The Moderating Role of Corona Stress in the Relationship between Safety Quality and Human Resource Crisis Management in Nature and Ecotourism Agencies

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran

2 Department of Business Administration, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

3 Department of Tourism Management, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

4 Department of Management, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

A B S T R A C T
The critical situation caused by the corona virus has caused many businesses, especially in the field of tourism, ecotourism and nature tourism, to face many problems. On the other hand, ecotourism, has become very popular in recent years. In recent years, ecotourism has been established in small groups and ecotourism accommodation units in different provinces of our country and many job opportunities have been created, but the Corona crisis has hit hard. This field has entered. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of factors such as safety quality, stress and familiarity with procedures on human resource crisis management in nature and ecotourism agencies in East Azerbaijan province. This study is quantitative and applied. Data collection was done through a questionnaire that the opinions of managers of nature and ecotourism agencies were used to test the research hypotheses. In this study, structural equation modeling using partial least squares method has been used to analyze the hypotheses. The results of the software show that there are significant relationships between the research variables. Thus, safety quality and familiarity with crisis management practices have a significant negative impact on human resource crisis. On the other hand, the moderating role of stress in the relationship between safety quality and human resource crisis was confirmed. The results show that when an agency has a high quality of safety and is familiar with crisis management practices, it can better control the human resource crisis in times of crisis. Also, stress management leads to reduce the severity of the human resources crisis of nature and ecotourism agencies through the quality of safety
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The frequency and severity of crises have been growing over the past decade; the crisis caused by the Coronavirus has caused many small and medium-sized businesses to face many problems, especially in the field of ecotourism. On the other hand, ecotourism has become very popular in recent years. Crises can range from destructive rumors and defective products to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. However, all crises have common features and elements. One of the most basic of these is that they need immediate action and treatment. This is one of the main reasons why the field of crisis management in today's organizations has become a top priority. In recent years, ecotourism has been established in small groups and accommodation units in different provinces of our country, and many job opportunities have been created. But the Corona crisis has dealt a severe blow to this area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the human resource crisis through the quality of security, familiarity, or crisis management procedures and to assess the level of stress in the ecotourism and nature agencies of East Azerbaijan province.
 
Methodology
This research is part of quantitative and applied studies. The study population included ecotourism and nature agencies of East Azerbaijan province. In order to review and analyze the data, a questionnaire was assisted by the opinions of human resource managers and crisis management managers of these agencies, and 271 analyzable questionnaires were returned electronically. In this study, structural equation modeling using partial least squares has been used to analyze the hypotheses.
 
Results and discussion
The findings obtained from the software show that there is a significant relationship between the research variables. The results show that the quality of security and familiarity with crisis management practices have a negative and significant impact on the human resource crisis. On the other hand, the role of stress adjustment in the relationship between quality of security and the crisis of human resources was confirmed. Finally, the results showed that familiarity with crisis management practices plays a mediating role in the relationship between security quality and human resource crisis. The results show that when an agency has a high level of security quality and is familiar with crisis management practices, it can better control the human resource crisis in times of crisis. Also, controlling the amount of stress leads to a reduction in the severity of the human resource crisis by increasing the quality of security. Also, controlling the level of stress leads to a sharp increase in the human resource crisis of ecotourism and nature agencies through security quality.
 
Conclusion
Agencies that continuously monitor their safety and quality systems and train their workforce based on them have a high level of employee awareness to identify errors and are in a position to be less affected by potential crises. For this reason, human resource management is actively involved in educating employees and increasing their awareness of possible errors. This must be clearly understood and accepted not only by agencies and senior management but also by the business community. Finally, this study offers several suggestions for managers of ecotourism and nature agencies. As proved by the first hypothesis, the safety quality variable has a significant negative effect on the human resources crisis. This means that in all stages of the crisis, the experience of the organization with safety quality has an indirect impact on the human resource crisis. In the case of ecotourism and nature agencies, where practices are defined by a quality management philosophy and are based on continuous improvement and system evolution, it is clear that senior management already understands the importance of safety quality. In general, these agencies, with a high degree of awareness, increase the quality of their agency's safety so that they do not face the problem of human resources in times of crisis or at least experience a crisis of human resources; therefore, in times of crisis, these agencies can show more resistance. On the other hand, the higher the agency's experience in terms of safety quality, the more significant the role of human resource management in preventing and dealing with crises at different stages of the crisis.
Finally, this study had several limitations. One of the main limitations of this study was the lack of studies in this regard, which did not make it possible to compare the results with other studies for the present study. Therefore, further studies in the field are suggested for future research. Also, the cross-sectional nature of this study, which was examined in a short period of time, can also modify the results. Therefore, longitudinal studies help to further explain the results. Also, by reviewing different studies to complete this research, variables such as threat size, different behavioral states (frustration, fear, anger and depression) and stress management can be used. Therefore, it is suggested for future studies and researchers to use these variables to develop studies in this field.
 
Funding
There is no funding support.
 
Authors’ Contribution
All of the authors approved thecontent of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.

Keywords

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urban tourism
Volume 10, Issue 1
May 2023
Pages 77-93

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