The Influence of Personal Resources on Job Engagement of Employees in Tourism Companies

INTRODUCTION

According to statistics from the General Department of Tourism, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 95% of tourism businesses to close or suspend operations. About 20-30% of tourism businesses are at risk of bankruptcy. According to the Hanoi Department of Tourism, in the first half of 2021, about 12,600 workers at tourist accommodation establishments in the area needed jobs. In the travel sector, the number of employees who quit their jobs and terminated their labor contracts accounted for about 90% of the total number of employees in the travel business, equivalent to over 12,100 people. According to the Hanoi Department of Tourism, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry grew at an average rate of 15%-17%. In 2019, tourists to Hanoi reached nearly 29 million visitors. However, the past two years have been a tough and challenging period for the whole country and Hanoi in particular, including the hotel industry. However, due to the long duration of the pandemic, most tourism businesses need help with human resources and exceptionally highly skilled and trained personnel. After the Covid-19 epidemic, in April 2022, the tourism industry was reopened to welcome guests, but many hotel workers did not return to work.

According to Ncube and Jerie (2012), employee engagement is the key to creating an organization's competitive advantage. Therefore, the organization must maximize resources to develop employees, increasing engagement. In the field of tourism, managers are always aware that good human resources will help improve the efficiency of tourism business activities. However, the rate of voluntary resignation and job transfer in the tourism sector is currently very high. In addition, Hiển & Vĩnh (2022) believe that workers in the tourism sector will have certain apprehensions when their job safety is not guaranteed, especially after such events—complications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hardaningtyas (2020) suggests that employees will have a higher enthusiasm for their work with a positive mindset.

Many studies have evaluated the factors affecting job engagement in different organizations. However, studies often focus on job characteristics or organizational factors (Sun & Bunchapattanasakda, 2019). Meanwhile, studies related to the personal resources of employees are rarely mentioned or mentioned concerning the intention to leave (for example, van den Heuvel et al., 2010; Ncube & Jerie, 2012; Wertheim, 2016; Kim & Hyun, 2017; Karatepe et al., 2018). Through research on academic databases—Researchgate, Science Direct, IEEE Explore, Scopus, Emerald Insight, Taylor, and Francis, and online, and Google Scholar—the author has yet to find studies related to the relationship between personal resources, job satisfaction, and job engagement in the tourism industry, especially the mediating role of job satisfaction. Therefore, this study was conducted to measure the impact of personal resources on job satisfaction and job engagement of employees, as well as compare the correlation between the three concepts above in business tourism (hotels, restaurants, and travel). The following contents of the study are arranged as follows: section 2, theoretical basis; section 3, research methods; section 4, research results; and section 5, conclusions and implications for governance.

Literature Review

Theory of Conservation of Resources

The theory of conservation of resources (COR) was proposed by Hobfoll (1989). This theory discusses the investment, development, and conservation of personal resources as individual characteristics and conditions in the organization that the individual values. Wen et al. (2019) argue that COR shows that the absence or loss of essential resources will create adverse psychological effects. Employees will be more inclined to avoid or minimize the loss of resources, such as quitting or finding new resources from a new job. Van den Heuvel et al. (2010) show that when employees have enough resources to work, they will feel their work is more meaningful so they can overcome difficulties at work. COR theory is widely used in research related to human resources. Studies by Sương et al. (2021) and Hardaningtyas (2020) both confirmed the relevance of the COR theory in research related to individual attitudes and behaviors toward the organization because it discusses the investment of personal resources, the development, and conservation of resources such as personal characteristics, strengths, and organizational conditions that employees value. Therefore, the study uses the theory of conservation of resources as a background theory for studying the impact of personal resources and job satisfaction on job engagement.

Personal Resources and Satisfaction

Personal resources are understood as the existing qualities in the employees themselves. (Kim & Hyun, 2017) argue that personal resources are inherent qualities of individuals that are valuable to a particular field. These approaches have been specified by the COR theory (Trần & Lê, 2019) mentioned above. Halbesleben et al. (2014) extended the concept of personal resources and suggested that it is all an individual has and is valued as valuable to their activities and supports performance improvement in their job performance. These approaches are used when assessing workers' unique resources in various fields with three components of personal power that are widely recognized in science: self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism. Similarly, Hardaningtyas (2020) also suggests three factors to consider in personal resources: confidence in self-efficacy, self-esteem based on organization, and optimism.

This study uses the concept of general job satisfaction as a measurement tool. Job satisfaction of employees can be explained under two aspects: general satisfaction, expressing common feelings on all aspects of work, and satisfaction with each specific aspect of the job, such as salary, bonus, and leadership. Thus, job satisfaction shows employees' positive perception and orientation toward work in the organization (Karatepe & Olugbade, 2009).

Self-efficacy refers to individuals' understanding or beliefs about their ability to perform and complete tasks (Wertheim, 2016). Self-efficacy will lead the employees' work to be guaranteed and completed with high results, making them feel more positive about their work. Self-esteem is the degree to which individuals believe in the organization's importance, competence, and essential position. Individuals with high job self-esteem often find themselves important to their organization, making them more committed to their work and more eager to do their job well within the company (Mauno et al., 2007). Toth et al. (2020) define optimism as the tendency that a person will achieve positive results in life in general. Optimists are more likely to attribute positive outcomes to themselves than pessimists when linking adverse outcomes to external causes. Hardaningtyas (2020), Sun and Bunchapattanasakda, (2019), and Toth et al. (2020) have shown a positive relationship between these three aspects of personal resources and job satisfaction. Halbesleben et al. (2014) and Wertheim, (2016) suggest that when employees have good personal resources, they will feel high satisfaction with their work and thus will bring about positive effects extreme towards their work. Besides the research of Hardaningtyas, (2020) shows that three elements of personal resources have a positive impact on the enthusiasm to participate in the work of the organization, operate with higher energy, and always strive to work with high productivity

H1a: Self-efficacy positively affects employee satisfaction in tourism businesses.

H1b: Job self-esteem positively affects employee satisfaction in tourism businesses.

H1c: Job optimism positively affects employee satisfaction in tourism businesses.

Personal Resources and Job Engagement

There are many definitions of job engagement, Kim and Hyun (2017) state that work engagement is a positive, satisfying, work-related mental state characterized by vitality, dedication, and passion. According to Karatepe et al. (2018), employee engagement is defined as a positive attitude that employees have towards the organization depending on the level of support they receive from the organization. These two concepts show two different extremes of engagement; one is related to the employee's individuality, and the other is the employee's perception of the organization's support. Meanwhile, Jeanson and Michinov (2020) define engagement as a positive attitude of employees toward the values and activities of the organization. Employees are aware of the business context and work with colleagues to improve performance at work for the organization's benefit. Organizations must find a way to develop and nurture engagement, as engagement requires a two-way relationship between employees and the organization. Chandani et al. (2016) define commitment as a positive state that implies a significant investment of energy and psychological attachment to job performance. Therefore, this study suggests that engagement only occurs when individuals are emotionally connected to others, perceive their work, and trust the organization.

Personal resources are expected to impact employee engagement and creativity positively. Personal resources will help employees feel more positive and engaged with their work (Toth et al., 2020). Employees who feel confident in themselves are more productive and motivated to engage in their work. As a result, they will show more engagement with their work and be more productive. Jeanson and Michinov (2020) proved that confidence helps employees to be more engaged with their work. Similarly, Wertheim (2016) also reinforced the hypothesis of the positive impact of self-esteem on job engagement by surveying female nurses in Iran. From the above arguments, the author proposes:

H2a: Self-efficacy positively affects job engagement in tourism businesses.

H2b: Self-esteem positively affects job engagement in tourism businesses.

H2c: Job optimism positively affects job engagement in tourism businesses.

Job Satisfaction and Job Engagement

The relationship between job satisfaction and job engagement has been extensively researched. Preko and Adjetey (2013) examined the correlation between employee satisfaction and loyalty in commercial banks. The results have shown positive, significant linear correlations between employee loyalty, engagement, and performance. Research by Book et al. (2019) has also shown the relationship between employee satisfaction and employee loyalty in the field of food and beverage hotels. Besides, Sương et al. (2021) also showed the positive influence of satisfaction on employees' organizational commitment in the retail industry. Therefore, the study proposes the following hypothesis:

H3: Job satisfaction positively affects employee engagement in tourism businesses.

However, the studies of Book et al. (2019), Preko and Adjetey (2013), and Sương et al. (2021) have not shown the mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between personal resources and resources: employees and employee engagement. Meanwhile, according to Kianto et al. (2016), an employee who is satisfied with his job will have a positive influence and bring many desired work values. This will lead to a stronger attachment to the organization. From these arguments, the author proposes the following hypothesis:

H4a: Job satisfaction mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and job engagement.

H4b: Job satisfaction mediates the relationship between self-esteem and job engagement.

H4c: Job satisfaction mediates the relationship between job optimism and job engagement.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was carried out through 4 steps: Step 1: Initial qualitative research, Step 2: Preliminary quantitative research, Step 3: Formal quantitative research, and Step 4: Additional qualitative research. In this study, the observed variables of personal resource factors are developed by Hardaningtyas (2020). The observed variables of the factor of job satisfaction were developed from the study of Trần and Lê (2019). The observed variables of factors associated with work are developed from the study of Sương et al. (2021). Table 1 describes the observed variables and sources.

Table 1. Observed Variables and Sources

* The Item is removed from the contructs

** Developed by author

The survey was conducted with 400 employees who worked at hotels, travel companies, and restaurants in Hanoi from October 2021 to December. All observed variables in the constructs were measured on a five-point Likert scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). The questionnaire also surveyed demographic information such as gender, age, and occupation.

This study applied the partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the survey data. Primary data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using the statistical data analysis tool SPSS, SmartPLS 4.0. According to Henseler and Chin (2010), the PLS-SEM is evaluated through two steps: evaluation of the measurement model and structural model. First, the measurement model is evaluated by evaluating the reliability, convergence value, and discriminant validity of the measurement concepts in the model. Next, the study evaluates the structure of the model and uses the bootstrapping method with 5,000 iterations to evaluate the importance of indexes and paths, values such as variance exaggeration index (VIF), level influence (f²), out-of-sample predictive power rating coefficient (Q²) and explanatory coefficient of independent variables on a dependent variable (R²).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Out of a total of 400 survey questionnaires, 381 questionnaires were collected. After removing invalid answers, the total number of usable questionnaires was 365, accounting for 91%. Table 2 describes the demographic information of employees surveyed in the study.

Table 2. Demographic Information of Employees

Measurement Model Analysis

The measurement model with five variables and 22 observed variables was analyzed. The first evaluation, the observables EEF1, “I easily stick to my goals and accomplish my goals,” EST3, “Everyone has faith in me,” and OPT2, “I always expect things to go my way,” have a load factor less than 0.7 and are removed from the model. The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. The Reliability and Validity of the Structural Model

The results of the second evaluation are shown in Table 3, and the result shows that all observed variables have loading factor values greater than 0.7, Cronbach's Alpha and Composite Reliability indexes are greater than 0.7, and large AVE is greater than 0.5, so the data analyzed here is to ensure the necessary reliability (Hair Jr et al., 2021).

Table 4 shows that the discriminant validity of the model is guaranteed since all the values on the diagonal are more significant than the values in the corresponding column (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Table 4. Discriminant Value of the Model

According to Henseler et al., (2015), if HTMT ≤ 0.85, the discriminant value between two latent variables will be guaranteed. Table 5 shows the results of an HTMT value less than 0.85 indicating a discriminant value.

Analysis of the Structural Model

First, the problem of multicollinearity should be considered. Table 5 shows that all VIF values in this study are less than three, indicating that there is no problem of multicollinearity between the predictive constructs (Hair Jr. et al., 2021).

Table 5. Value of VIF, f², R², and Q²

The results show that R² values > 40% of the independent variable's explanatory level for the dependent variable's variation are accepted. The results show that all associations have relative influence for f² > 0.02, indicating appropriate effect size. All Q² > 0 values indicate the out-of-sample predictive power of the research variables in the structural model.

The results of the structural model evaluation, including path coefficients, t-values, and p-values, are presented in Table 6.

Table 6. Results of the Direct Effect

According to Hair Jr. et al. (2021), for the hypothesis to be supported, the t value must be > 1.96 and p < 0.05. The results show that job satisfaction has been significantly positively affected by self-efficacy (β = 0.335; t = 6.495; p < 0.01), self-esteem (β = 0.356; t = 8.136; p < 0.01), and optimism (β = 0.305; t = 6.530; p < 0.01). Besides, job engagement has been significantly positively affected by self-esteem (β = 0.215; t = 3.807; p < 0.01) and optimism (β = 0.216; t = 3.733; p < 0.01).

In addition, the direct relationship between job satisfaction and job engagement (β = 0.418, t = 5.323, p < 0.01) is also supported.

However, the study did not support a direct link between self-efficacy and job engagement (t < 1.96 and p > 0.05). Figure 1 shows the research results of the model.

To test the mediating role of the job satisfaction variable, t value > 1.96, p < 0.05, and confidence interval > 0 (Zhao et al., 2010). Table 6 shows that indirect links between self-efficacy, self-esteem, optimism, and job engagement through job satisfaction mediating variables are all supported (Nezhadrahim et al., 2023).

The results of this study show that all three factors of personal resources impact employee satisfaction in tourism businesses. These results are similar to those of Karatepe and Olugbade (2009), Hardaningtyas (2020), and Sun and Bunchapattanasakda (2019). It can be seen that, despite going through 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when reopening, tourism industry employees still showed optimism and confidence in their work. However, Sun and Bunchapattanasakda (2019) also found that many previous studies' results needed more optimistic support. Some studies only focus on organizational support without going into research related to individual resources (Wertheim, 2016).

Research results also show that self-esteem and optimism directly impact employee engagement. These results confirm the studies of Wertheim (2016) Kim & Hyun (2017). However, while this study shows that optimism strongly influences employee commitment, Wertheim's (2016) study only confirmed the influence of self-esteem based on the company. The results also show surprise that self-efficacy is not directly related to job commitment but indirectly through job satisfaction (Halimah et al., 2021; Nurcahyo et al., 2023).

All three resource factors indirectly influence job engagement through job satisfaction, confirming the mediating role of satisfaction. This result is remarkable because previous studies often overlooked the mediating role of satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

This study aims to analyze the relationship between personal resources and employee engagement. The study surveyed 365 employees working in tourism businesses in Hanoi. The study developed a model based on the theory of resource conservation and proposed three factors of the theory, including self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism. Research results show that all three factors directly influence employee job satisfaction. Besides, research also shows that 2 out of 3 factors that affect job engagement include self-esteem and optimism. Research results also show a positive relationship between employee satisfaction and job engagement in the tourism industry. In addition, the results also show the indirect effects of self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism on job commitment through job satisfaction.

In two ways, this study has benefited academia: 1) Creating a model based on the idea of resource conservation that includes three personal resource components and examines how these factors relate to engagement and work satisfaction. 2) Studies have shown that work satisfaction acts as a mediator in the connection between employee job engagement and personal resources.

Regarding the practice of human resource management in tourism enterprises, the research results show that managers need to focus on understanding the individual aspects of employees to find out their thoughts and aspirations. In particular, the results show that self-efficacy is not a direct cause of job engagement. However, the relationship between self-efficacy and job commitment is confirmed through satisfaction. From this result, managers need to focus more on improving employee satisfaction. When employees (talented) feel satisfied with their work, they will have a more positive attitude towards their work and the intention to stay with the company. Individuals who have faith in their abilities have strong personalities that are difficult to retain, so the treatment of talents needs to be taken.

Despite the scientific and practical contributions, the study still shows limitations, such as research space was only conducted at one event in Hanoi; there needs to be a comparison between employee demographics for engagement. Although the study sample size is large enough for the PLS-SEM method, further studies must expand the sample size and the research area.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their suggestions which were most helpful in improving this article

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: None

ETHICS STATEMENT: None