Effects of tourism CSR on employee psychological capital in the COVID-19 crisis: from the perspective of conservation of resources theory

The COVID-19 pandemic and organisational commitment of senior hotel managers

“…Arguably, this is a key finding of this study which shows that hotels should be investing into CSR to improve their chances to withstand future crises and disasters. This is in line with Mao et al (2020) who showcased this connection by highlighting the role of CSR practices in enhancing job satisfaction and improving work productivity of tourism employees. Given that staff is a cornerstone of human capital of any organisation ( Brown et al, 2019 ), which exerts direct influence on its resilience, as discussed earlier, hotels should more pro-actively engage in CSR in light of future disastrous events, such as climate change, for example.…”

“…Further, from the perspective of senior hotel managers, past CSR practices up-taken by their hotels may, therefore, influence their perceived job security and, subsequently, impacted their organisational commitment. This is confirmed in a recent study by Mao et al (2020) who demonstrated the positive effect of CSR on self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism of tourism employees in China during the COVID-19 outbreak and showcased the inter-linkages between job satisfaction of staff and an organisational response to the pandemic.…”

“… Mao et al (2020) indicated how CSR can contribute to the satisfaction of tourism staff with an organisational response to COVID-19. This study adds to Mao et al (2020) ’s findings by demonstrating that this contribution may not necessarily be direct, but mediated via employee perception of enhanced organisational resilience. Indeed, the range of (current and future) actions adopted by Spanish hotels to withstand the COVID-19 crisis was linked to their organisational capital.…”

“…This has positioned staff recruitment and retention as a major challenge for hotel management in a pre-pandemic world ( McGinley et al, 2017 ). COVID-19 will exacerbate this challenge as the uncertain future of the hotel business may prompt qualified workforce to seek employment in other economic sectors ( Mao et al, 2020 ). The need for many hotels to put their employees on a furlough scheme (in the case of many developed countries) and/or make them redundant (in the case of many developing economies) in the time of the pandemic, may have presented hotel jobs as being highly insecure whilst positioning employment within the hotel sector as being fragile to external disruptions ( Sogno, 2020 ).…”

“…The need for many hotels to put their employees on a furlough scheme (in the case of many developed countries) and/or make them redundant (in the case of many developing economies) in the time of the pandemic, may have presented hotel jobs as being highly insecure whilst positioning employment within the hotel sector as being fragile to external disruptions ( Sogno, 2020 ). This perceived insecurity and fragility may negatively affect future recruitment of hotel staff ( Mao et al, 2020 ).…”