Research has provided little empirical support for the concept that employee job satisfaction is a causal driver of employee job performance, customer satisfaction, and company performance. This concept is an enduring one, however, and it has been codified as the starting point in the widely espoused service profit chain. Using a sample of eighty-four food and beverage (F&B) manager groups from forty Asian hotel properties owned and managed by a single multinational hotel chain, we examine the effect of job satisfaction, and contrast this effect with that of group service climate, on supervisor ratings of group job performance behaviors (group task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors). The findings underscore the weak connection between job satisfaction and job performance. However, group service climate was found to have a positive effect on supervisor ratings of group job performance behaviors. Consistent with prior research, this study’s findings indicate that managers may improve their employees’ job performance (and job satisfaction) by ensuring that employees understand what is expected of them and how their performance will be appraised and rewarded by the organization.
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