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

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this research was to illustrate how companies contributed to employee psychological capital in tourism during the COVID-19 crisis based on the conservation of resources theory (CoR). Psychological capital including self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism is a key source of support at work, especially during challenging events. With threats to health and job security, employee psychological capital was unlikely to recover on its own naturally. However, tourism companies can augment employee psychological capital through corporate social responsibility (CSR). The effects of CSR on employee psychological capital remains unclear. This research examined differing effects of CSR on self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism. Based on a survey of 430 employees in tourism in China, the results showed that CSR had positive impacts on employee self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism through employee satisfaction with corporate COVID-19 responses. In addition, individual loss orientation strengthened the effects of CSR on employee self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• self-efficacy
• hope
• resilience
• optimism
• satisfaction with corporate COVID-19 responses
• loss orientation
• conservation of resources (CoR) theory

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the China Scholarship Council.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Education Department of Hunan ‘Excellent youth project: Small and medium-sized enterprises CEOs’ strategic leadership behaviour, innovation oriented human resource management and green innovation: A perspective of resource coordination’ (18b227); and Hubei Enterprise Culture Research Centre key project in 2019 ‘Cross-layer impact of cultural insert on green innovation ability of tourism enterprises.’