The Impact of Human-Robot Collaboration Work Mode on Hotel Employees’ Work Well-Being

Recent developments have seen a significant increase in the deployment of service robots, which are increasingly replacing traditional manual labor in various sectors. In China, this has been exacerbated by the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Especially in the hotel industry, the integration of human-robot collaboration is becoming more prevalent to enhance productivity and elevate service quality. It evokes negative perceptions among hotel employees. This study aimed to explore how two types of work mode (human-robot vs. human-human) influence hotel employees’ work well-being. Study 1 was conducted with 106 juniors in a vocational college who were doing internships in a chain hotel in China. Study 2 was conducted by 342 frontline employees from six hotels in Chengdu, China. The results of one-way ANOVA revealed that human-robot collaboration is associated with lower well-being than human-human collaboration in juniors and experienced employees in two studies. Study 2 used AMOS 25.0 and SPSS Process version 22.0 to analyze workplace friendship and workplace loneliness mediate the relationship between work mode and work well-being. In addition, study 2 demonstrated that high quality employee-customer interaction weakens the relationship between workplace friendship and workplace loneliness. This paper not only enriches the literature on the negative impact of service robot utilization from the perspective of employees but also helps hotel managers better understand employees’ perceptions and improves their work well-being during employee-robot collaboration.