Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-3-2023

Publication Title

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Volume

35

Issue

11

First page number:

3864

Last page number:

3882

Abstract

Purpose: Racial code-switching is an impression management behavior for people to blend into social and professional situations by adhering to norms outside their own. Drawing on the identity threat perspective, this study aims to examine the harmful effects of racial code-switching on employee psychological depression and hospitality industry turnover intentions.

Design/methodology/approach: The current study used a two-wave time-lagged survey of 286 restaurant frontline employees. Participants were asked to rate their racial code-switching, identity threat and shame in the first survey. Participants reported their depression and industry turnover intention in the second survey one week later.

Findings: The results showed that employees that engaged in racial code-switching had higher intentions to leave the hospitality industry via the sequential mediating roles of identity threat, shame and depression.

Practical implications: The findings provide practical implications on how hospitality practitioners can foster employee authenticity and tenure by evaluating impression management strategies. This paper provides a discussion, suggestions and future research directions on how to take sustainable actions toward diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and belonging.

Originality/value: Although racial code-switching is a common behavioral strategy for whites and people of color, research on racial code-switching in the hospitality industry is limited. This study is among the first to examine racial code-switching’s health and career consequences.

Keywords

Racial Code-switching; Identity Threat Perspective; Shame; Depression; Industry Turnover Intention

Disciplines

Hospitality Administration and Management | Race and Ethnicity

File Format

pdf

File Size

5800 KB

Language

English

Permissions

© Emerald Publishing Limited. This AAM is provided for your own personal use only. It may not be used for resale, reprinting, systematic distribution, emailing, or for any other commercial purpose without the permission of the publisher.

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Publisher Citation

Jaimi Garlington, Cass Shum, Gloria Wong-Padoongpatt, Laura Book; “What it do?” The effects of racial code-switching on industry turnover intention. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 3 November 2023; 35 (11): 3864–3882. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-11-2022-1335

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