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Women in travel and tourism: does fear of COVID-19 affect Women's turnover intentions?

Orhan Uludag (School of Tourism and Hotel Management, Cyprus International University, North Cyprus, Turkey)
Zainab Omolola Olufunmi (School of Tourism and Hotel Management, Cyprus International University, North Cyprus, Turkey)
Taiwo Temitope Lasisi (Department of Recreology and Tourism, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic)
Kayode Kolawole Eluwole (Department of Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, İstanbul Gelişim Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkey)

Kybernetes

ISSN: 0368-492X

Article publication date: 9 June 2022

Issue publication date: 7 July 2023

436

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of fear of COVID-19 and job stress on women's turnover intentions in the hospitality industry (travel agencies). Also, the mediating role of work-family conflict was examined.

Design/methodology/approach

Three theoretical approaches of importance for framing issues of fear of COVID-19, job stress, work-family conflict and women's turnover intentions. Using the purposive sampling technique, the participants for the current paper were selected from the population of employees of top travel and tour operation firms in Lagos, Nigeria.

Findings

Findings from the study indicate that the fear of COVID-19 and job stress was found to be positively related to work-family conflict and work-family conflict was positively related to women's turnover intentions. Work-family conflict mediates the positive relationship between fear of COVID-19 and women's turnover intentions, while against priori; the work-family conflict did not mediate the relationship between job stress and women's turnover intentions.

Research limitations/implications

Our study's findings were limited in their generalizability because they focused on a specific operating sector of tourism, travel and tour. Testing the study's model in different tourism operating sectors or mixed industries could offer better insights. A comparative study between this current context and western/non-western contexts to provide more contextual insights.

Originality/value

This study considered travel agencies (the pillar of the tourism industry) that have been understudied. The main strength of the study is its female-centric approach to uncovering the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality employee outcomes. Specifically, the study used African females in the hospitality settings to investigate the aforementioned relationships. 10; Keywords: COVID-19; job stress; turnover intention; work-family conflict.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Ethics approval: Not applicable.

Consent for participation: Not applicable.

Consent for publication: Not applicable.

Availability of data and material: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding statement: No funding was received for this study.

Citation

Uludag, O., Olufunmi, Z.O., Lasisi, T.T. and Eluwole, K.K. (2023), "Women in travel and tourism: does fear of COVID-19 affect Women's turnover intentions?", Kybernetes, Vol. 52 No. 7, pp. 2230-2253. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-04-2022-0552

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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