performance. Yet, there have been few studies intended to determine the influences of soft skills on workers’ job performance, trust in leaders, and supervisor support separately in the contexts of hotel, airline, and tourism and service businesses. Thus, this research intended to eliminate the research gap in making academic originality and present useful contributions of the related suggestions based on the findings.

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