Employer event communication and hospitality workers’ resilience during the COVID-19 crisis: the role of core beliefs examination and family support

Abstract

Purpose Hospitality is one of the industries severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is vital to comprehend how to help the workforce in this service sector grow resilient through such a crisis. This paper aims to unpack the role of employer event communication in promoting hotel workers’ resilience. Design/methodology/approach The data were garnered from 462 hotel workers who were on unpaid leave or layoff during the hotel shutdown. Findings The results unfolded the positive link between employer event communication and hotel workers’ resilience, for which core beliefs examination served as a mediation mechanism. Family support was found to moderate the effect of employer event communication on core beliefs examination. Practical implications The findings indicate to hospitality organizations that in face of a crisis such as the COVID-19, their employee resilience can be activated if they implement event communication activities. They should further realize that their support should go hand in hand with family support in fueling employee resilience from the crisis. Originality/value This study advances the understanding of how and when to promote resilience among hotel workers during a pandemic crisis.

Does Perceived Vulnerability Mediate the Effect of Hotel Employees' Resilience on Mental Health Perceptions?

“…Resilience increases employees' ability to cope effectively with challenges, such as mental health disorders, traumatic job experiences, or adverse workplace conditions. The results of the present exploratory study support Tuan (2021), who argues that employees' positive emotions and experiences can promote the psychological capabilities required for resilience while their beliefs may enable employees to make more positive meanings out of their experiences.…”

“…This reduces their stress in the workplace and social life (Ong et al, 2006), and overcomes the problem before the trauma (Thompson et al, 2011). The positive effect of hotel employees' psychological resilience on their mental health perceptions confirms previous research findings (Chen & Bonanno, 2020;Hall et al, 2017;Tuan, 2021;Yu, 2020). In addition, in terms of the Broaden-and-Build Theory, hotel employees with greater psychological resilience can expand their thoughtaction repertoire based on previous difficulties and experiences.…”

“…The findings support both theories and scales regarding the impacts of resilience on the mental health perceptions of hotel employees. As Demir et al (2020), Mao et al (2020), Prayag et al (2020a), andTuan (2021) have noted, little research has been done on resilience issues related to hotel employees during COVID-19 although it has created a global crisis in the tourism industry.…”

Professional event associations in crisis: exploring the relationship between recovery strategy fit and organizational commitments from the perspective of members

“…Given that theories in the hospitality and event literature informing the relationships between the perceived fit of recovery strategies and organization commitments are scarce, we relied heavily on theoretical notions and empirical evidence from the strategic management and organizational behavior literature to develop the conceptual model for the present study. Although hospitality and tourism studies have covered crisis and risk management fields to address the recent COVID-19 crisis in various sectors, including hotels (Giousmpasoglou et al , 2021; Tuan, 2021), restaurants (Kim et al , 2021), cruises (Castaldo et al , 2021) and events (Wong et al , 2021), it is still far from having enough evidence to properly guide the industry navigate into new normality, especially those sectors outside of accommodation (Ritchie and Jiang, 2021). Hospitality research on strategic management and organizational behavior in the context of hotel and restaurant employees has focused on perceived fits between a corporate strategy (e.g.…”

Examining employees' affective and behavioral responses to internal crisis communication in times of COVID-19

“…In addition, previous studies found that internal crisis communication directly relates to employee and organizational resilience, employees' sense of psychological safety at the workplace, and commitment to and support of the employer ( Guzzo et al, 2021 , Tuan, 2021 ). In managing hospitality and tourism organizations, recent studies ( Guzzo et al, 2021 , Tuan, 2021 ) found the positive impacts of employers' communication behaviors on bolstering positive employer-employee dynamics during COVID-19. These attempts, however, have not revealed the direct impacts of these communicative behaviors on employee resilience and turnover intentions.…”