Exploring emotional intelligence: a study of Vietnamese hotel workers.

Abstract

Recent research recognises the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the hospitality industry. Hospitality employees are required to regulate their emotions effectively during face-to-face interactions with customers, which forms a crucial part of the experience. Research on EI in hospitality are predominantly quantitative to measure the relationship between EI and work-related factors: education and training, leadership or management, and culture. Furthermore, EI research is heavily Western centric because of the selection of sample and place of the research. This study explores Vietnamese hotel workers’ practice of EI in interactions with customers and colleagues in the workplace in Vietnam. The study adopted a qualitative approach using three methods; focus groups with 20 hotel employees, the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to record favourable and unfavourable incidents (114 incidents in total), and semi-structured interviews with 34 hotel employees. All the data was collected in Nhatrang, Vietnam in October 2015 and September and October 2016. The research findings show that their EI practice varied depending on the context and with whom they interacted, which highlights the advantage of employing the qualitative approach. Vietnamese hotel workers employed different strategies to recognise and regulate their own emotions and the emotions of customers and colleagues. These were obtained through higher education, hotel training programmes, their experiences and those of colleagues and managers. In addition, Vietnamese culture was found to influence their emotions and how they managed them and others’ emotions. Also, a significant source of knowledge of emotional management derived from their religion and culture. Implications are discussed from theoretical, methodological, and managerial perspectives, which will benefit stakeholders in the sector.