Customer-employee exchange work through psychological safety and self-efficacy for improved hotel employees’ work engagement

Fan Deng^*
School of Management Engineering and Business, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, 056038, China
* Corresponding Author: Fan Deng. Email: email

Journal of Psychology in Africa https://doi.org/10.32604/jpa.2025.068735

Received 05 June 2025; Accepted 28 October 2025; Published online 28 November 2025

Download PDF

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between customer-employee exchange (CEX) and employee work engagement (vigor, dedication, absorption), and the role of psychological safety and self-efficacy mediate that relationship. Survey data were collected from 329 Chinese hotel employees (females = 52.9%, tenure: 1–3 years = 50.5%). The results following ordinary least squares regression and the SPSS PROCESS macro indicate that higher customer-employee exchange is associated with employee vigor, dedication, and absorption. Psychological safety and self-efficacy mediate the relationship between customer-employee exchange and vigor and dedication to be stronger, while the work absorption mediating effect is not significant. Our findings underscore the importance of adopting a social exchange theory lens for high-quality customer–employee exchange in service settings–and how this exchange translates into engagement through the socio-cognitive mechanisms of psychological safety and self-efficacy. These findings suggest a need for human resources managers in the hotel industry to engage in customer-employee exchange practices for higher employee work engagement.