How is COVID-19 pandemic causing employee withdrawal behavior in the hospitality industry? An empirical investigation

Abstract

PurposeThis study divulges the new concept of employees' withdrawal behavior during the global pandemic (COVID-19). The study's purpose is to draw new insights into workplace stressors and employee withdrawal behavior. The study also considers the mediating role of aggression and the moderating role of COVID-19 worry and cyberloafing.Design/methodology/approachThe study's statistical population consists of 384 frontline hotel employees from Pakistan's hospitality industry. Statistical analysis SPSS and AMOS were utilized to conduct Pearson's correlation and multilevel regression analysis. A Hayes process technique has been used for moderation and mediation analysis.FindingsThe results demonstrated that COVID-19 has a psychological effect on the employee's mental health and higher turnover intention during the current pandemic. Workplace stressor is significantly related to aggression and employee withdrawal behavior. Aggression mediates the relationship between workplace stressors and withdrawal behavior. The study results show that COVID-19 worry moderates between workplace stressors and aggression – notably, cyberloafing moderate aggression and withdrawal behavior.Practical implicationsThe government and hospitality organizations need to implement crisis management strategies in response to COVID-19. This research can help management in coping with employees' mental and psychological challenges. Employees' mental health has been affected during the current global health crises. Firms should encourage their employees psychologically while going for downsizing.Originality/valueThis study enhances the existing literature on the COVID-19 crisis in Pakistan's hospitality industry. This study contributes to new understandings of employees' withdrawal behavior in the hospitality industry. The research shows how COVID-19 affects employees' turnover, mental health and job performance in the hospitality industry. Employees are facing mental and physiological challenges during COVID-19. The study fills a considerable gap in the hospitality industry by exploring the role organization's crisis management during a global pandemic.

Examining the relationship between fear of COVID-19, intolerance for uncertainty, and cyberloafing: A mediational model

“…Our study provides valuable insights into this line of research by examining the relationship between fear of COVID-19, intolerance for uncertainty, and cyberloafing, and also contributes to the limited number of studies on cyberloafing during the pandemic (e.g. Bendau et al, 2021 , Khawaja et al, 2021 , Turel and Ferguson, 2020 , Zhong et al, 2022 ). We also address the recent call of Marsh et al (2022) , who conducted an integrative review of the negative effect of technology on employees, to expand scholars’ understanding of the antecedents and mediators of the dark side of technology use at work ( Kaur et al, 2020 , Kaur et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Specifically, one way to cope with and alleviate work stress in the workplace is to participate in cyberloafing activities ( Henle and Blanchard, 2008 , Pindek et al, 2018 ). Cyberloafing may act as a coping strategy that distracts employees from the demands of stressful events during the pandemic ( Khawaja et al, 2021 ). The literature suggests that the fear of being infected with COVID-19 may amplify problematic gaming, social media, and smartphone use as coping strategies for self-regulation among students ( Chavan et al, 2021 , Lin et al, 2020 ).…”

“…hospitality and educational services), in particular, have had to adapt information technology and a remote working model given their reliance on face-to-face interactions; hence, these industries may have seen a greater rise in cyberloafing. To better understand cyberloafing in the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, Khawaja et al (2021) found that cyberloafing moderated the relationship between aggression and employee withdrawal behavior in the hospitality industry in Pakistan. Our study explores the antecedents of cyberloafing during remote work in an educational environment in Israel during the pandemic.…”

“…A pre-COVID-19 meta -analytic study found that intolerance of uncertainty was positively associated with digital technology penetration ( Carleton et al, 2019 ). More recently, COVID-19 worries were correlated with cyberloafing ( Khawaja et al, 2021 ). Hence, it is important to understand these associations during a COVID-19 lockdown and to clarify the mechanism in the relationship.…”

An Empirical Study on the Evaluation of Emotional Complexity in Daily Life

“…To further identify the predictive effects of the indicators for emotional complexity, we performed Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis ( Hopwood and Donnellan, 2010 ; Khalil et al, 2021 ; Khawaja et al, 2021 ). A four-factor model reflected a good model fit, with 𝜒 2 /df = 0.33, CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.03, RMSEA = 0.000 (0.00, 0.20), SRMR = 0.003.…”