Tourism employee resilience, organizational resilience and financial performance: the role of creative self-efficacy

Despite the recognition that employee resilience affects the resilience of tourism organizations, the influence of employees’ creative self-efficacy on their own resilience and the subsequent effects on organizational resilience has yet to be ascertained. We use social cognitive theory to argue that creative self-efficacy and employee resilience have positive impacts on organizational resilience (planned and adaptive) and firms’ financial performance. We test these propositions among 478 tourism and hospitality organizations affected by COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. Results suggest that employees’ creative self-efficacy have a significant positive influence on employee resilience and planned resilience but, contrary to our predictions, lessens adaptive resilience and financial performance. Employee resilience only affects planned resilience but not adaptive resilience. Employee resilience and adaptive resilience have positive influences on financial performance of the firm. The findings have implications on how human capital development can contribute to sustainable tourism development. Implications for practice are also offered.