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.