Building organizational resilience with digital transformation

Purpose: Uncertain times [e.g. coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)] require service businesses to respond in creative, flexible and resilient ways. This paper aims to develop and test the theoretical relationship between digital transformation and organizational resilience (OR), and the consequences of OR on organizations and employees during turbulent times. Design/methodology/approach: A scale development was first conducted with an expert panel. Later, 474 participants who work as employees in small and medium-sized service enterprises were recruited for structural equation modeling (SEM). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis were conducted to test the relationship between dimensions of digital maturity, dimensions of OR and two consequential variables: organizational performance and employees' state optimism. Findings: Strategic technology investment helps organizations to develop systematic control sustain operations in crises but may not directly contribute to employees' capabilities of accurately understanding external turmoil, actively seeking available resources and rapidly developing adaptive solutions. Transformation management intensity equips an organization with transformative vision, governance and culture, and such transformative built-in leadership enables the organization to embrace employees with talents and innovativeness and help employees grow their capabilities when facing crises. The dimensions of OR have different influences on the organization and employees. Originality/value: This research develops and tests the dimensions and measurement items of OR for the services domain and empirically tested how the dimensions of digital maturity influence the dimensions of OR, and how OR influences the organization's performance and employees' state optimism. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Impact of COVID-19 on mental health and career anxiety of hospitality and tourism students in the UK

Purpose - The current study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and career perspectives of the future workforce of the tourism and hospitality industry in the UK. The paper is based on theories of emotion and focuses on the interplay role of three factors of fear of COVID-19, depression, and future career anxiety. Design/methodology/approach - The current research uses a mixed-method approach in two studies to answer the research questions. First, an online questionnaire was distributed among 197 current tourism and hospitality students in the UK. In the second phase through a qualitative approach and 17 semi-structured interviews, a more in-depth approach was taken to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the future career perspectives of the respondents. Findings - Findings reveal a high level of mental health disorders among respondents. The majority of respondents suffer from some sort of mental health conditions/disorders that affect their moods, thinking, and behaviors. The results further show that the fear of COVID-19 causes depression which results in career anxiety. Practical implications - The findings suggest that the future tourism workforce in the UK is likely to suffer from some sort of mental health disorder that can influence their performances in the workplace. Companies are advised to make adjustments that help to protect the well-being and psychological health of their staff. Originality/value - Previous studies used a snapshot in time only with a focus on the immediate and short-term effects of the pandemic. In the current study, by taking a long-term impact approach, the authors attempted to understand the psychological impact of the COVID-19 on the future workforce of the tourism industry in the UK and offered practical implications for stakeholders.

Comparison of biochemical and immunological biomarker levels of patients with COVID-19 with healthy individuals

Objectives: It was aimed to compare Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT), Alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AGP), Total Immunoglobulin M (Total IgM), Total Immunoglobulin G (Total IgG), Galectin-3 (Gal3), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 IgG (SARS-CoV-2 IgG) levels in patients with COVID-19 and healthy individuals. Methods: The study included a total of 86 participants, 44 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test and 42 as the control group. AAT, AGP, Total IgM, and Total IgG levels were measured using the immunoturbidimetric method. Gal3 and SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels were measured using the chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay method. Results: AAT, AGP, Total IgG, Gal3, and SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels were found to be significantly higher in the patient group compared to the control group (p<0.001 for all tests). In the patient group, there was a moderate correlation between AAT-AGP and SARS-CoV-2 IgG-AAT (r=0.692;r=0.561, respectively). Conclusions: High levels of AAT, AGP, Total IgG, Gal3, and SARS-CoV-2 IgG in the patient group and correlations between variables suggest that these parameters may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease and provide an idea about the prognosis of the disease. However, new studies on this subject are needed in order to clearly reveal the laboratory tests related to the clinical course of the disease. © 2021 De Gruyter. All rights reserved.