Exploring the Influence of Employee Personality on Incivility and Innovative Deviance Among Frontline Hotel Employees: The Mediating Role of Perceived Stress

This study looked at the complex interactions between agreeableness as a personality trait and five deviant workplace behaviours (including experienced incivility and innovative deviant behaviour) and the role of perceived stress as a mediating mechanism in front-of-house hotel workers. The study adopted a convenience sampling approach to improve access to frontline employees in the hotel sector in Turkey; a total of 500 questionnaires were collected, and 360 were usable. A partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the conceptual model and hypothesised associations. The findings show that agreeableness has a negative association with perceived stress and experienced incivility but is positively correlated with innovative deviant behaviour. In contrast, perceived stress is negatively correlated with innovative deviant behaviour but positively associated with experienced incivility. We also found that perceived stress serves as a mediating mechanism in this relationship. According to the findings, the personalities of employees and how they perceive stress could shape how it impacts workplace deviance, depending on whether it is constructive or destructive. The study’s findings have significance for managerial policies aimed at building a collaborative and innovative workplace and understanding how personality traits and perceived stress impact broader workplace deviance.