Not All Job Stressors Are Harmful: The Role of Employees’ Psychological Capital

Abstract

Human resources are an important asset for the hospitality industry; however, long working hours, low pay, and demanding customers are known to increase hospitality employees’ job stress. Work stress contributes to a high turnover rate in the hospitality industry; thus, it is critical for hospitality practitioners to understand work-related stressors and aid employees in coping with their stress. Challenge stressors can be viewed as beneficial to employees, while hindrance stressors tend to bring little benefit to employees. Through a survey of 232 hotel employees, we examined the role of psychological capital in the association between job stressors and employee burnout and engagement. We found that employees who are high in psychological capital embrace challenge stressors as opportunities rather than simple, stressful situations. This positive mindset towards challenge stressors helps employees to concentrate on their work. At the same time, psychological capital reduces the feeling of job stress. People high in psychological capital experience much slower growth in stress when facing various types of job demands. In other words, they are more resilient to work stress. Management should consider offering official companywide training with appropriate activities in order to bolster their employees’ personal resource, “psychological capital”, and monitor the effectiveness of their training on a regular basis.