The impact of the pandemic is driving the recent upsurge in service automation and the adoption of service robots in the hospitality industry. As service paradigm and customer expectations shift from conventional customized and personalized services towards a digitalized service environment, such customer orientation may favor using service robots at scales that could render service employees redundant. This study aims to answer the above question by investigating service employees’ perceptions of service robots. Data solicited from 405 service employees in the United States of America via Amazon’s MTurk were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The result revealed that employees’ awareness of adopting and using service robots significantly impacts their perception of robot-induced unemployment. Further, results indicated that the perception of robots’ social skills significantly influences service employees’ perception of robot-induced unemployment. Employee status was found to moderate the relationships mentioned above. Specifically, entry-level employees perceive the unemployment risk more than managers.

大流行的影响正在推动最近服务自动化的热潮和酒店业对服务机器人的采用。随着服务范式和客户期望从传统的定制和个性化服务转向数字化服务环境，这种客户导向可能更倾向于大规模使用服务机器人，这可能会使服务员工变得多余。本研究旨在通过调查服务员工对服务机器人的看法来回答上述问题。通过 Amazon 的 MTurk 从美利坚合众国的 405 名服务员工那里征集的数据使用结构方程模型进行了分析。结果表明，员工采用和使用服务机器人的意识显着影响他们对机器人导致的失业的看法。进一步，结果表明，对机器人社交技能的感知显着影响服务员工对机器人导致的失业的感知。发现雇员身份缓和了上述关系。具体而言，入门级员工比管理人员更能感知失业风险。