Is digital technology the magic bullet for performing work at home? Lessons learned for post COVID-19 recovery in hospitality management

Doren Chadee*, Shuang Ren, Guiyao Tang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

89 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly brought about a number of disruptions to when and where work is undertaken for hospitality employees. The rapid spread of COVID-19 forced many hospitality managers to use digital technologies to perform work from home, termed digital work connectivity. Yet little is known about how hospitality employees cope with it. The purpose of this study is to investigate an important yet underspecified issue as to how digital work connectivity can be detrimental for employees’ work behavior.

Design/methodology/approach
We test our hypotheses using multi-wave and multi-source data collected from 467 middle managerial-level hospitality employees in China.

Findings
The findings show that digital work connectivity can lead to self-control depletion, which in turn is associated with disengagement from work. Further, the findings show that relational energy is an important resource that can buffer the detrimental effects of digital work connectivity on hospitality employees.

Practical implications
The association of digital work connectivity with employee withdrawal behavior highlights the urgent need for hospitality enterprises to have clear guidelines that regulate technology use at home for work purposes.

Social implications
Our research shows that the absence of clear guidelines in relation to the use of digital technology for work at home risks producing unintended consequences for both hospitality employees and their enterprises.

Originality/value
Our research draws from recent advances in resource allocation theories of self-control and adopts a more nuanced approach to uncover a counterintuitive reality that while people use digital technology to remain connected with work, doing so can actually contribute to their withdrawal behavior.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102718
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Hospitality Management
Volume92
Early online date22 Oct 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 02 Jan 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Digital technology
  • Hospitality
  • Relational energy
  • Withdrawal behavior
  • Work at home

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management
  • Strategy and Management

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