Purpose: Promoting interns’ organizational socialization has become an urgent concern for the hotel industry. Building on career construction theory, this study aims to use a time-lagged design to investigate the interrelationships among perceived organizational support (POS), psychological capital and organizational socialization and their consequent effects on interns’ intention to stay in the hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach: Panel data were obtained in three waves from hotel interns from 21 upscale hotels located in 13 cities in China with a time lag of 10 weeks (N = 369). The structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. Findings: POS has a significantly positive effect on interns' psychological capital. Additionally, both POS and psychological capital contribute to the intention to stay in the hotel industry through the mediation of organizational socialization. Practical implications: Hotels should communicate with interns more explicitly, provide assistance programs to alleviate uncertainty and reward interns on their excellent service performance to improve POS. Moreover, setting up psychological capital programs and empowering interns to be involved in task development is beneficial for enhancing psychological capital. Hotels should also consider mentoring as a socialization approach. Further, career planning and counseling programs should be provided for interns’ long-term hospitality career development. Originality/value: A time-lagged research method is adopted to provide a new approach to improve interns’ intention to stay in the hotel industry from the interactionist perspective. This study enriches research about psychological capital, POS and organizational socialization. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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