Employees’ empathy in the hospitality industry: VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination Presentation Title: Employees’ empathy in the hospitality industry: A case study of Iranian hotels Authors: Mohamad Sharifi-Tehrani (University of Isfahan, Iran), Moji Shahvali (Pennsylvania State University, USA), Lisa G. Beesley-De Andrade (Griffith University, Australia), Bahram Ranjbarian (University of Isfahan, Iran) 2-4 December 2014, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Four propositions to be discussed: Empathy and its importance in the hospitality industry Affecting factors on empathy (gender, generation, travel and work experience) Method (measuring empathy by Interpersonal Reactivity Index, questionnaire, sampling) Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Customer Experience Management in Hospitality Affecting factors on empathy Commodities Goods Services Experience Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Emotional intelligence and empathy Affecting factors on empathy Emotional intelligence definition Scales to measure service quality Impact of empathy on customers’ satisfaction and loyalty Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Empathy dimensions Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Empathy dimensions Empathic response Cognitive Orientation Self Other Fantasy Perspective Taking Emotional Personal Distress Empathic Concern Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Factors affecting empathy Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Factors affecting empathy Cultural factors (travel and work experience) Experiences with different cultures is expected to increase levels of emotional intelligence (and in turn, empathy). 2. Gender Women display more empathy than men. 3. Generation Members of Generation X and Y own increased levels of self-importance and self-orientation (i.e. PD dimension) compared with Baby Boomers. Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 28 items with seven items to assess each of the four sub-scales PT, F, EC and PD. Normative scores of empathy Using American university students, the initial IRI scale produced normative scores across each of the four subscales (Davis, 1980) across gender. Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Questionnaire The questionnaire consisted of two sections: Seven items to assess each the four sub-scales of empathy PT, FS, EC, and PD on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 0= ‘not at all like me’ to 4= ‘just like me’. Generation, gender, work experience and international travel experience Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Sampling Eight front-line employees from 18 four- or five star hotels located in two primary tourism destinations in Iran -the cities of Tehran or Shiraz- were randomly invited to participate in this investigation in July 2012. Final analysis was performed on 100 responses using SPSS® with a probability value of 0.05. Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Participants’ profile Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Participants’ profile 55 males and 45 females. Mean age of participants was 31.9 years. participants were classified as Baby Boomers (born 1945-1964) (n=14), Gen X (born 1965-1983) (n=51), or Gen Y (1984-1995) (n=35). Length of employment ranged from one month to 30 years. The median value of work experience was three years. 24 females and 25 males participating in this study had travelled internationally. Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Primary analysis Reliability analysis Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Primary analysis Reliability analysis The independence of the sub-scales Affecting factors on empathy Empathic Concern Perspective Taking Personal Distress Fantasy .229§ .033 .366§ Empathic Concern .165 .218§ -.287§ §Significant at α=0.05 Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Gender Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Gender Affecting factors on empathy Male (n=55) Female (n=45) Statistic Mean SD t-value* Fantasy 11.76 4.13 11.87 5.27 -0.11 Empathic Concern 17.55 4.28 19.16 4.10 -1.91 Perspective Taking 17.35 3.31 15.82 4.31 2.00§ Personal Distress 12.20 3.86 15.07 4.29 -3.52§§ *Equal variance assumed using Levene’s Test for Equality of Differences (p>0.05) §Significant at α=0.05 §§Significant at α=0.01 Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Normative scores Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Normative scores Affecting factors on empathy Normative Sample t-value* Male Female Fantasy 15.73 18.75 11.76 11.87 12.34 8.59 Empathic Concern 19.04 21.67 17.55 19.16 6.04 4.21 Perspective Taking 16.78 17.96 17.35 15.82 -2.11 2.87 Personal Distress 9.46 12.28 12.20 15.07 -10.40 -3.63 * All obtained t-values were significant at α=0.05 Method Results Discussion and conclusion * All obtained t-values were significant at α=0.05 December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Normative and Generation scores Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy levels Normative and Generation scores December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Travel experience Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Travel experience Affecting factors on empathy Females who had not travelled overseas reported higher EC scores than their male counterparts. Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Work experience Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Work experience Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Work experience Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Work experience Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Work experience Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Empathy levels Work experience Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Empathy and its importance Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development Empathy and its importance Discussion and conclusion Employing those from the generation x as front liners is expected to enhance quality of contacts with customers in terms of empathy. Necessity of training employees to have better empathic relations with customers in the hotels. Measuring empathy levels in an Islamic hospitality. Affecting factors on empathy Method Results Discussion and conclusion December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination

Tourism Competitiveness begins and endures with Workforce Development In a nutshell: Tourism Competitiveness begins and endures with Workforce Development Tourism Competitiveness begins with Workforce Development December 2014 VII International Tourism Congress: The Image and Sustainability of Tourist Destination