Career shock of hotel employees and their individual resilience: an exploratory study

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the extent to which global shocks like Covid-19, climate crisis or war in Ukraine represent a negative career shock for hotel employees and how their individual resilience helps them to mitigate such shock. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research method is used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 full-time employees working at four hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Thematic analysis was used to extract the main ideas from the transcripts. Findings: The findings showed that some of the addressed employees do not perceive the impact of current wicked problems as a negative career shock that would cause them to divert their career paths particularly because of the recent support they receive from their professional and social circles. However, some respondents are worried about their career prospects owing to the dramatic events affecting beach tourism in Egypt this past decade. Findings reveal that managing negative career shocks necessitates institutional support, as well as employee responsibility and the adaptation. Originality/value: This paper contributes by filling a gap in hospitality, and human resources management, in which empirical studies on the relationship between career shock of hotel employees and their individual resilience have been limited so far. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Extreme work environment and career commitment of nurses: empirical evidence from Egypt and Peru

Purpose: This paper aim to analyse the motives behind the commitment of nurses to their profession despite their intense job duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical sample comprises of 35 semi-structured interviews with public sector hospital nurses in under-researched contexts of Egypt and Peru. Findings: Three types of motives were found to play a critical role in nurses' commitment to their profession despite the difficulties associated with extreme work conditions. These factors include cultural (religious values, governmental coercion), contextual (limited education, organisational support) and personal (good nurse identity, submissive nature) dimensions. Originality/value: This paper is one of the pioneering works to link existing literature streams on career commitment, extreme jobs, extreme context and management under disruptions (particularly COVID-19) by analysing these aspects in the under-researched Peruvian and Egyptian contexts. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.