Contingent work in the hospitality industry: A mediating model of organizational attitudes

It is widely accepted that work status has an impact on emotional attachment to the organization, because of the different ways in which the two categories of workers, contingent and regular, are treated in the same organization. This study aims to investigate the effect of work status on affective commitment and how this relationship is influenced by identification processes.Survey data were obtained from contingent and regular workers in 14 high-rank Italian hotels. A test for mediation based on a multiple regression analysis was conducted.Previous research on contingent work mainly focused on the direct relationship between contingent work and behavioural outcomes. The current study extends the analysis by demonstrating that organizational identification fully mediated the relationship between work status and affective commitment. In addition, findings demonstrate that perceived external organizational image moderates the relationship between work status and organizational identification. Implications for hospitality managers are discussed in relation to future hospitality research.