Career growth opportunities, thriving at work and career outcomes: Can COVID-19 anxiety make a difference?

Abstract

Based on a two-wave survey of 242 frontline employees from a restaurant company, this study examines, in the COVID-19 setting, how career growth opportunities affect employee career-related outcomes and how these effects may be moderated. It was found that career growth opportunities improved career commitment and reduced career regret via its boosting effect on employee thriving at work. The survey results also showed that the impact of career growth opportunities on thriving (directly), and on career commitment and career regret (indirectly), is heightened by employee anxiety triggered by COVID-19. This indicates that career growth opportunities are most needed and most beneficial for shaping employees’ career outcomes when they experience high levels of COVID-19 anxiety.

Restaurant frontline employees’ turnover intentions: three-way interactions between job stress, fear of COVID-19, and resilience

“…Additionally, this study answers Chang and Busser (2020)’s call for more turnover research on contextual factors at multiple levels by examining the impact of a broader macro-level context, which is beyond the levels of employee, supervisor, family and organization. Furthermore, when incorporating the macro-context in the job demands–resources model, this study goes beyond Huo (2021)’s focus on COVID-19 anxiety as an inhibitory emotion and proposes FC as a survival mechanism in response to danger in the environment. When the fear level is high, as a result of job stress, leaving the current organization instead of staying would help employees prevent further resource loss.…”

Career opportunity of whistle-blower in the workplace: the role of privacy legislation and supervisor support

“…Hypothesis 2 a states that whistle-blowing statistically has a positive relationship with career opportunities. A career is very important because it improves welfare ( Huo, 2021 ). Each employee will compete to obtain a different career ( Lei et al., 2021 ), which can be achieved through the whistle-blowing path.…”

“…Meanwhile, career opportunity is defined as perceptions of the degree to which work assignments and job opportunities are available within their current organization ( Kraimer et al., 2011 ). Another opinion regarding career opportunity defines it as the knowledge that today’s work will enhance the person’s value in future opportunities ( Chay and Aryee, 1999 ; Huo, 2021 ).…”

Compensatory travel in the post COVID-19 pandemic era: How does boredom stimulate intentions?

“…Compensatory consumption refers to purchases made to satisfy unmet psychological needs and to alleviate negative emotions ( Grunert, 1994 ). Negative experiences make consumers' compensatory consumption intention and their travel budgets significantly higher than their budgets for regular consumption ( Huo, 2021 ). The interruption and loss of travel experiences may cause psychological distress and stress.…”

“…Many studies have focused on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism ( Duro et al, 2021 ; Qiu, Park, Li, & Song, 2020 ), tourist behaviour ( Bhati et al, 2021 ; Huo, 2021 ; Neuburger & Egger, 2021 ; Rather, 2021 ), and tourism recovery ( Fotiadis et al, 2021 ; Kim & Liu, 2022 ). Few studies have paid attention to compensatory travel, and little is known about the psychological factors affecting post-pandemic potential demand and compensatory travel intention ( Kim et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ; Zopiatis, 2021 ).…”