The organizational change theory ( Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999) provides a useful framework for addressing these research questions. Ways hotel managers will establish a culture that empowers employees to thrive alongside service robots. Thus, the purpose of this study is to use the Delphi technique to understand hotel HR experts’ expectations regarding the following issues: Service robots are an emerging topic in hospitality and tourism literature ( Ivanov et al., 2019), and there is little research on how service robots impact hospitality leadership behaviors, particularly from a human resource (hereafter referred to as HR) perspective. Indeed, it is not only the economic and technical perspectives that must been considered when determining the appropriate use and implementation of a new technology such as service robots, but also the user and organizational perspectives, including the potential effects on the structure and culture of the organization, the decision-making processes and the user environment ( Bouwman et al., 2005). As a substitute for human staff, service robots could pose a psychological challenge to the conventional view of service, and leaders will have to accept and tackle these challenges.Īs with any new technological innovation, organizations must weigh and balance the opportunities afforded with the pressures that are placed on existing organizational process and strategy ( Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999 Choi and Ruona, 2011). The reasons may include a lack of human touch with robots, as well as ethical concerns with the possible growth of unemployment ( Lu et al., 2019). However, society could oppose using service robots for delivering human services. For example, service robots could provide hedonic experiences to service transactions, and customers may receive more predictable services from the robots. This is aligned with the organizational change theory ( Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999), which suggests that organizations are in a continual state of change, and to survive, organizations must develop the capability to transform themselves in a fundamental manner ( Choi and Ruona, 2011).Ĭustomer experiences will change quickly as the hospitality industry deploys robotic technology in the future ( Tung and Au, 2018). Instead, new perspectives suggest that leaders must foster a culture of creativity and collaboration with technology, the team and data competency ( Cesta et al., 2018). Robotic technology is not simply replacing human workers with automated machines. To uncover the true potential of robotic innovation to empower the business, corporate leaders need to rethink the relationships between guests, employees and service robots. According to the resource advantage theory of competition, an organization can obtain sustainable competitive advantage if it manages its internal resources to gain superior financial performance in dynamic industry competition and innovation plays a key role in creating competitive advantage ( Hunt and Morgan, 1996). Hoteliers around the globe are now actively exploring ways in which service robots can be used to create advantage for their organizations in increasingly competitive environments ( Pinillos et al., 2016). For example, “Flippy” has been deployed at the CaliBurger restaurant chain to prepare food alongside human employees ( Kolodny, 2017) “Connie,” a service robot, acting as a concierge in a Hilton hotel, can assist customers with directions, travel recommendations, etc. Today, robots can be found in an increasing number of “back-of-house” roles such as cooking hamburgers and cleaning floors, as well as “front-of-house” roles such as serving cocktails, checking in hotel guests and delivering items to hotel rooms ( Murphy et al., 2016). In addition, using service robots may help combat the issue of labor shortages ( Ahmed, 2017).Īs technological advancements continue and robots with the required autonomy, flexibility and efficiency become commercially available ( Frey and Osborne, 2017), there is growing interest in developing innovative ways of deploying service robots across all economic sectors, including hospitality ( Ivanov et al., 2017). Companies now expect significantly higher returns and business value from investments in robotic technologies ( Finch et al., 2018). Service robots, therefore, are designed to operate in human environments. Since then, robotic technologies have developed beyond industrial automation applications and are now increasingly found performing service tasks for humans outside of the controlled environments of a factory. Robots have been used in industrial applications since the early 1960s when specialized machines began appearing on factory assembly lines to reduce personnel costs and increase reliability. Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited
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