Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and Conservation of Resources theory, this study proposes a role-contingent framework to examine how the emotional, cognitive, and physical dimensions of employee engagement influence employee social media advocacy in hospitality organisations. It further investigates whether job description, specifically front-of-house and back-of-house roles, conditions these relationships by shaping the exchange processes and resource dynamics underlying advocacy behaviour.

Survey data were collected from 343 employees working in Chinese luxury hotels and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling to assess direct and moderating effects.

Emotional and cognitive engagement show significant positive effects on employee social media advocacy, whereas physical engagement does not demonstrate a significant influence. Job description moderates the relationship between emotional engagement and advocacy, with a stronger effect observed among back-of-house employees. In contrast, cognitive engagement shows a consistent positive association across roles, and the moderating effect for physical engagement is limited. The model explains a moderate proportion of variance in advocacy behaviour.

The findings suggest that hospitality organisations should adopt role-sensitive advocacy strategies. For front-of-house employees, practices that replenish emotional resources may be particularly important. Back-of-house employees, operating in relatively resource-conserving environments, may represent an underutilised source of authentic advocacy.

This study advances prior integrative research by specifying job description as a boundary condition that shapes how exchange-based and resource-based mechanisms jointly influence advocacy. By distinguishing among engagement dimensions, it offers a more precise understanding of how employee engagement translates into digitally mediated extra-role behaviour within hospitality contexts.