leadership and motivation in hospitality

To employ the DSB construct for empirical research requires it to be
operationalised and this process has been undertaken by Simons and Roberson
(2003). Simons and Roberson (2003: 436) describe using the DSB concept for
the development of a four item scale for structural equation modelling. They
designed these items for a peer evaluation of co-worker behaviour based on Van
Dyne and LePine’s (1998) finding that peer evaluations were more representative
of actual behaviour then self-assessment.

Construct name Discretionary Service Behaviour (DSB)

Definition Co-workers’ guest-directed extra effort

Understanding of
concept

DSB describes a service employee’s discretionary (i.e. beyond

expectations) guest-focused service behaviour

Inclusion rationale

(A) to test the DSB construct in an independent sample

following the work of Simons and Roberson (2003); and

(B) to provide a performance measure at the group level

Scale source/s Blancero and Johnson (1997, 2001); Simons and Roberson (2003)

Scale semantic Frequency

Looking at each of the four statements below, please
tick a box to describe how often you have seen this
behaviour in your current workplace.

Frequency

Never Always

DSB1 My coconcerns very seriously-workers show they take guests' 1 2 3 4 5

DSB2

If one of my co-workers does not know the

answer to a guest's question, he or she makes

an effort to find out

1 2 3 4 5

DSB3 My coguest's special request-workers go out of their way to deliver a 1 2 3 4 5

DSB4

If a guest approaches when one of my co-

workers is busy, he or she stops whatever they

are doing and talks with the guest

1 2 3 4 5

Figure 5-11 The Discretionary Service Behaviour construct

Only two of the four items were reported in Simons and Roberson (2003) –
accordingly, the first author was contacted and he provided details of all of the
items along with a brief background and rationale for their design (Simons 2010,
personal communication). The four items developed and used by Simons and
Robertson (Simons and Roberson 2003; Simons 2010) are described in Figure
5 - 11 alongside summary details of how the contruct relates to the current
research.