Women in travel and tourism: does fear of COVID-19 affect Women's turnover intentions?

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine the role of fear of COVID-19 and job stress on women's turnover intentions in the hospitality industry (travel agencies). Also, the mediating role of work-family conflict was examined.Design/methodology/approachThree theoretical approaches of importance for framing issues of fear of COVID-19, job stress, work-family conflict and women's turnover intentions. Using the purposive sampling technique, the participants for the current paper were selected from the population of employees of top travel and tour operation firms in Lagos, Nigeria.FindingsFindings from the study indicate that the fear of COVID-19 and job stress was found to be positively related to work-family conflict and work-family conflict was positively related to women's turnover intentions. Work-family conflict mediates the positive relationship between fear of COVID-19 and women's turnover intentions, while against priori; the work-family conflict did not mediate the relationship between job stress and women's turnover intentions.Research limitations/implicationsOur study's findings were limited in their generalizability because they focused on a specific operating sector of tourism, travel and tour. Testing the study's model in different tourism operating sectors or mixed industries could offer better insights. A comparative study between this current context and western/non-western contexts to provide more contextual insights.Originality/valueThis study considered travel agencies (the pillar of the tourism industry) that have been understudied. The main strength of the study is its female-centric approach to uncovering the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality employee outcomes. Specifically, the study used African females in the hospitality settings to investigate the aforementioned relationships. 10; Keywords: COVID-19; job stress; turnover intention; work-family conflict.

Psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic and turnover intention: The moderating effect of employee work engagement

“…Some psychological effects of the COVID-9 pandemic are depression, anxiety, stress, and fear ( Nabi et al, 2022 ; Obuobisa-Darko, 2022 ). The findings from this study are consistent with several studies carried out in developed countries, which have confirmed a positive relationship between COVID-19 and turnover ( Chen & Qi, 2022 ; Li et al, 2022 ; Uludag et al, 2022 ). These findings can be explained from the perspective that employees' lives, safety, and well-being have been threatened; there was an increase in the mortality rate of employees during the COVID-19 period which made working in the workplace a threat to their lives, thus the relationship with turnover.…”

“…These findings can be explained from the perspective that employees' lives, safety, and well-being have been threatened; there was an increase in the mortality rate of employees during the COVID-19 period which made working in the workplace a threat to their lives, thus the relationship with turnover. Since employees’ fear and anxiety about COVID-19 have been shown to increase their turnover intentions ( Chen & Qi, 2022 ; Kokubun et al, 2022 ; Uludag et al, 2022 ) as well as turnover, it can thus be concluded that the anxiety, fear, and stress of employees about COVID-19, explains the relationship between COVID-19 and turnover intention.…”

Restaurants under COVID-19 knife

“…Literature has offered abundant indications regarding the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on service employees' work behavior. The anxiety, hopelessness and negative feelings caused by COVID-19 resulted in frequent absenteeism, a propensity to be late for work (Karatepe et al , 2021), increased work-family-conflict (Uludag et al , 2022) and decreased work contribution and effort (Liu et al , 2021). According to Khawaja et al (2021), COVID-19 worry can instigate employees' depression, anxiety and stress.…”

“…SLof as a mediator COVID-19 has a significant impact on hospitality employees' mental health. It also increases their work-family-conflict (Uludag et al, 2022), depression, anxiety (Khawaja et al, 2021;Tengilimo glu et al, 2021), absenteeism (Karatepe et al, 2021) and deviant behavior (Liu et al, 2021). Nevertheless, to accomplish and coordinate organizational activities, organizations rely on group and teamwork (Stouten and Liden, 2020).…”

“…This study would give insight to organizational leaders on how to mitigate the negative and destructive outcomes emerging from being afraid of getting infected by COVID-19. Specifically, as attested in recent studies, pandemic-related effects on the hospitality industry are contingent upon nationality or locality (Wong et al, 2021;Uludag et al, 2022). Therefore, examining the impact of FoC-19 among Indian restaurant staff as a selected sample appears to be suitable for the current study.…”