Can servant leadership prevent hotel employee depression during the COVID-19 pandemic? A mediating and multigroup analysis

Abstract

The hospitality industry has been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with changes that have harmed employees’ psychological well-being. However, having supervisors who are servant may make a difference. With a focus on serving others and the care taken to ensure their employees’ highest priority needs are served, these leaders could help employees feel less depressed in these complicated times. By instilling servant behaviors in followers that help them become people that others can trust or with whom they can develop friendships, leaders could help these employees earn greater levels of personal social capital (PSC) through which to more successfully address pandemic times, especially if furloughed. Using structural equation modeling to analyze a sample of 205 hotel employees in Spain, we found that servant leadership directly decreases depression, and that PSC mediates this relationship. Our multigroup analyses (MGA) findings also reveal that when these employees are furloughed, the negative effect of PSC and the mediating role of PSC in this relationship is stronger. New light is thus shed on how servant leadership is effective in reducing employee depressive symptoms in times of severe changes such as those produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Factors Affecting SMEs' Intention to Adopt a Mobile Travel Application based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT-2)

“…Furthermore, the innovative individual or leader with self-efficacy, competency, motivation, creativity, low risk aversion, and a unique cognitive problem-solving solution is the key factor driving business continuity. In line with prior studies by several academics [38,72,84], this reaffirms that leaders affect business creation, intelligence, and business models for contingencies. To succeed in the entrepreneurial process, SMEs require a robust mobile-app-based business, and increased mobile application adoption boosts SMEs' long-term productivity substantially [100].…”

“…-Artificial intelligence(AI) [46] -Virtual Reality (VR) [19] -Augmented Reality (AR) [47] -Deep/Machine learning [48] -Big data assimilation [49] -Business intelligence [38] -Internet of things (IOTs) [26,27,28] -Bibliometric network analysis [50,51] -Blockchain technology in digital era. [31] -Smart voice searching [22]  o Managerial and operational capability [55] o Customer satisfaction, engagement, and o resilience reaction [46,70] o Absorptive capability [59] o Dynamic capability [56] o Sustainability programmes [61] o Inter-relationship [62] o Building environment that engages in customers' conversation to address specific needs (satisfaction) [71]  Resilience of leaders [72] -The ability to keep a high level of energy under duress, cope with disruptive changes, and adapt.…”

The Dilemma of Postmodern Business Ethics: Employee Reification in a Perspective of Preserving Human Dignity

“…It is significant in this context that the ethical principles of social teaching of the Catholic Church become a virtue only by constantly repeating them in practice until they turn into the person’s internal approach in which the recognition of another person’s dignity comes to light, which does not allow to treat him/her as a tool ( Guitián, 2015 ). Therefore, this mechanism can become an important basis in management practice while implementing leadership that selflessly focuses on employees ( Shirin, 2015 ; Elche et al, 2020 ; Ruiz-Palomino et al, 2022 ). Because these virtues encompass all situations in which a person finds himself, life can only be such in which those virtues without which the man cannot attain his telos would fully unfold ( MacIntyre, 2007 ).…”

Servant Leadership and Creativity: A Study of the Sequential Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Employee Well-Being

“…Servant leadership helps employees to acquire resources (Zoghbi-Manrique- de-Lara and Ruiz-Palomino, 2019;Ruiz-Palomino et al, 2021). Servant leadership is oriented toward helping and guiding employees, showing compassion, healing, awareness, persuasion, management, and commitment to subordinates' growth (Russell, 2001).…”