Authentic Leadership and Job Satisfaction: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)

The relationship between leadership and job satisfaction has attracted considerable scientific interest, especially in relation to the quality of tourism businesses. This study investigated this relationship within the framework of authentic leadership. The study also explored differences between outsourced workers and internal hotel employees in terms of the influence of authentic leadership on job satisfaction. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) offered valuable new insight. This study was based on a sample of 58 heads of department of four/five star hotels in the Canary Islands, Spain. The results suggest that high levels of leadership in the four subscales of authentic leadership (balanced processing, relational transparency, self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective) are sufficient to increase job satisfaction. The same outcome is achieved with high levels of balanced processing, even though it is accompanied by low transparency and low levels of internalized moral perspective. There are no major differences between outsourced workers and internal employees, except in terms of the importance of self-awareness. These results can help hotel managers reflect upon leadership and can provide new approaches for scientific research in this area.


Introduction
The social, political, and economic transformations derived from globalization have changed the tourism sector, causing significant growth and increasing the role of management in market development [1].Within the tourism sector, the hotel industry is a major creator of employment in an area where human relations are extremely important.Given the need for novel alternatives to tackle an increasingly competitive market, the role of leadership is crucial.The study of leadership has awakened scientific interest because of its impact on the hotel sector.Scholars have shown the influence of leadership on job satisfaction [2,3], customer satisfaction [4], and hotel reputation [5], as well as other areas.
The concept of authentic leadership was developed between 2004 and 2008 through numerous contributions.Avolio et al. [6] proposed authentic leadership as a process that arises from positive psychological capacities, with self-awareness and self-regulated behavior as the main pillars.Based on this proposal, Walumbwa et al. [7] created the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ), which measures balanced processing (requesting points of view before making decisions), self-awareness (level of awareness that the leader has of himself or herself), internalized moral perspective (basing behavior on moral and ethical standards), and relational transparency (the degree to which the leader shows herself or himself as is).This novel approach to leadership has generated interest from the scientific community because of its positive influence in the organizational context [8][9][10].Authentic leadership also has numerous commonalities and differences with other approaches such as transactional, charismatic, ethical, and transformational leadership.
Job satisfaction is currently one of the most important issues in work and organizational psychology.Therefore, there is a great drive to understand this phenomenon [11].Locke [12] defined employee satisfaction as a positive emotional state derived from an evaluation of a person's work.The level of satisfaction of employees determines their commitment to their organizations, thus satisfied employees who feel that their contributions are considered and who are prepared to work in a team tend to express greater diligence in performing their work [11].Weiss et al. [13] created the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) to measure job satisfaction.The MSQ evaluates extrinsic, intrinsic, and overall satisfaction according to different characteristics.
Given the relevance of job satisfaction, it is of huge value for hotel managers to be aware of their employees' satisfaction, whether these employees are internal or outsourced.As previous studies have shown, the outsourcing of services and the optimal management of this outsourcing in hotels is a key aspect for professionals in the sector [14,15].Analysis of outsourcing has been carried out for decades, and numerous studies have shown that this practice is spreading to hotels in different areas [16,17].
This study proposed a model that describes the influence of overall authentic leadership and each of its subscales on the job satisfaction of hotel employees in the Canary Islands, Spain.Accordingly, the influence of balanced processing, self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, and relational transparency were studied in depth as antecedent conditions potentially leading to the outcome of job satisfaction.Balanced processing helps leaders solicit opinions and analyze relevant information before making decisions.Self-awareness is based on the idea that leaders are aware of their impact as well as their strengths and weaknesses.By adopting an internalized moral perspective, leaders self-regulate their behavior according to their values.Finally, through relational transparency, leaders reveal themselves exactly as they are and foster and atmosphere of trust.The aim was to understand what the ideal leadership approach (in this case, of hotel managers) should be.As previously mentioned, studies have already explored the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction.The contribution of this study is its in-depth investigation of the subscales of authentic leadership.Empirical analysis was used to compare the relationships of workers from an outsourced company (in the housekeeping and entertainment departments) with the relationships of internal hotel employees (in the reception, bar-restaurant, and kitchen departments).The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) model used for the data analysis provided novel insight into research on leadership in the hotel industry.
The first conclusion is that the fsQCA model offers a valid tool to explain increased job satisfaction in terms of the four dimensions of authentic leadership proposed by Walumbwa et al. [7].The second conclusion is that either the combination of all four subscales of authentic leadership or a focus on the subscale of balanced processing (even though it is accompanied by low transparency and low levels of internalized moral perspective) increases job satisfaction.Both the analysis of the model and the research context (hotels in the Canary Islands, Spain) provide valuable knowledge and enrich scientific research on leadership and job satisfaction, as well as research on the outsourcing of services.This study is also of empirical value to hotel business managers and related companies.

Theoretical Background and Development of Propositions
Authentic leadership has proven to be a facilitator of good management in different business sectors.It is positively related to employees' commitment toward the organization [18] and work engagement (employee involvement) [19,20].Studies have also shown the effects of this type of leadership on the reduction of employee burnout [21], finding that the more authentic the leaders are perceived to be, the lower the levels of cynicism and depersonalization experienced by employees.Similarly, authentic leaders have been associated with employees' positive emotions [8], job satisfaction [22], and feelings of empowerment [20,23].For example, Yagil and Medler-Liraz [9] studied a sample of 380 service employees, finding that authentic leaders create a work environment that allows employees to have sincere and authentic self-expression (i.e., to show themselves in a natural way).This self-expression in turn allows employees to experience more positive emotions.
The relationship between job satisfaction and management styles has been studied in the scientific literature.Good examples of this are research that has shown this relationship in the education [24,25] and health sectors [26,27].In general, studies such as that of Zenteno-Hidalgo and Durán Silva [28] have shown that one of the most relevant factors when analyzing the organizational climate is leadership style.This relationship has been reported in previous research showing that authentic leadership [22,29,30] significantly increases job satisfaction.
The outsourcing of services refers to the performance by independent suppliers of all or part of a company's internal activities that could be or have previously been carried out by the company itself [31].In this context, it is important to analyze whether the leadership in relation to outsourced workers should resemble or differ from leadership in relation to internal employees to ensure job satisfaction.

Authentic Leadership and Job Satisfaction
Research has shown the existence of positive relationships between authentic leadership and employees' trust in leaders [32][33][34].Similarly, the relationship between authentic leadership and employee trust is mediated by followers' identification with the leader [33] and the psychological capital of leaders [8,[34][35][36].
With regard to leadership in the hotel industry, it has also been found that the leadership styles adopted by managers are significantly related to the satisfaction of the employees who make up their team [2,4,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43].Notably, Rahman et al. [44] analyzed three/four/five star hotels in Bangladesh, finding the existence of a correlation between job satisfaction and relationships with the hotel manager.Similarly, Kruja et al. [45] studied a sample of 532 employees from 60 American hotels, finding that self-management, work environment, and leadership correlate with employee empowerment.Shamim et al. [46] used a sample of 384 employees of 4-and 5-star hotels in the UK to show the association between leadership and affective commitment, self-efficacy, and organizational commitment.In the same vein, Sukdeo et al. [47] reported that leadership (measured using the Total Quality Management model) is correlated with job satisfaction.
The analysis of the causes of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction has become an area of social interest among researchers.Lee and Way [48] postulated that hotel managers must evaluate and know the factors that play an important role in providing what employees expect from employment.Therefore, researchers and hotel professionals must seek effective ways to measure the factors that affect such satisfaction.Hotel managers should listen to their employees' thoughts and concerns [49].Romero-Fernández and Chávez-Yepez [50], on the other hand, showed that employees in Ecuador quantify their job satisfaction based on criteria such as working conditions, salary, stimulation, personal relationships, participation in decision-making, communication, and leadership.Similarly, Párraga-Zambrano et al. [51] reported that it is advisable to provide employees with adequate, ethical, fair, and socially responsible treatment.They should also be motivated to improve their skills.Promoting a culture and organizational environment that stimulates effective communication, general well-being, synergy, empathy, teamwork, and productivity offers the best strategy to enhance hotel performance and strengthen organizational development over time.
Proposition 1. High levels of authentic leadership increase job satisfaction.

Balanced Processing, Relational Transparency, Self-Awareness, Internalized Moral Perspectives, and Job Satisfaction
Through a review of the scientific literature, Vem et al. [52] showed the existence of a direct relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction [30,53,54].They also reported that the feeling of inclusion of employees has a positive effect on commitment and job satisfaction [55].In addition, the transparency of authentic leaders, which revolves around openness and the exchange of information with followers, reduces negative emotions [56].Vem et al. [52] concluded that hotel managers should pay attention to leadership style and prepare authentic leaders to mitigate emotional exhaustion.
The Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) measures authentic leadership.It was originally developed by Walumbwa et al. [7] and was validated using a sample of 224 employees in the United States and 221 employees in China.Moriano et al. [57] validated the ALQ for a sample of 600 Spanish employees, finding a structure formed by the four factors proposed in the original study.It is thus possible to measure the following key aspects of authentic leadership [7]: balanced processing, relational transparency, self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective.
Balanced processing, which is measured by three items on the ALQ, reflects leaders' abilities to convey objectives and analyze information carefully before making decisions.Leaders with balanced processing solicit different points of view, although they have their own.Relational transparency, which is measured by five items on the ALQ, evaluates the degree of openness toward others, giving rise to a climate of trust among followers.Self-awareness, which is measured by four items on the ALQ, refers to knowledge of one's own strengths and weaknesses and those of others.Self-awareness also refers to knowledge about the influence of one's own leadership behavior.Internalized moral perspective, which is measured by four items on the ALQ, relates to self-regulation of behavior according to one's own values and principles and behaving in a way that is consistent with one's beliefs [7].
Job satisfaction has aroused scientific interest given its relevance in the hotel business and the service sector.A good example is the study by Way et al. [58], who analyzed a sample of restaurant managers from 40 hotels in Asia.The findings indicate that managers can improve the performance and satisfaction of their employees by making sure that they understand what is expected of them and how their performance and the rewards of the organization will be evaluated.After analyzing data on 115 employees from 10 hotels in Novi Sad, Serbia, Petrović and Marković [59] showed that job satisfaction rates correlate positively and significantly with organizational support.
The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) is designed to measure job satisfaction.This questionnaire was developed by Weiss et al. [13] and enables evaluation of extrinsic, intrinsic, and overall satisfaction.Extrinsic job satisfaction evaluates opportunities for promotion, salary, recognition for doing good work, competence of superiors, and duration of the day.Intrinsic job satisfaction evaluates the opportunity to teach or help peers, the freedom to use one's own means, the pride of a job well done, and the opportunity to do different jobs and break the monotony.The overall evaluation refers to the entire set of items.The initial version had 100 items spanning different five-item scales related to various dimensions of work such as human supervision, technical supervision, independence, variety, social status, activity, and moral values.Weiss et al. [13] produced an abbreviated version consisting of 20 items from the aforementioned subscales.Proposition 2. High levels of the subscales of authentic leadership (balanced processing, relational transparency, self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective) increase job satisfaction.

Outsourced Services
Leeman et al. [60] defined outsourcing as the use by an organization of external companies to perform tasks that are normally done internally.Outsourced employees are not hired by the hotel directly but instead work for external companies whose services are contracted out by the hotel.In addition to causing controversy, outsourcing has sparked debate about possible feelings of low involvement and organizational commitment of these workers toward hotels, the relationships that these workers have with their direct superiors, and the differences with respect to non-outsourced employees of the same level who are hired directly by the business.Espino-Rodríguez and Ramírez-Fierro [61] analyzed 63 hotels with 3-, 4-, or 5-stars in Gran Canaria, Spain, finding that the quality of the outsourcing partnership is determined by the degree of outsourcing perceived by the manager and the strategic benefits.However, the decision to outsource services entails a series of risks, most notably the lack of knowledge of the way the business works and the loss of control [62].
Hodari et al. [63] found that the heads of spas outsourced in hotels have higher levels of stress than their counterparts hired directly by the hotel because of, among other factors, conflicting interests between direct managers of the hotels, external companies, and the hotel itself.This effect on the sample in this study was controlled for because the housekeeping and entertainment managers report directly to the hotel general manager and attend a daily operational briefing with the hotel general manager, as do all other heads of department (HODs).Thus, these workers' job satisfaction may be increased by the hotel manager's leadership, as verified by previous research [14,15].
The ultimate objective of a hotel company is to make a profit.According to Espino-Rodríguez and Ramírez-Fierro's [64] analysis of hotels in Gran Canaria, Spain, there is a positive and significant relationship between outsourcing and financial performance.Thus, hotel managers are interested in optimally managing their outsourced staff to ensure good financial performance, as well as determining whether the best leadership style is the same for outsourced and internal staff.Proposition 3. High levels of authentic leadership in outsourced departments increases job satisfaction in the same way as in internally staffed departments.

Materials and Methods
The sample for this study was collected in January 2019.The sample consists of 60 workers from 12 hotels with 4-and 5-star ratings.The hotels belong to a Spanish chain with a global presence.The 12 hotels are located in the Canary Islands, Spain, on the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife.The sample consists of five managers, all HODs, for each of the 12 hotels.The positions are reception manager, director of the bar and restaurant, chef, housekeeping manager, and entertainment manager.The HODs in these five positions are in daily contact with the hotel general manager.The sample consists of 60 workers.
These workers completed two questionnaires: the ALQ and the MSQ for job satisfaction.The questionnaires were completed individually.A designated person visited the 12 hotels to explain the characteristics and instructions for completing the questionnaires and to resolve any question that arose during questionnaire completion.
We used the Spanish version of the ALQ [7], which has been validated for a Spanish sample [57].This version consists of 16 Likert-type items scored on a five-point scale ranging from 0 (totally disagree) to 4 (totally agree).The subscales are balanced processing (e.g., "My manager solicits views that challenge his or her deeply held positions"), relational transparency (e.g., "My manager says exactly what she or he means"), self-awareness (e.g., "My manager seeks feedback to improve interactions with others"), and internalized moral perspective (e.g., "My manager demonstrates beliefs that are consistent with actions").We used the Spanish version of the MSQ [13].This version consists of 20 Likert-type items scored on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied).It evaluates the extrinsic, intrinsic, and overall satisfaction according to different characteristics (e.g., "In my present job, this is how I feel about the way my boss handles his or her workers").The ALQ [7] and its measurement scales are available online following payment for their use.The MSQ [13] and its measurement scales are freely accessible online.Of the 60 questionnaires that were completed by the respondents, two were discarded, resulting in a final sample of 58 workers (96.7% of the initial sample).The final sample consisted of 53.4% men and 46.6% women.In terms of age, 63.8% were aged 35-49 years, 22.4% were aged 50-64 years, and 13.8% were aged 25-34 years.Regarding type of contract, 84.5% of the workers had permanent indefinite contracts, and 15.5% had temporary contracts.Regarding marital status, 48.3% of respondents were married, 37.9% were single, and 13.8% were separated.Of these 58 workers, 58.6% were internal, and 41.4% were outsourced.
The sample data were analyzed using fsQCA.This method is based on Boolean algebra, and it is suitable for small or medium sample sizes [65].It enables configurational analysis of the causal relationships between a group of antecedent conditions and an outcome of interest [66,67].There are convincing arguments regarding the strengths and weaknesses of QCA methods with respect to traditional qualitative analysis methods: "QCA strengths include: (1) addressing causal complexity, (2) results presentation as pathways as opposed to a list, (3) identification of necessary conditions, (4) the option of fuzzy-set calibrations, and (5) QCA-specific parameters of fit that allow researchers to compare outcome pathways.Weaknesses include: (1) few guidelines and examples exist for calibrating interview data, (2) not designed to create predictive models and do not quantify the impact of the factors, and (3) unidirectionality" [68].
Analyses using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) methods have been successfully performed in numerous studies in the social sciences [69][70][71].The measurement scales used in this type of analysis do not have to be specifically designed for fsQCA.By calibrating the original variables, any continuous variable can be transformed into another continuous variable that ranges from 0 to 1.Each calibrated value can then be interpreted as the degree of membership to a set, where 0 represents full non-membership and 1 represents full membership.FS/QCA 3.0 software was used to conduct the analysis in this study.
A model was used to find the degree of influence of the four subscales of authentic leadership (the conditions) on job satisfaction (the outcome) for a sample of hotel workers in the Canary Islands, Spain.This fsQCA model was used to test our research propositions by evaluating the degree of influence of the four subscales of leadership on job satisfaction.We sought to understand whether leaders (i.e., hotel managers) should focus on the four subscales or whether any one subscale is of particular relevance.The descriptive statistics for the initial data provide a better understanding of the methodology.The statistics for the four conditions and the outcome are reported in Table 1 based on the scores assigned by respondents using the original Likert-type scale (i.e., 0-4 or 1-5).Finally, empirical analysis was performed to determine how the model works for the part of the sample consisting of outsourced workers (housekeeping and entertainment) and how it works for the part of the sample consisting of internal employees (reception, bar-restaurant, and kitchen).The analysis of the model and the research context (hotels in the Canary Islands, Spain) bring a novel approach to the scientific study of these issues, with a focus on leadership, job satisfaction, and outsourcing of services.This approach also provides empirical results that are of value to hotel business managers and related companies.
Before preparing the fsQCA model, we validated the scales and dimensions used in this study.First, the internal consistency measure of Cronbach's alpha was used to verify the reliability of each dimension of the scale.This measure was used to check whether the reflective indicators of the scale are homogeneous and, therefore, whether they measure the same latent variable.The optimum value is considered to be greater than or equal to 0.7 [72].Second, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied to demonstrate the unidimensionality of the dimensions.Calibration was used to determine the extent to which workers can be considered members of sets that vary according to job satisfaction and the subscales of authentic leadership.

Results and Discussion
In this study, five factors were analyzed.The four subscales of authentic leadership (relational transparency, internalized moral perspective, self-awareness, and balanced processing) were used as antecedent conditions, and job satisfaction was used as the outcome (Table 2).Each of these quantitative variables was calibrated to determine the degree of membership to previously defined sets.We specified the key conceptual dimensions and interpreted them as a set in which cases can have different degrees of membership.In fsQCA, each continuous variable is transformed through a process of calibration into a categorical variable (i.e., a fuzzy set) that is used to indicate the degree of membership of a case to that set.Membership to a set is denoted by assigning a score from 0 (full non-membership) to 1 (full membership).Calibration also allows researchers to set the membership scores according to the existing theory.These sets are shown in Table 3.

Sufficiency Analysis
The outcome and the conditions were calibrated.The suffix "fz" indicates a calibrated variable.Following calibration, we calculated the truth table, which lists all possible configurations.The truth table has 2 k configurations or rows, where k is the number of conditions [73].In our case, the number of conditions is 2 4 = 16.According to Ragin et al. [73], the value 1 for each configuration indicates that the score of the calibrated variable is greater than or equal to 0.5 and the value 0 indicates that the score of the calibrated variable is lower than 0.5.The "number" column shows the number of empirical cases corresponding to each configuration.The accumulated percentage is shown in parentheses.The consistency of each configuration is shown based on the relation of the subset with the outcome (Table 4).
Configurations with no cases ("remainders") were eliminated.Because the sample size was relatively low, those with a single case were also eliminated.The configurations that were maintained were required to cover at least 75% or 80% of the cases (in this case, they covered 87%).The next step was to select a consistency threshold to distinguish causal combinations that were subsets of the outcome from those that were not.According to Ragin [74], values below 0.75 in this column generally indicate substantial inconsistency.We selected 0.918 as the consistency threshold.We assigned the value 1 to the outcome (job satisfaction) if the consistency of a given configuration exceeded the 0.918 threshold.Otherwise, the value 0 was assigned (Table 5).The resulting intermediate solution consists of two combinations that are sufficient to increase job satisfaction.The complex and parsimonious solutions may be thought of as the two extremes of a single complexity-parsimony continuum [73]."An optimal intermediate solution can be obtained by removing individual causal conditions that are inconsistent with existing knowledge from combinations in the complex solution, while maintaining the subset relation with the most parsimonious solution" [73].These intermediate solutions use only a subset of the simplifying assumptions that are used in the most parsimonious solution (Table 6).The two combinations shown in Table 6 are sufficient to increase job satisfaction in 90.7% of cases.These combinations cover 69.5% of cases.The combination of a high level of balanced processing, a low level of transparency, and low levels of internalized moral perspective increases job satisfaction.Similarly, the combination of a high level of balanced processing, a high level of transparency, high levels of internalized moral perspective, and a high level of self-awareness also increases job satisfaction.
Notably, self-awareness does not appear in the first solution.This finding indicates that, regardless of whether self-awareness is high or low, if the other three conditions hold, workers will have high job satisfaction.Balanced processing is present in both configurations.This presence suggests that a high level of balanced processing is a necessary condition to improve job satisfaction, although other factors must also be present.This result is consistent with the findings of Wong et al. [55], who reported that balanced processing is strongly correlated with empowerment.Each combination has a coverage of between 35% and 65%.
Figure 1 represents the consistency and coverage of the solution on a scatter plot of the solution against the result.A combination (set) for which all calibrated scores are systematically less than or equal to the scores of the outcome (upper triangle) is said to be a subset of the outcome with high consistency.The cases (departments) that are below the diagonal are inconsistent with the outcome.Those that are above the diagonal are consistent.In the analysis of sufficiency, following Ragin's [67] indications, the membership scores of the outcome should be compared not only with the score of each individual condition but also with the scores of all possible causal expressions.If all cases are above the diagonal, it indicates that the membership scores of the outcome are consistently greater than the membership scores of the causal configuration.Therefore, the causal expression is a subset of the outcome, which is the set-theoretic way of expressing sufficiency.
The green region represents the cases that are most consistent with the solution, and the red region represents the cases that are most inconsistent with the solution.In neither of the solutions are there cases in the red region.Therefore, there are no serious inconsistencies.
Regarding the most relevant items, reception is the most heavily represented department, followed by entertainment and kitchen.This result is consistent with Lewis and Mottier's [75] research, which indicates that reception has a strong relationship with the hotel manager, stemming from the fact that the manager's office is usually close to the reception.
The fsQCA technique is not symmetric, unlike other quantitative estimation techniques [67].Therefore, it is useful to study which combinations of factors lead to low job satisfaction because the inverse of the solution for a positive outcome does not always explain the negative outcome.The resulting configuration for the negative outcome is shown in Table 7.With a coverage of 64% and a consistency of 86%, the combination of low transparency, low self-awareness, and low levels of internalized moral perspective is sufficient for low job satisfaction.Notably, while balanced processing is the key to high job satisfaction, it is irrelevant for low job satisfaction.

Necessity Analysis
When analyzing necessity, we look for causal conditions with membership scores that are consistently greater than the outcome membership scores.If, for any causal condition, this happens in all cases, then this condition passes the test of necessity.Accordingly, the outcome is a subset of the causal condition, which is the set-theoretic way of expressing necessity [66].
According to Table 8, self-awareness meets the condition of necessity to a certain degree because its consistency is greater than 0.85.As Figure 2 shows, the majority of the data points for this authentic leadership subscale are below the diagonal line, which is an essential condition for necessity to hold.Thus, it could be argued that the presence of high self-awareness is largely necessary for a high degree of satisfaction.

Analysis of Outsourced Departments
In this study, workers are distributed by departments according to whether they are outsourced (housekeeping and entertainment) or internally staffed (reception, bar-restaurant, and kitchen).It is of interest to find the combinations of leadership types that lead to high job satisfaction for internally staffed departments and outsourced departments, checking for differences between departments and differences with the general solution.
As Tables 9 and 10 show, the only difference in the final set of solutions for each department with respect to the general solution is the presence of self-awareness in the first combination.Self-awareness is positive for the hotel's internally staffed departments and negative for the outsourced departments.Although the day-to-day employment relationship is the same in both cases in our sample, the outsourced worker is also answerable to another company and another manager, which distances outsourced workers from the hotel leader's self-awareness.

Conclusions, Limitations, and Future Research
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the leadership of hotel general managers and the job satisfaction of HODs.This study was framed within authentic leadership theory, and it explored this relationship for outsourced workers who work under the same conditions as internal hotel staff.
We addressed our research aims using fsQCA.This method is suitable to analyze the relationships between an outcome (i.e., job satisfaction) and all possible combinations of potential causal conditions (i.e., balanced processing, relational transparency, self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective).The fsQCA method was used to identify the possible combinations of these factors.
The final solution consists of two combinations that are sufficient to increase employees' job satisfaction in 90% of cases, with a coverage of 70%.Specifically, the combination of high levels of balanced processing, relational transparency, self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective is sufficient to increase job satisfaction.The same outcome is achieved with high levels of balanced processing despite being accompanied by low transparency and low levels of internalized moral perspective.
Unlike quantitative estimation techniques, fsQCA is not symmetric.Therefore, we studied which combinations of factors lead to low employee satisfaction.The combination of low transparency in relationships, low self-awareness, and low levels of internalized moral perspective is sufficient for low job satisfaction.Notably, although balanced processing is a key factor for high job satisfaction, it is irrelevant for low job satisfaction.
Regarding the analysis of the sample of outsourced workers (housekeeping and entertainment), the only difference with respect to the sample of internal hotel employees (reception, bar-restaurant, and kitchen) is that outsourced workers can achieve high job satisfaction even if the leader's self-awareness is low when this is combined with low transparency, low levels of internalized moral perspective, and high balanced processing.In contrast, internal hotel employees also need high self-awareness of the leader in addition to this combination to achieve job satisfaction.Although the working conditions are the same in both cases, the fact that outsourced workers are also answerable to another company and another manager distances these workers from the self-awareness of the leader in the hotel.These results are consistent with previously reported evidence [14,15], which indicates that job satisfaction can be increased by the leadership style adopted by the leader (in this case, the hotel manager).For this study sample, the knowledge that the leader has of her or his own strengths and weaknesses differentiates the performance of the internal hotel employees from that of outsourced workers.
This paper has some limitations that should be addressed by future research.Specifically, leadership style was analyzed based on questionnaires completed only by employees and not by the leaders themselves.This approach can lead to bias in the interpretation of the results.Future studies should examine the same model using the leader's self-assessment together with the assessments of the employees.Similarly, it would be of interest to analyze what type of satisfaction (intrinsic, extrinsic, or general) is most influenced by leadership.This effect was not considered in this study because it fell outside the scope of our research.
These results offer a source of reflection for hotel managers and provide novel approaches for scientific research in this area.Specifically, they offer a source of information about the effectiveness of management models based on authentic leadership.While this effect has been reported in a generic sense in the scientific literature, insufficient attention has been paid to the subscales or specific traits of leaders that influence their followers.In addition, as the outsourcing of services grows in the hotel sector, it will become increasingly important to understand its implications for management and the possible differences in terms of the job satisfaction of internal hotel employees and outsourced workers.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Plot of job satisfaction against self-awareness.

Table 1 .
Descriptive data for the conditions and outcome.

Table 2 .
Definitions of conditions and outcome.

Table 3 .
Definitions of sets.

Table 6 .
fsQCA output: Intermediate solution (reduced final set) leading to high job satisfaction.

Table 7 .
fsQCA output: Intermediate solution (reduced final set) leading to low job satisfaction.

Table 9 .
fsQCA output: Intermediate solution (reduced final set) leading to high job satisfaction in internally staffed departments.

Table 10 .
fsQCA output: Intermediate solution (reduced final set) leading to high job satisfaction in outsourced departments.