Coping with Stress: How Hotel Employees Fight to Work

Caiwei Ma, Lianping Ren and Jingxin Zhao
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Caiwei Ma: Hotel Management Department, Shanghai Polytechnic University, 2360 Jin Hai Road, Pudong District, Shanghai 201209, China
Lianping Ren: Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, Colina de Mong-Há, Macao, China
Jingxin Zhao: Hilton Hotel Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Beijing Branch, #1501 Tower C1, Oriental Plaza, 1 East Chang’an Avenue, Dong Cheng Disctirct, Beijing 100010, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: Working in hospitality establishments involves high levels of stress, partially due to the anti-social shift rotations and the high levels of emotional labor needed. Unmanaged stress often leads to psychological and even physical diseases, which harm both individual career development and hotel operations. Thus, it is of great importance to identify effective stress coping strategies to maintain a sustainable hotel work force. Stress coping behavior varies among different demographics and generations. Commonly used stress coping scales were established almost 40 years ago, and under the context of daily events, and may not be applicable in today’s hospitality context. Thus, this study was designed to investigate effective stress coping strategies among today’s hotel employees. Data were collected from 470 hotel employees in 37 cities in China. The results identified 12 effective coping strategies that fell under three dimensions: distraction, sharing, and self-indulgence. The findings contribute to scholarly knowledge of stress coping. Managerial implications are also discussed.

Keywords: job stress; stress coping strategies; coping efficacy; hotel industry; emotional labor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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