Organizational Practices and Continuous Improvement Outcomes: Exploring the Mediating Role of Implementation Level in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the influence of internal organisational practices, namely employee engagement, quality education, and data analysis and evaluation, on continuous improvement (CI) results in the hospitality industry through the mediating role of CI implementation level. A measurement tool was developed, piloted, and pre-tested, and principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to assess construct validity and refine the component structure. PLS-SEM was used to test the proposed structural model based on data collected from 244 senior and middle managers in medium and large hospitality organisations. The findings indicate that the level of CI implementation has a strong and significant impact on CI outcomes. Employee engagement and data analysis and evaluation can have significant direct effects on the CI level and significant indirect effects on CI results through the level of CI implementation. Quality education has no statistically significant direct or indirect effect. The contribution of this study is based on confirming the importance of CI level as a mediator in the relationship between organisational practices and improvement outcomes. This study extends the CI literature by identifying the organisational practices most strongly associated with CI implementation level and improvement outcomes in hospitality organisations within the European context.