The hotel industry has always been seen as vibrant, glamorous, and profitable. However, the novelty of working in the hotel industry is wearing off due to the demands and expectations from both the management and customers. The pressure to deliver high quality services and the expense to maintain the status quo in a hotel have become problematic. Employees are experiencing a wide range of issues including work related stress. Occupational stress as commonly known is one of the contributory factors connected to poor health, psychological and mental well-being. Using a qualitative data approach from 3-4-5-star hotels in Cyprus and the United Kingdom, the supervisors' pleasant demeanour shadowed by social, physical, and psychological issues is unveiled. By also unraveling occupational stress through the lenses of supervisors in the hotel industry, this study will help the hotel management to take appropriate action to address the occupational stress amongst employees which is a huge issue in the sector.
TopIntroduction
In the world of work, there are various issues that both employers and employees experience which may have an impact with regards to productivity and individual well-being. One of the ongoing concerns that has been addressed from time to time is the work-related stress. It is generally agreed that stress is a multifaceted phenomenon, complicated and requires addressing in a holistic manner (Lo & Lamm, 2005). There is a growing recognition of the chronic conditions in the workplace characterised by the persistent occurrence of frustration and anxiety. Worries about work activities can be triggered by stress. Over the years occupational stress has been noted as a contributory factor connected to poor health and this has a devastating effect on individuals’ wellbeing (Perrewe & Anthony, 1990; Bohle & Quinlan, 2000; Smith, 2003). Occupational stress is likely to affect negatively individual’s health on a psychological, mental and emotional level (Bohle & Quinlan, 2000; Smith, 2003) but also it can cause serious and long-term illnesses if it does not get addressed timely from a medical perspective (Quick & Cooper, 2003).
There is a plethora of research that has expounded variable factors relating to stress in the workplace such as: overtime and work pressure, clear job responsibilities, poor management, work-life balance and involvement in the decision-making process (Michie, 2002). Cartwright & Cooper (1997) view stress in relation to conditions of employment, responsibilities in the organisation, rapports with coworkers, training and development issues, objectives, policies, and procedures at work, and personal commitments. Factors such as: character compatibility, management relations between colleagues, workspace, work facilities and technical equipment are some of the other issues that are commonly referred to as impediments to workplace productivity. Riggio (2017) views stress as emanating from job insecurity which occur when one is ambiguous about the future. Cooper et al., (2001) classify distinctive categories of stress focusing particularly on profession, management, and personal wellbeing.
Occupational stress can be detrimental for organisations from a financial perspective to employee turnover (Djurkovic, 2019). In customer service jobs, stress is omnipresent in the daily working environment due to a number of different demands deriving from stakeholders, customers and management and this can create disharmony and conflict to employees (Ruyter et al., 2001). Similarly, in customer service (hotel industry) occupational stress has the potential to minimise the organisational performance of employees (Gilboa et al., 2008), labour productivity (Lepine et al., 2005) and if intensifies leads to exhaustion, signs of depressions, anger and isolation and reduces the learning ability (Gupta & Beehr, 1979; Motowildo et al., 1986). Advocates in the hotel industry indicate that employees who experience stressful situations, feel pessimistic and display negative emotional triggers during the delivery of customer service (Kim, 2008). Customer service behaviour is closely interrelated with the presence of emotional labour, as introduced by Arlie Hochschild (1983) which shows a display of situational emotions during the performance of a role.