IRACST- International Journal of Research in Management & Technology (IJRMT), ISSN: 2249-9563

Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

The Effects of Nonverbal Communication of Hotel

Employees upon Emotional Responses of Hotel
Guests
Shirley Kueh

Dr. Awangku Hassanal Bahar Pengiran Bagul

School of Business and Economics

University Malaysia Sabah
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

School of Business and Economics

University Malaysia Sabah
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract This study was carried out to understand the effects of

hotel employees nonverbal communication on the emotional
responses of hotel guests in one and two star hotels of Kota
Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Through the administration of
survey questionnaires, a total of 128 hotel guests participated in
this study. Three dimensions of nonverbal communication were
identified: body and vocal behaviour, physical appearance, and
touching behaviour. With regards to emotional responses, two
dimensions, namely positive and negative emotion were
identified. The results showed that body and vocal behaviour,
and physical appearance of hotel employees have a significant
positive effect on the positive emotion of hotel guest. Meanwhile,
only body and vocal behaviour of hotel employees negatively
affect negative emotion of hotel guest. Interestingly, it was found
that touching behaviour of hotel employees has a significant
positive effect on negative emotion. Limitations of the study and
suggestions for future research are also discussed.
Keywords Nonverbal Communication; Emotional Responses;
Hotel Industry

I.

INTRODUCTION

Face-to-face conversation involves immediate feedback, on

the spot clarification, and the opportunity to observe nonverbal
communication signs [1]. Apart from communicating meaning,
information, and thoughts, [2] highlighted that attitudes and
emotions can also be communicated through interpersonal
interactions. In general, nonverbal behaviours fall into four
categories: kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage and physical
appearance [3]. Nonverbal communication is crucial to servicebased businesses because service employees are directly
involved in building relationships with its customers. As
explained by the concept of emotional labour, service
employees are often expected to put up positive display attitude
through facial expressions, body language, or even tone of
voice [4, 5, 6], together with a presentable appearance [7, 8] as
part of their job requirement.
Research has shown that service employees nonverbal
communication such as facial expression and emotional display
[9, 10], smiles [11, 12, 13, 14] and physical appearance [15, 16,
17] has an impact on the outcome of the service encounter.
Other studies provided evidence of nonverbal communication

from a wider scope including posture, eye contact, smiling,

nodding, vocal tone and intonation [18, 19]. The emotional
contagion theory which suggests the transmission of emotion
through nonverbal cues during interpersonal interaction has
often been put forward to explain how customers capture the
emotion of service employees [10, 20]. In other words, the
expression of favourable nonverbal behaviours may induce
customers to experience positive emotion at service touchpoints.
Tourism is a vital economic driver for Sabah as the third
highest contributor to the states economy after agriculture and
manufacturing [21]. In fact, the growth of Sabahs tourism
industry is very encouraging, recording a total growth of 13.6%
visitor arrivals in 2011 [22]. The increasing growth of the hotel
industry, particularly in emerging tourist destinations led to
intensified competition [23]. As a result, one of the main
challenges faced by the hotel industry is the issue of improving
their competitive advantage, in which, part of the concern
revolve around the roles of frontline employees in creating high
quality service encounters [7]. In fact, the lack of proper
nonverbal communication during service interaction with
customers reduces the likelihood of customers to develop
appreciation or emotional connection with the service provider.
The link between service employees nonverbal
communication and the customers emotional response, as well
as other outcome of the service encounter has been widely
investigated in many settings. However, most of these studies
were conducted based on experimental approach instead of
real-life experiences. Although this approach allows the control
of extraneous variables or any variation in the service
encounter, relevant behaviours in everyday setting may not be
observed. Hence, there is a need to further refine understanding
of the effects of hotel employees nonverbal communication
upon emotional responses of hotel guest based on real-life
service encounters. Moreover, there is relatively limited study
on nonverbal communication in the Malaysian context. With
the aforementioned issues in mind, this study attempts to
identify the types of nonverbal communication in the hotel
industry, as well as to identify hotel employees nonverbal
communication that cause positive emotion and negative
emotion of hotel guests.

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Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

II.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Nonverbal Communication
Reference [24] defined nonverbal communication as a
process whereby people, through the intentional or
unintentional behaviour of normative actions and expectations,
other than words themselves, express experiences, feelings, and
attitudes in order to relate to and control themselves, others,
and their environments (p. 8). Although [25] also agreed that
nonverbal communication refers to communication by using
methods other than words, the authors highlighted that
nonverbal communication is a rather complex phenomena,
which at times cannot be completely separated from verbal
communication, but is instead intertwined with each other.
Several authors have organized nonverbal communication into
different categories. Reference [26] categorized nonverbal
communication into physical appearance, gesture and
movement, face and eye behaviour, vocal behaviour, space,
touch, environment and time, while [18] categorized nonverbal
behaviours into proxemics, kinesics, oculesics and vocalic.
Based on the study by [3], nonverbal communication is divided
into kinesics such as body movements, body orientation, eye
contact, nodding, hand shaking, and smiling; proxemics, such
as the distance and relative posture between the speaker and the
listener during a communication process; paralanguage such as
vocal qualities or verbal cues; and physical appearance such as
physical attractiveness and appropriate clothing.
B. Emotional Contagion
In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of
literature on emotional contagion [10, 20, 27, 28, 29]. Although
there is a lack of agreement in the literature on an exact
definition for emotion, the term is usually explained with
reference to a list of feelings such as anger, disgust, fear, joy,
sadness, and surprise [30]. Meanwhile, emotional contagion is
explained as a process in which a person or group influences
the emotions or behaviour of another person or group through
the conscious or unconscious induction of emotion states and
behavioural attitudes [31]. Consistent with this definition, [32]
explained emotional contagion as the tendency to
automatically
mimic
and
synchronize
expressions,
vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another
persons, and consequently, to converge emotionally (pp. 96).
Overall, this theory is useful to aid the understanding of various
interpersonal communication settings where face-to-face
interactions are involved. Relating back to this study, the
emotional contagion theory is particularly valuable to explain
emotional response of hotel guest towards the display of
nonverbal behaviours by hotel employees.
C. Relationship between Nonverbal Communication and
Emotional Respose
The experiment by [33] found that both positive and
negative emotional responses can be unknowingly elicited
when exposed to different facial expressions, indicating that
emotional communication can occur unconsciously during
face-to-face interaction. Extending from the previous
experiment, [34] reported that mimicry was detected for the
expression of anger, sadness, disgust, and happiness. Moreover,

proof of emotional contagion was found for happiness and

sadness. Similarly, [35] discovered that participants with high
empathy demonstrate a significant mimicking reaction at short
exposure times which represents automatic and spontaneous
reaction. Recently, [9] used an experimental approach of videobased stimuli to investigate how multiple sequential emotional
displays by employees affect customers negative emotions in a
restaurant setting. The result showed that higher degrees of
negative emotional displays by employees increased negative
emotion of customers during service breakdown. On the other
hand, employees positive emotional displays decreased
customers negative emotion during service recovery. Unlike
researchers that applied experimental approach in previous
studies [9, 33, 34, 35], [16] attempted to gather data from reallife experience of consumers. They found that consumers
shopping for apparel, shoes, or accessories in specialty or
departmental stores relate aspects of sale associates appearance
to their emotions, store image, and their purchase. In contrast to
most research findings, the study by [12] found no evidence for
the existence of emotional contagion in service encounters.
While some researchers studied service quality perception
of customers as an extension of emotional response from the
nonverbal communication of service employees [10, 36, 37],
others attempt to directly relate nonverbal communication of
service employee with service quality perception of customers
[17, 18]. Through a research conducted in banks, [10] reported
that there is a positive relationship between employees
positive emotion display and customers positive affect, as well
as their evaluations of service quality. In another study
conducted using a written scenario and a picture of the service
employee in a hotel setting, [37] concluded that an open body
posture, along with appropriate eye contact led to positive
emotions and favourable judgments about the staff. It was
further reported that staffs displaying positive nonverbal
behaviours were rated more credible, competent, courteous,
and trustworthy. Reference [36] also agreed that employee
affective delivery has a positive influence on customer emotion
and service outcomes.
In addition, there are a number of studies that describe the
role of service employees nonverbal communication in
affecting customer satisfaction. Although only some
researchers explained this relationship via emotional response
or emotional contagion theory [13, 19, 31], it is generally
agreeable that customer satisfaction in service encounters often
results from a good feeling or a good perception of the service
employee. In a study involving food services, [11] found that
customers expression change as a function of employees
facial expression. Meanwhile, [13] asserted that smiling service
employee leads to a higher degree of customer satisfaction than
the neutral service employee. The outcome of the study is
explained by the emotion contagion theory whereby the
emotions of customers were induced by facial expression or
behaviour of the service employee. The research by [19]
offered a broader examination of nonverbal communication
from a few aspects including kinesics, proxemics,
paralanguage, and physical appearance. Through the
administration of survey questionnaires in family restaurants,
the researchers concluded that kinesics and proxemics of
service employees significantly affect customers positive

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Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

emotion. Meanwhile, customers negative emotion was

affected by service employees kinesics and paralanguage. In
turn, positive or negative emotion of customers ultimately
affects their satisfaction.
Clearly, the above literature review depicts the effort of
researchers to understand the link between nonverbal
communication and emotional response; as well as the link
between emotional response and service quality perception.
However, there are also studies that investigated the direct
relationship between nonverbal communication and service
quality perception, without explaining the possible emotional
link between the two variables [17, 18, 38]. In other studies,
nonverbal communication is directly linked to customer
satisfaction without examining the role of emotions [14, 15, 39,
40]. In view that emotional response was not investigated in
some previous studies as the link between nonverbal
communication and service quality perception, as well as the
link between nonverbal communication and customer
satisfaction, it is interesting to first explore how nonverbal
communication elicit emotional response. Therefore, the
current study emphasized on the need to understand customers
emotion before relating nonverbal communication with other
aspects of consumer behaviour.
III.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Framework and Hypotheses

From the literature review, it can be seen nonverbal
communication studies have been conducted in different
service settings including hotel reception setting. However,
many of these studies employed experimental approach instead
of gathering data from real-life service encounters. More
importantly, majority of the studies focused on specific aspect
of nonverbal communication instead of a more comprehensive
study of nonverbal communication from multiple aspects.
Therefore, the hypotheses of the current study were formulated
based on four major aspects of nonverbal communication,
namely kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage and physical
appearance. In fact, the research framework for this study
(Figure I) was adapted from the work by [19]. Specifically, the
hypotheses for this study are as follows:
H1.

The perception of hotel employees non-verbal

communication is positively related to the positive
emotions of hotel guests.
H1a.
The perception of hotel employees kinesics
is positively related to the positive emotions
of hotel guests.
H1b.
The perception of hotel employees
proxemics is positively related to the positive
emotions of hotel guests.
H1c.
The perception of hotel employees
paralanguage is positively related to the
positive emotions of hotel guests.
H1d.
The perception of hotel employees physical
appearance is positively related to the
positive emotions of hotel guests.

H2.

The perception of hotel employees nonverbal

communication is negatively related to the negative
emotions of hotel guests.
H2a.
The perception of hotel employees kinesics
is negatively related to the negative emotions
of hotel guests.
H2b.
The perception of hotel employees
proxemics is negatively related to the
negative emotions of hotel guests.
H2c.
The perception of employees paralanguage is
negatively related to the negative emotions of
hotel guests.
H2d.
The perception of employees physical
appearance is negatively related to the
negative emotions of hotel guests.
Kinesics
Positive
emotion

Proxemics

Paralanguage
Negative
emotion
Physical
appearance
Figure I: A proposed conceptual framework.
Source: Adapted from [19].

B. Sample and Data Collection

The data used for the study were collected from hotel
guests of one and two star hotel in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
Instead of choosing higher star rated hotels as the scope of
study, one and two star hotels were chosen because service
variation in these hotels is anticipated to be higher. As
compared to higher star hotels, lower star rated hotels generally
lack explicit policies about display rules of its front line
employees [6]. Therefore, it would be more meaningful to
study the effects of hotel employees nonverbal communication
on the service encounter under such condition. Of the 15 one
and two star hotels approached, two hotels, namely Tune Hotel
1 Borneo and De Galleria Hotel participated in the study.
A self-administered questionnaire was developed using
adapted questions from [19]. A pilot study was conducted to
establish content validity of the questionnaire. For this, a total
of 10 hotel guests were approached to fill in the questionnaire.
Upon completion of the questionnaire, they were asked on
whether they were able to understand the questions and the
terms used. Overall, the participants responded that they clearly
understood the questionnaire. Therefore, the survey instrument
was maintained as it is. Data was collected in June 2012. Hotel
guests who were sitting or waiting at respective hotel lobby
were personally approached to answer the questionnaire. All
questionnaires were checked on the spot to ensure that the
questionnaires were properly filled. Although a total of 170

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Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

hotel guests were approached, only 128 hotel guests agreed to

participate in the survey (response rate of 75.3%).
C. Instrument and Measurement
Multiple items scale was used to measure each construct in
the study. The questionnaire instrument included 28 items
divided into three sections. Section A consisted of questions
about demographic information of the respondents, including
gender, age, nationality, and duration of stay. Section B
consisted of questions related to nonverbal communication of
hotel employees whereas Section C consisted of questions
related to emotional responses of hotel guests.
Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating
experience, feelings, and attitude by means other than language
expressions [24]. In general, nonverbal communication can be
categorized into kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage, and
physical appearance [3]. To measure hotel guests perception
of nonverbal communication, this study adapted multi-item
scales of [19], modifying them to fit the study settings (Table
I). Meanwhile, emotions are personal feelings arising from
certain behaviours or responses [19]. This study examines
both positive and negative dimensions of hotel guests
emotional response (Table II). A seven-point Likert scale
ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7)
was used to assess each statement in Section B and Section C
of the questionnaire.
TABLE I.
No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.

MEASUREMENT ITEMS FOR NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Nonverbal communication
The employee has a nice, friendly attitude in serving customers.
The employee uses proper eye contact.
The employee nods his/ her head properly.
The employee shakes his/ her hand properly.
The employee serves with polite smiles.
The employee serves me from a proper distance.
The employee keeps appropriate distance while serving me.
The employee has appropriate physical touch with me when
providing services.
The employee converses in a proper tone.
The employee converses clearly.
The employee converses in a gentle tone.
The employee converses in a proper speed.
The employees voice is not annoyingly loud.
The employee has an attractive look.
The employee is properly dressed.
The employee has an arranged hairstyle.

Source: Adapted from [19]

TABLE II.
No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

MEASUREMENT ITEMS FOR EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

Emotional response
This hotel makes me feel happy.
This hotel makes me feel pleased.
This hotel makes me feel entertained.
This hotel makes me feel delighted.
This hotel makes me feel unhappy.
This hotel makes me feel annoyed.
This hotel makes me feel bored.
This hotel makes me feel disappointed.

Source: Adopted from [19]

D. Data Analysis Method

The Statistical Package for Social Science, SPSS version
16.0 was used for the data analysis. Descriptive statistics was
performed to profile demographics of the respondents. Factor
analysis was used as a technique to summarize the structure of
a set of variables [41]. Following factor analysis, a reliability
test was conducted to determine whether a group of items
consistently reflected the construct it is measuring [42]. Then,
Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to examine the
strength and the direction of the relationship between all
constructs of the study. Multiple regression analysis was run
twice to test the significance of the two main hypotheses.
IV.

RESULTS

A. Profile of Respondents
The demographic characteristics of the respondents are
presented in Table III. Respondents consisted of 43.8% male
and 56.2% female. With regards to age, 39.1% of the
respondents were 20 to 29 years old, 32.8% were 30 to 39
years old, 22.7% were 40 to 49 years old, and 5.5% were 50
years old or older. The majority of the respondents (85.9%)
were locals. As for the hotel stayed, 69.5% of the respondents
stayed in Tune Hotel and 30.5% stayed in De Galleria Hotel.
Lastly, in terms of the duration of stay at respective hotels,
58.6% stayed for less than three days, 32.8% stayed for three to
seven days, and 8.6% stayed for more than 7 days.
TABLE III.
Characteristics
Gender
Age

Nationality
Hotel stayed
Duration of stay

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SAMPLE (N = 128)

Category
Male
Female
20 29
30 39
40 49
Above 50
Local
Foreign
Tune Hotel 1 Borneo
De Galleria Hotel
Less than 3 days
3 7 days
More than 7 days

Frequency
56
72
50
42
29
7
110
18
89
39
75
42
11

Percentage
43.8
56.2
39.1
32.8
22.7
5.5
85.9
14.1
69.5
30.5
58.6
32.8
8.6

B. Factor Analysis
Factor analysis was conducted to confirm that distinct
dimensions existed for each factor. In this study, the total
number of items to measure all of the variables was 24. Using
the guideline by [43], the minimum requirement for the sample
size was 120 respondents (five times 24 items). Therefore, the
current sample size of 128 respondents was acceptable and
appropriate for factor analysis. Six assumptions recommended
by [43] need to be met to ensure the appropriateness of factor
analysis. First, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling
adequacy (KMO) values must exceed .50. Second, the result of
Barletts test of sphericity should be at least significant at .05.
Third, anti-image correlation matrix of items should be at least
above .50. Fourth, communalities of the variables must be
greater than .50. Fifth, the factor loadings of .50 or above for
each item are considered practical and statistically significant

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Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

for sample size of 120. Lastly, factors with eigenvalues greater

than 1 are considered significant.
1) Nonverbal Communication: The initial run of the factor
analysis on the 16 items of nonverbal communication
produced three factors with eigenvalues above one. The
Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin value was .914 and the Bartlette test of
sphericity was significant at 0.000. Anti-image correlation for
the entire nonverbal communication variables were greater
than 0.5. However, the item the employee keeps appropriate
distance while serving me was cross-loaded on other factors.
This item was removed and the factor analysis was run again.
The second run of factor analysis also extracted three factors
with eigenvalues greater than one. The Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin
value was .916 and the Bartlette test of sphericity was
significant at 0.000. Anti-image correlation for the entire
nonverbal communication variables were greater than 0.5. The
item the employee serves me from a proper distance was
dropped due to cross-loading on other factors.
The final run of factor analysis yielded three factors with
eigenvalue greater than one, which explained 78.47% of the
total variance (Table IV). The Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin value was
.912 and the Bartlette test of sphericity was significant at 0.000.
Anti-image correlation of the remaining 14 items of nonverbal
communication exceeded 0.50. The communalities of the 14
variables ranged from .60 to .91 while the factor loadings
ranged from .63 to .90. Factor one captured 41.44% of the total
variance with an eigenvalue of 8.21. Since factor one is a
combination of items from kinesics and paralanguage, it was
renamed as body and vocal behaviour. Factor two physical
appearance, has an eigenvalue of 1.67, reflecting 22.14% of
the total variance. Since the items in factor three are related to
touching behaviour, this factor is named as touching
behaviour. Reference [44] mentioned that a factor with fewer
than three items could be weak and unstable. However,
although touching behaviour consists of only two items, the
factor loadings of these two items were high. Since the squared
loading is the amount of the variables total variance accounted
for by the factor, high factor loading translates into high
variance accounted for by the factor. Moreover, factor loadings
exceeding .70 are considered indicative of a well-defined
structure [43]. Hence, factor three touching behaviour was
retained for further analysis. This factor has an eigenvalue of
1.11, explaining 14.89% of the total variance.
2) Emotional Response: As expected, two factors with
eigenvalue greater than one were produced which explained
85.22% of the total variance (Table V). The Kaiser-MeyerOklin value was .811 and the Barletts test of sphericity was
significant at 0.000. Anti-image correlation of all 8 items
exceeded 0.5. The communalities of the 8 variables range
from .762 to .925 while the factor loadings range from .826 to.
936. Factor one positive emotion has an eigenvalue of 4.71,
reflecting 44.09% of the total variance. Meanwhile, factor two
negative emotion captured 41.14% of the total variance with
an eigenvalue of 2.11.

TABLE IV.

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Items
Factor 1: Body and vocal behaviour
The employee has a nice, friendly attitude in
serving customers.
The employee converses in a gentle tone.
The employee uses proper eye contact.
The employee converses in a proper speed.
The employee converses clearly.
The employee serves with polite smiles.
The employee converses in a proper tone.
The employees voice is not annoyingly loud.
The employee nods his/ her head properly.
Factor 2: Physical appearance
The employee is properly dressed.
The employee has an arranged hairstyle.
The employee has an attractive look.
Factor 3: Touching behaviour
The employee shakes his/ her hand properly.
The employee has appropriate physical touch
with me when providing services.
Eigenvalue
% of variance
Total variance explained
Measure of sampling adequacy
Bartlette test of sphericity
Significant
TABLE V.

F1

F2

F3

.848
.831
.818
.813
.807
.759
.756
.728
.632
.901
.886
.854
.860
.819
8.21
41.44
78.47
.912
1575
.000

1.67
22.14

1.11
14.89

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

Items
Factor 1: Positive emotion
This hotel makes me feel pleased.
This hotel makes me feel entertained.
This hotel makes me feel delighted.
This hotel makes me feel happy.
Factor 2: Negative emotion
This hotel makes me feel disappointed.
This hotel makes me feel annoyed.
This hotel makes me feel bored.
This hotel makes me feel unhappy.
Eigenvalue
% of variance
Total variance explained
Measure of sampling adequacy
Bartlette test of sphericity
Significant

F1

F2

.936
.924
.913
.904

4.71
44.09
85.22
.811
1040
.000

.941
.891
.890
.826
2.11
41.14

C. Reliability Analysis
In general, an alpha value close to 1.0 indicates high
internal consistency reliability, an alpha value less than 0.6 is
considered to be poor, valued of 0.7 are considered acceptable,
and values above 0.8 are deemed to be good [45]. All of the
Cronbachs alpha values revealed significantly over 0.8,
indicating good reliability (Table VI).
TABLE VI.

RELIABILITY ANALYSIS ON THE VARIABLES OF THE STUDY

Construct

Variables

No. of items

Nonverbal
communication

Body and vocal

behaviour
Physical appearance
Touching behaviour
Positive emotion
Negative emotion

Cronbachs
Alpha
.95

3
2
4
4

.93
.82
.95
.93

Emotional
response

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Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

D. Modification of Research Framework and Hypothesis

Restatement
In the process of factor analysis, some variables have been
removed and some new variables are created. Therefore, the
original conceptual framework was modified. Certain items
from kinesics and paralanguage falls under same factor and
were renamed as body and vocal behaviours. Physical
appearance was maintained and touching behaviour was
added (Figure II). Based on the modified conceptual
framework, a restatement of hypotheses is needed (Table VII).
Body and vocal
behaviour

Positive
emotion

Physical
appearance
Negative
emotion

Touching
behaviour
Figure II: Modification of conceptual framework.
TABLE VII.

SUMMARY OF RESTATED HYPOTHESES

Hypotheses
The perception of hotel employees nonverbal communication is
H1.
positively related to the positive emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees body and vocal
H1a.
behaviour is positively related to the positive emotions of
hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees physical appearance
H1b.
is positively related to the positive emotions of hotel
guests.
The perception of hotel employees touching behaviour is
H1c.
positively related to the positive emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees nonverbal communication is
H2.
negatively related to the negative emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees body and vocal
H2a.
behaviour is negatively related to the negative emotions
of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees physical appearance
H2b.
is negatively related to the negative emotions of hotel
guests.
The perception of hotel employees touching behaviour is
H2c.
negatively related to the negative emotions of hotel
guests.

E. Descriptive Statistics
The mean and standard deviation values for all of the study
variables are presented in Table VIII. The mean scores for each
of the three components of nonverbal communication varied
from 4.50 to 5.55. This indicates that the respondents had a
moderate to high perception of nonverbal communications
displayed by hotel employees. The standard deviation for these
components ranged from 0.83 to 1.16. With regards to
emotional response, positive emotion had a higher mean value
of 4.72, with a standard deviation of 1.33. In comparison,
negative emotion had a lower mean value of 2.81, with a
standard deviation of 1.46.

TABLE VIII.

MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION FOR VARIABLES IN THE

STUDY

Variables
Body and vocal behaviour
Physical appearance
Touching behaviour
Positive emotion
Negative emotion

Mean
5.55
4.71
4.50
4.72
2.81

Standard deviation
0.83
1.16
1.01
1.33
1.46

F. Correlation Analysis
Pearson correlation coefficients were computed in order to
examine the strength and the direction of the relationship
between all constructs in the study. In general, correlation
value can be interpreted as: small/ weak when the correlation
value is r = -.10 to -.29 or r = .10 to. 29, medium/ moderate
when the value is r = -.3 to r = -.49 or r = .3 to r = .49, large/
strong when the value is r = -.50 to -1.00 or r = .50 to 1.00 [46].
All of the nonverbal communication dimension variables were
found to be positively correlated with positive emotion (Table
IX). Specifically, both body and vocal behaviour (r = .636, p <
0.01) and physical appearance (r = .637, p < 0.01) were
strongly and significantly correlated with positive emotion.
Meanwhile, touching behaviour (r = .460, p < 0.01) was found
to be moderately and positively associated with positive
emotion.
Only body and vocal behaviour and physical appearance
were found to be negatively correlated with negative emotion.
In particular, body and vocal behaviour (r = -.307, p < 0.01)
was moderately and negatively associated with negative
emotion whereas physical appearance (r = -.205, p < 0.05) was
weakly and negatively correlated to negative emotion.
Touching behaviour, however, has found no correlation with
negative emotion. Meanwhile, the correlation between
nonverbal communication variables and negative emotion are
significant and negative except for touching behaviour. It is
noteworthy that the correlations between some of the
independent variables, such as between physical appearance
and body and vocal behaviour (r = .55); and between touching
behaviour and vocal behaviour (r = .58) are strong, suggesting
that the dimensions of nonverbal communication may not be
that distinct. However, the results of the correlation coefficient
analysis indicated that none of the correlation coefficient values
of the studied variables is above 0.8. Hence, multicollinearity
does not exist in this study [43].
TABLE IX.

PEARSON CORRELATION MATRIX OF THE STUDY VARIABLES

(N = 128)

Variables
Body and
1
vocal
behaviour
Physical
2
appearance
Touching
3
behaviour
Positive
4
emotion
Negative
5
emotion

1
1

.553**

.578**

.422**

.636**

.637**

.460**

-.307**

-.205*

-.012

-.383**

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

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G. Multiple Regression Analysis

1) Relationship between Nonverbal Communication and
Positive Emotion: The first hypothesis (H1) examined whether
there is a positive relationship between nonverbal
communication and positive emotion. Results in Table X
indicated that 52.6% variances in positive emotion can be
explained by nonverbal communication components (R2 =
.526, p < 0.01). Two dimensions of nonverbal communication
variables was found to have positive influence on positive
emotion, which are body and vocal behaviour ( = .371, p <
0.01) and physical appearance ( = .399, p < 0.01). However,
the effect of touching behaviour on positive emotion was not
significant (p > 0.05). This means that H1a and H1b are
supported while H1c is rejected. Therefore, H1 is partially
supported (Table XII).
TABLE X.
Dependent
variable
Positive
emotion
R2

REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

WITH POSITIVE EMOTION
Independent variables
Nonverbal communication:
Body and vocal behaviour
Physical appearance
Touching behaviour
.526

Standardized coefficient
Beta ()
.371**
.399**
.077
Note: Significant levels: ** p < 0.01

2) Relationship between Nonverbal Communication and

Negative Emotion: The second hypothesis (H2) examined
whether there is a negative relationship between nonverbal
communication and negative emotion. Results in Table XI
indicated that 14.1% variances in negative emotion can be
explained by nonverbal communication components (R2 =
.141, p < 0.01). Only one dimension of nonverbal
communication variables, namely body and vocal behaviour (
= -.409, p < 0.01) was found to have significant negative
influence on negative emotion. Meanwhile, the negative effect
of physical appearance on negative emotion was not
significant (p > 0.05). Interestingly, touching behaviour was
found to have a positive effect on negative emotion ( = .263,
p < 0.05). This means that H2a is supported while H2b and
H2c are rejected. Therefore, H2 is partially supported (Table
XII).
TABLE XI.
Dependent
variable
Negative
emotion
R2

REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

WITH NEGATIVE EMOTION
Independent variables
Nonverbal communication:
Body and vocal behaviour
Physical appearance
Touching behaviour
.141

Standardized coefficient
Beta ()
-.409**
-.090
.263*
Note: Significant levels: ** p < 0.01

TABLE XII.

RESULTS OF HYPOTHESES TESTING

Statement of Hypothesis
The perception of hotel employees nonverbal
H1.
communication is positively related to
the positive emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees body
H1a.
and vocal behaviour is positively related
to the positive emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees
H1b.
physical appearance is positively related to
the positive emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees
H1c.
touching behaviour is positively related to
the positive emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees nonverbal
H2.
communication is negatively related to
the negative emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees body
H2a.
and vocal behaviour is negatively related
to the negative emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees
H2b.
physical appearance is negatively related
to the negative emotions of hotel guests.
The perception of hotel employees
H2c.
touching behaviour is negatively related to
the negative emotions of hotel guests.

V.

Results
Partially
supported
Supported
Supported
Rejected
Partially
supported
Supported
Rejected
Rejected

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of hotel

employees nonverbal communication on the emotional
response of hotel guests. The discussion addresses the
following research issues concerning: (1) the identification of
the multidimensional construct of nonverbal communication
and emotional responses, and (2) the effects of the dimensions
of nonverbal communication comprising body and vocal
behaviour, physical appearance, and touching behaviour on
positive emotion and negative emotion.
Although most previous nonverbal communication studies
focused on single perspectives at smaller scopes or in some
instances do not dimensionally distinguish different types of
nonverbal communication [9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 16, 38, 40],
research findings by [19] in a family restaurant setting do
indicate that nonverbal communication is a multi-dimensional
concept. The result of confirmatory factor analysis in their
study confirmed the overall fit of the seven factor model which
consisted of kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage, physical
appearance, positive emotion, negative emotion and customer
satisfaction. In this study, three dimensions of nonverbal
communication were identified from the analysis: body and
vocal behaviour, physical appearance, and touching behaviour.
Differences in the dimensions identified in the current study
and that identified in the study of [19] are perhaps caused by
differences in the research setting.
Consistent with the findings of [19], factor analysis of
emotional responses revealed two distinct dimensions: positive
emotion and negative emotion. In the context of sale
associates appearance, [16] also agreed that emotion of
customers is divided into positive and negative emotion.
Through factor analysis, the study by [47] also yielded positive
and negative dimensions of emotional experience in product
consumption situations. Similarly, [48] distinguished positive
and negative emotion in the context of consumption experience
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Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

of cell-phones and automobiles from the consumer perspective.

Although both of these studies involved tangible product
purchase instead of services, it is clear that emotion
experienced by customers consists of positive and negative
dimensions.
Findings of this study demonstrated that each of the
nonverbal communication dimensions has different effects on
positive and negative emotion. In particular, body and vocal
behaviour of hotel employees significantly affects both positive
and negative emotion of hotel guests. This finding is partially
supported by the research of [19] in a family restaurant setting.
Specifically, they found that kinesics of service employees,
defined as symbols of eyesight, gestures, and postures, has a
significant effect on both positive and negative emotion of
customers. However, their study indicated that paralanguage,
characterized by voice tone, pitch, and speech speed, has a
significant effect only on negative emotion of customers.
Similarly, other researchers who incorporated both facial
movements and vocal characteristics into their study also
revealed that greeting, smiling, proper speaking tone, eye
contact, and thanking is positively related to customers
positive emotion or positive affect [36, 10]. Several other
previous studies that focused only on body movements also
found similar results with the current study. For example, the
experiment based on a restaurant setting conducted by [9]
reported that higher levels of service employees negative
emotional displays characterized by facial expressions and
movements increased customers negative emotion during
service failure. On the other hand, positive emotional displays
by employees reduced customers negative emotion during
service recovery. With regards to the experiment carried out by
[37] based on a service recovery scenario at a hotel, it was
found that an open body posture, along with appropriate eye
contact lead to positive emotions and favourable perception
about the hotel employee. Overall, the emotional response of
customers elicited through the body and vocal behaviour
dimension of nonverbal communication can be well explained
by the emotional contagion theory. Basically, this theory
illustrates the process in which behaviours or emotional display
of a person such as facial expressions, vocalizations, postures,
and body movements, influences or induces similar emotional
response in another person [31, 32]. In the context of service
encounter, this theory explains the mechanism of how
customers capture the emotion or attitude of service employees
through nonverbal cues.
In this study, physical appearance of hotel employees was
found to have a significant positive effect on the positive
emotion of hotel guests. This finding is consistent with the
findings of a number of previous studies. In a qualitative study
conducted by [16] based on apparel, shoe, or accessories retail
settings, the researchers discovered that a large majority of
participants in the study linked sale associates appearance
characterized by attributes such as professional appearance and
appealing overall appearance with their positive emotion.
Another study also revealed that attitudes of customers are
more positive when the service employee is physically
attractive, provided that the service type involved is related to
attractiveness, such as a hair cut service [17]. In contrast to the
previously discussed literature, [19] reported that physical

appearance of service employees in the context of family

restaurant in Seoul did not significantly affect customers
positive or negative emotion. Consistent with this finding, the
current study also revealed that physical appearance of hotel
employees does not have a significant effect on the negative
emotions of hotel guests. However, [16] found that physical
appearance of service employees in apparel, shoe, or
accessories retail settings do have an impact on negative
emotion of customers.
This study found that touching behaviour of hotel
employees does not have a significant positive effect on the
positive emotion of hotel guests. However, it was discovered
that this dimension of nonverbal communication does have a
significant positive effect on the negative emotion of hotel
guests. This finding is difficult to justify due to a lack of
empirical evidence from literature to support the relationship
between touching behaviour of service employees and the
emotional responses of service employees. Nonetheless, the
findings that touching behaviour is not significantly related to
positive emotion, but positively related to negative emotion,
could be due to the fact that these behaviours are expected of
the hotel employees.
A. Contribution of the Study
This study identified the dimensions of service employees
nonverbal communication in the context of service provision in
hotels. Moreover, this study verified the effects of hotel
employees nonverbal communication on the emotional
responses of hotel guests. Most literature assessed the effects of
nonverbal communication through experimental approach by
manipulating nonverbal communication displays of service
providers, and almost no study has been made of hotels in reallife service encounters. Hence, this study is one of the early
studies in this field which provides a basis for further
understanding of nonverbal communication in hotels.
In addition, this study also highlighted the importance of
using nonverbal communication as a tool to deliver clear
message. In a way or another, appropriate use of nonverbal
communication enriches the total communication process
between service providers and the customer. Therefore, service
employees must be aware of how to effectively use these tools
under different situations in order to attract favourable
perception or attitude from customers. For example, the display
of smiles, friendly attitude as well as the use of appropriate
gestures, are able to make customers feel welcomed.
Although many service industries such as hotels and
restaurants provide a mixture of tangible and intangible goods,
it is noteworthy that good customer experience always plays a
large part in triggering favourable behaviours. In particular,
companies need to properly manage the use of nonverbal
communication in creating high quality service encounter and
treat it as a tool to gain competitive advantage. Periodical
training programs for verbal and nonverbal communication
need to be carried out to polish the communication skills of
service employees. Additionally, policies related to
standardized service procedure enhanced by the appropriate use
of nonverbal communication need to be enforced. Finally, as a

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Vol. 3, No.4, August 2013

form of motivation, incentives can be provided to service

employees who perform proper communication.
B. Limitations of the Study
This study contains a number of limitations that needs to be
addressed. The first limitation of the study lies in the study
subjects itself. Since one and two star hotels are selected as
study subjects in this research, the findings of this research is
difficult to be judged as representative of the entire hotel
industry. Hotel guests who choose to stay at higher star rated
hotels may have a higher expectation towards services
provided by hotel employees whereas those who choose to stay
at lower star rated hotels are likely to have a lower expectation
towards services provided by hotel employees. Hence, it is
anticipated that differences in service expectation may result in
a different perception or attitude towards nonverbal
communication cues displayed by hotel employees.
The second limitation of the study is that majority of the
respondent were locals (85.9%) and only 14.1% of the
respondents were foreigners. This means that the findings of
this study are most likely applicable only in the context of
Malaysian culture. In fact, people who share similar culture,
language, and ethnicity are more likely to read and understand
each others nonverbal communication more accurately [18].
Consequently, emotional response elicited may also vary.
Furthermore, this study did not account for the possible
confounding effects of display norms and verbal
communication. The hotel reception involved in this study is
managed by two to three employees, and therefore, the
responses to the items on nonverbal communication could
perhaps reflect collective behaviours of the hotel employees.
However, due to the lack of employee display norm policies in
lower star rated hotels, the responses to the items on nonverbal
communication could also be affected be affected by individual
behaviour. For example, responses might be unfavourable if
the respondent is dissatisfied with one of the employee, instead
of the entire group of employees at the hotel reception.
Lastly, another limitation of this study is related to the fact
that verbal and nonverbal communication takes place at the
same time in most situations. In fact, it has been pointed out
that nonverbal communication is a complex phenomena that is
difficult to be completely separated from verbal
communication [25, 26]. Nevertheless, this research does not
control hotel employees verbal communication, but rather
limit it only to nonverbal communication and investigated the
relationship between each nonverbal communication
dimensions and the emotional response in hotel guests.
C. Suggestions for Future Research
This study suggests future research to compare the effects
of nonverbal communication in lower and higher star rated
hotels. Such comparison would be useful to identify nonverbal
communication dimensions that are perceived as important by
hotel guests from lower and higher star rated hotels
respectively. Most importantly, this comparison addresses the
concern that hotel guests who pay different accommodation
fees expect different levels of treatment by hotel employees.

Furthermore, future studies should address the concern of

imbalanced mix of respondent nationality. This is due to the
reason that a more heterogeneous mix of respondents from
varying cultural background allows researchers to gather richer
information regarding the perception of hotel guests towards
nonverbal communication of hotel guests. In fact, future
research could also compare the effects of nonverbal
communication between different culture clusters.
Additionally, this study also suggests future research to
investigate and compare the separate effects of verbal and
nonverbal communication method on the emotional responses
of customers. As previously mentioned, since verbal and
nonverbal communication often comes into play hand in hand,
it would be meaningful to understand how these two types of
communication individually affects emotional responses of
customers. It is also interesting to find out how the verbal and
nonverbal communication interacts with each other in eliciting
emotional responses.
Lastly, this study suggests future research to extend the
understanding
of
relationships
between
nonverbal
communication and emotional responses into other consumer
behaviour aspects such as service quality perception and
customer satisfaction. Since the ultimate goal of using
nonverbal communication to increase positive emotion and
decrease negative emotion is to create favourable impression of
customers towards the service company, and to create repurchase intention, it is important to further understand the
relationship between emotional responses created and service
quality perception, as well as customer satisfaction.
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AUTHORS PROFILE
Authors Profile

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