IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v11y2022i12p588-d1008152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Do Hospitality Workers Perceive Their Work Skills before and after the Lockdown Imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Author

Listed:
  • Carla Magalhães

    (Transdisciplinary Research Center on Innovation & Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (TRIEE), Faculty of Economic, Social and Business Sciences (FCESE), Lusofona University, 4000-098 Porto, Portugal)

  • Arthur Araújo

    (Transdisciplinary Research Center on Innovation & Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (TRIEE), Faculty of Economic, Social and Business Sciences (FCESE), Lusofona University, 4000-098 Porto, Portugal)

  • Maria Isabel Andrés-Marques

    (Transdisciplinary Research Center on Innovation & Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (TRIEE), Faculty of Economic, Social and Business Sciences (FCESE), Lusofona University, 4000-098 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

The present research aims to compare hospitality workers’ confidence about the perceived need to improve their soft and hard skills during and after the lockdown period. With this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of workers from four- and five-star hotels located in the historic centre of Porto (Portugal). Data collection took place in two different time periods: April 2020 and April 2022. The findings evidence that workers are more confident of their skills but are also more aware of the need to develop them, particularly their soft skills. This is likely related to the context of remote work, which intensified the need to learn, and evidenced the necessity of skills such as teamwork and adaptation or flexibility, which showed the greatest increase in perceived need to improve. Despite such an increase, the competencies workers feel like they need to improve the most are still hard, i.e., linguistic and digital. Accordingly, those in which workers are the most confident are soft, i.e., teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and adaptation or flexibility, which is likely because those were the most developed during the pandemic. The findings provide useful insights for human resources management in the hospitality sector. The study points to good practices aiming to address the real development needs of hospitality workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Carla Magalhães & Arthur Araújo & Maria Isabel Andrés-Marques, 2022. "How Do Hospitality Workers Perceive Their Work Skills before and after the Lockdown Imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:12:p:588-:d:1008152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/12/588/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/12/588/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John W. Barry & Murillo Campello & John Graham & Yueran Ma, 2022. "Corporate Flexibility in a Time of Crisis," NBER Working Papers 29746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    3. Barry, John W. & Campello, Murillo & Graham, John R. & Ma, Yueran, 2022. "Corporate flexibility in a time of crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 780-806.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tomiura, Eiichi & Kumanomido, Hiroshi, 2023. "Impacts of inter-firm relations on the adoption of remote work: Evidence from a survey in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Cong Gian & Sumedha Gupta & Kosali Simon & Ryan Sullivan & Coady Wing, 2024. "Do workers undervalue COVID-19 risk? Evidence from wages and death certificate data," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 69(3), pages 281-321, December.
    3. Boyao Wu & Difang Huang & Muzi Chen, 2023. "Estimating contagion mechanism in global equity market with time‐zone effect," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 52(3), pages 543-572, September.
    4. Wolfgang Breuer & Jannis Bischof & Oliver Fabel & Christian Hofmann & Jochen Hundsdoerfer & Tim Weitzel, 2023. "Business economics in a pandemic world: how a virus changed our economic life," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 1-9, January.
    5. Barth, Erling & Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald, 2022. "Creative Disruption: Technology Innovation, Labour Demand and the Pandemic," IZA Discussion Papers 15762, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Gaspar, José-Miguel & Wang, Sumingyue & Xu, Liang, 2024. "Digitalization and the performance of non-technological firms: Evidence from the COVID-19 and natural disaster shocks," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    7. Rehman, Obaid Ur & Wu, Kai & Liu, Jia, 2024. "COVID-19 exposure, financial flexibility, and corporate leverage adjustment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    8. Choi, Jiyoon, 2025. "Financial flexibility or financial constraints? Zero-leverage firms during the COVID-19 pandemic," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Gao, Haoyu & Li, Jinxuan & Wen, Huiyu, 2023. "Bank funding costs during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. John R. Graham, 2022. "Presidential Address: Corporate Finance and Reality," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 1975-2049, August.
    11. Gao, Haoyu & Wen, Huiyu & Wang, Xingjian, 2022. "Pandemic effect on corporate financial asset holdings: Precautionary or return-chasing?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Lavery, Paul & Wilson, Nick, 2024. "The performance of private equity portfolio companies during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Maria Andersson & Ola Eriksson & Chris Von Borgstede, 2012. "The Effects of Environmental Management Systems on Source Separation in the Work and Home Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(6), pages 1-17, June.
    14. Tran Huy Phuong & Thanh Trung Hieu, 2015. "Predictors of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Undergraduate Students in Vietnam: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(8), pages 46-55, August.
    15. Clara Cardone-Riportella & María José Casasola-Martinez & Isabel Feito-Ruiz, 2014. "Do Entrepreneurs Come From Venus Or Mars? Impact Of Postgraduate Studies: Gender And Family Business Background," Working Papers 14.04, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Financial Economics and Accounting (former Department of Business Administration), revised Sep 2014.
    16. Peng Cheng & Zhe Ouyang & Yang Liu, 0. "The effect of information overload on the intention of consumers to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    17. Ruijie Zhu & Guojing Zhao & Zehai Long & Yangjie Huang & Zhaoxin Huang, 2022. "Entrepreneurship or Employment? A Survey of College Students’ Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, May.
    18. Alsalem, Amani & Fry, Marie-Louise & Thaichon, Park, 2020. "To donate or to waste it: Understanding posthumous organ donation attitude," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 87-97.
    19. Pan, Jing Yu & Liu, Dahai, 2022. "Mask-wearing intentions on airplanes during COVID-19 – Application of theory of planned behavior model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 32-44.
    20. Mohammed Akhmaaj, Asmaeil Ali & Sharif, Mohamed Omar, 2024. "The effects of planned behavior model constructs and technology acceptance model constructs on online purchasing behavior: An empirical study on internet users in the Libya city of Tripoli," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:12:p:588-:d:1008152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.