Motivation to Work in the Context of COVID-19 Impact on Tourism Industry Enterprises

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the work motivation of managers of tourism enterprises during the COVID-19 period. Design/methodology: Qualitative research conducted from April to May 2021 in a form of semi-structured interviews with twelve tourist entrepreneurs from the Silesian region. Findings: The COVID-19 caused changes in work performance, including a decrease of work motivation, in the tourism industry. However, at the same time, it stimulated the appearance of new sources of work motivation like, e.g., a desire to overcome the crisis, survival on the market, caring for the staff, a sense of professional passion or concern for the development of the branch or region. Several sources of work motivation were identified that were divided into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of people managing tourism enterprises in the COVID-19 pandemic. Research limitations/implications: Research findings are not representative and cannot be generalized. It would be worthwhile to undertake future research on: how – over time – the pandemic and its course changed the attitudes of tourism entrepreneurs, including their motivation to work; whether this motivation differs when different: types of enterprises (e.g. catering and MICE), enterprise location (e.g. seaside/mountain), segment of tourists (e.g. holiday/business tourists) are considered; a larger sample of respondents with the use of a quantitative approach. Originality/value: COVID-19 caused not only a decrease in motivation to work, which is more often stressed in the literature, but also became an impulse to the emergence of new sources of managers’ work motivation that are completely different than before the pandemic. The identification and exploration of those sources, divided into intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation, create an added value of the paper.

Keywords

• covid-19 pandemic
• work motivation
• tourism industry
• entrepreneurs
• employees