How to Alleviate Hotel Employees’ Job Stress in the Associations between Job Stressors and Its Consequences

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between job insecurity, job stress, and the psychological well-being of hotel employees, and the moderating effect of emotional regulation control on the causal relationship between job stress and psychological well-being. A valid sample of 428 employees was used from three five-star hotels and two four-star hotels in Seoul and Busan, South Korea, for hypothesis testing. After confirming the construct validity and reliability of all measurements, a structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis examine the postulated hypotheses. The findings are as follows: (1) the positive effect of job insecurity on job stress is significant; (2) job stress negatively and significantly mediates the linkage between hotel employees’ job insecurity and psychological well-being, while the direct effect of job insecurity on psychological is not significant; (3) the negative relationship between hotel employees’ job stress and psychological well-being is dramatically alleviated by the seeking support strategy; (4) hotel employees’ active coping strategy also has a palliative negative effect of job stress on psychological well-being; (5) however, avoidance is not an effective strategy for stress relief in the context of hotel employees’ job stress and well-being due to the COVID-19 and job insecurity.