Introduction

In the post-pandemic period, employees’ psychological state and behaviour are vital for the sustainable growth of the hotel industry (Chong et al. 2024; Mehta et al. 2024). Macao, a special administrative region of China, is renowned for its thriving hotel industry and numerous luxury hotels (Pai et al. 2024). Hotels play a vital role in driving the growth of Macao’s tourism industry and boosting the local economy (Man Wai Leong et al. 2024). However, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted all hospitality sectors (Chong et al. 2024). In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hotels in Macao ceased operations (Fong et al. 2021), resulting in staff layoffs to cut costs (Sobaih et al. 2021) and seriously affecting the psychological state of hotel staff (Abbas et al. 2021; Jung et al. 2021; Karatepe et al. 2021; Mahmoud et al. 2021). Hotel employees continued to experience psychological insecurity even after the pandemic, consequently affecting their mental health and behaviour (Alyahya et al. 2021; Mehta et al. 2024). This situation highlights the ongoing importance of addressing the psychological safety and mental health of employees, as these are key factors to their happiness and well-being (Tatsi et al. 2024). However, research on how the post-pandemic psychological state of hotel staff impacts their emotions and behaviours remains limited.

To understand the post-pandemic emotional and behavioural responses of hotel employees, this research aims to address the following gaps. Firstly, perceived trust comes from trust theory, which emphasises two aspects: psychological state and behavioural performance (Chen 2006). In the post-pandemic period, hotel workers’ faith in the company significantly influences their intention to remain with the hotel (Mehta et al. 2024). Trust can yield positive work performance in an organization (Braun et al. 2013; Cheung et al. 2017; (Keefer and Vlaicu, 2024). However, considering the post-pandemic scenario, whether the perceived trust of hotel employees has an impact on their emotions and behaviours remains unclear. Thus, this question will be empirically explored in this study.

Secondly, employee loyalty is a key factor in maintaining organizational stability (Bowen 2020). The loyalty of hotel employees decreased during the pandemic, and employee trust became an important factor affecting employee loyalty after the pandemic (Aristana et al. 2022). However, in terms of employee loyalty, there is no research that takes post-pandemic hotel employee loyalty as an intermediate link between employees’ perceived trust, psychological safety, emotion and behaviour.

In view of these research gaps, this study elucidates the psychological condition through the lens of trust theory to investigate the emotion and behaviour of hotel employees in the context of the post-pandemic situation in Macao hotels. Two main research questions are raised: (1) How do perceived trust and psychological safety affect employee loyalty in the context of the post-pandemic situation in Macao hotels? (2) In the context of the post-pandemic era, how does hotel staff loyalty influence the subjective well-being, organizational belonging and job performance of employees? This study expands the existing research on perceived trust and psychological safety and explores how they affect employee loyalty, which helps to enrich trust theory. In addition, it explores the influencing factors of employee emotion and behaviour and uses loyalty as a link to conduct empirical research and make recommendations for further research. Finally, this research has practical significance for hotel organization management and development after a pandemic or crisis.

Literature review

Trust theory and perceived trust

Perceived trust is influenced by personal subjective elements and reflects the feelings of trust and safety of an individual towards another party (Wu et al. 2017). Perceived trust is based on trust theory, which holds that trust is related to people’s psychological and behavioural factors (Chen 2006). Trust has been widely discussed by scholars in both organizational and relational contexts (Cook and Schilke 2010; Lee et al. 2013; Yue et al. 2019). In an organization, trust signifies employees’ belief in the organization and their readiness to be influenced by its actions (Men et al. 2020). Trust is the key to improving organizational productivity and performance (Keefer and Vlaicu 2024). Particularly, it is important in uncertain environments (Yue et al. 2019). Trust is defined as the dependence of one individual on another, a dependence that is expressed by acting in the case of risk (Currall and Epstein 2003). Similarly, employees’ trust is crucial during time of job instability, such as pandemics or crises (Li et al. 2021). However, the role of organizational trust in this context, especially after the pandemic, remains unexplored (Yue et al. 2019; Ecklebe and Löffler 2021), with research on employees’ perceived trust in the post-pandemic context is still limited.

Psychological safety

Psychological safety refers to the psychological comfort and security employees feel within the organization (Zeng et al. 2020). In the workplace, psychological safety enables employees to trust and respect one another (Guchait et al. 2014) and take risks in interpersonal relationships. When employees are psychologically secure, they are less likely to worry about being criticised or punished for mistakes (Rabiul et al. 2023). This sense of security contributes to their physical and mental health, creating a comfortable state that enhances their happiness. The greater the psychological safety, the stronger the sense of happiness, and the better their work quality performance in the organization (Guchait et al. 2014; Erkutlu and Chafra 2016). Studies also reveal that the organizational relationship of employees in the hotel industry causes their psychological vulnerability. Therefore, it is crucial for hotel employees to feel psychological safety to improve their positive and good performance behaviours (Lv et al. 2022). However, studies on the psychological safety of hotel employee’s post-pandemic remain scarce.

Employee loyalty

A key indicator of whether employees are eager to remain with a company is loyalty, a psychological condition that highlights the bond between workers and the company (Ibrahim and Al Falasi 2014). Employee loyalty plays a crucial role in enhancing performance. Those who are highly committed to their organization tend to prioritise its interests and contribute actively to its sustained growth (Titisari et al. 2021). The loyalty of hotel staff can reflect their intention to stay with the organization (McGinley and Shi 2024; Pelaez and Roman Calderon 2024). At the same time, employee loyalty can reduce the associated negative effects when the work environment or organization encounters unfavourable conditions (Dutta and Dhir 2021). Studies have indicated that building employee loyalty throughout the COVID-19 outbreak enabled organizations to maintain psychological connection with employees and avoid high turnover (Aristana et al. 2022). In addition, how to win employee loyalty and achieve loyalty exchange after the pandemic is worth studying (Ford et al. 2023). However, research on employee loyalty in the aftermath of the pandemic is lacking.

Subjective well-being

Subjective well-being refers to a person’s comprehensive assessment of life quality and contentment (Diener and Seligman 2002). It describes a person’s psychological state of contentment and well-being. The subjective well-being of employees in an organization is related to job performance (Diener et al. 2018). Scholars have studied subjective well-being from the perspective of time span and compared individual well-being indexes through longitudinal changes in time, which indicated the important role of well-being (Liu et al. 2024). Research indicates that the pandemic has significantly affected the mental well-being of hotel staff, leading to heightened feelings of distress and a rise in unemployment rates. Consequently, the subjective well-being of employees in the hotel sector has become increasingly vital in the aftermath of the crisis (Hameed et al. 2024). Nevertheless, the subjective well-being of hotel employees in the post-pandemic context remains unclear.

Organizational belonging

Organizational belonging signifies employees’ alignment with the organization and the development of strong relationships within it (Su et al. 2024). A sense of belonging is strongly connected to personal psychological elements, reflected in the fact that when individuals are trusted and respected by others, their sense of belonging will also be enhanced after their psychological needs are met (Mohamed et al. 2014). In an organization, a good interpersonal relationship among employees will affect the sense of belonging to the organization. In other words, a good interpersonal relationship and atmosphere will make employees feel a sense of existence and recognition, thus generating a strong sense of belonging (Su et al. 2024). Research indicates that a sense of belonging is crucial in organizations (Bryer 2020). However, research on the organizational sense of belonging of hotel employees after the pandemic is insufficient.

Job performance

Job performance refers to the accomplishments and work quality of employees (Yang and Hwang 2014). Scholars have discussed the impact of psychological distress and disharmonious relationships in organizations on the job performance of hotel employees from a psychological perspective (Anasori et al. 2023). In hotels, the psychological factors of employees are the key factors affecting work performance (Darvishmotevali et al. 2024). The study mentioned that in the post-pandemic era, the mental health of employees must be taken into consideration. Protecting employees’ mental health can help stabilise them, which can, in turn, further improve their work performance. Improving employee mental health is a critical determinant of employee work performance, which is necessary to maintain the sustainable and sound growth of the organization (Aubouin-Bonnaventure et al. 2024). However, studies examining how the mental states of employees after the pandemic affect job performance remain scarce.

Hypothesis development

In an organization, trust positively affects and is crucial to improving employee loyalty (Mu and Lee 2023). The positive effect of trust on employee loyalty is well documented (Pham and Tran 2023). The study emphasised that during the COVID-19 pandemic, employees faced an unstable work environment and a heightened sense of insecurity. In such conditions, trust plays a vital role in fostering loyalty, as it directly influences employees’ commitment and willingness to sat with the organization (Rombach et al. 2023). Furthermore, a comprehensive model of loyalty and trust developed in upscale hotels shows that trust is a key driver of employee loyalty, significantly enhancing overall commitment (Assaker et al. 2020). Drawing from these empirical results, the subsequent hypothesis is suggested:

Hypothesis 1: Perceived trust positively influences employee loyalty.

Research indicates that a sense of psychological safety significantly enhances employee loyalty and is crucial for fostering strong organizational relationships. Essentially, the greater the psychological safety an employee feels, the more loyal they tend to be (Waseem et al. 2024). Scholars have proposed that psychological safety has a strong positive correlation with employee loyalty in the tourism industry. The psychological safety of employees is the most influential key factor in measuring employee loyalty. When employees feel high psychological safety in the organizational environment, their loyalty also increases (Singh 2024). Thus, we put forward the next hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2: Psychological safety positively influences employee loyalty.

Relevant studies show that employee engagement can improve employee happiness and work performance such that employees want to stay in the organization (Ibrahim et al. 2020). Firstly, based on current research, loyalty is correlated with subjective well-being (Wang et al. 2020).The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted employees, causing them to feel the uncertainty and instability of their work environment, which significantly influences their mental health and well-being. Further, the loyalty of employees was influenced through subjective well-being. Hence, employee loyalty is closely related to subjective well-being(Gorgenyi-Hegyes et al. 2021). Scholars have pointed out that loyalty is positively correlated with happiness because it makes life more beautiful and pleasant (Aksoy et al. 2015). Secondly, the function of employee loyalty as a mediator highlights its significance in influencing organizational belonging and clarifies the connection between the two. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of studies on organizational belonging and employee loyalty in the post-epidemic era. Employee loyalty is also strongly correlated with the sense of identity and belonging that workers experience within a company (Ruzain 2024), and in the hotel field, it is related to the sense of belonging in the organization. Employees with higher loyalty are more willing to continue working hard for the hotel (Yao et al. 2019). Finally, researchers have explored how employee loyalty influences job performance in the hotel industry, finding that loyalty has a positive impact on performance (Phuong and Tran 2020). A positive correlation is found between employee loyalty and job performance, with employees remaining loyal to the organization. Loyalty can create value for the organization, thus further improving work performance (Munawar 2024). Scholars further pointed out that in the service industry, employee loyalty is a key factor to improve performance (Yee et al. 2010). Consequently, we put up the following hypotheses (see Fig. 1):

Hypothesis 3: Employee loyalty positively influences subjective well-being.

Hypothesis 4: Employee loyalty positively influences organizational belonging.

Hypothesis 5: Employee loyalty positively influences job performance

Fig. 1: Research model.
figure 1

It presents all the hypothesized relationships.

Research method

Survey design

The first part of the survey was a brief introduction of the research background and question screening to ensure the selection of appropriate participants. In the second part, all the measurement items were well tested in previous empirical studies. Among them, perceived trust was measured using three items (Ma et al. 2021), while psychological safety consists of five measurement items (Lv et al. 2022). The four measurement items of Employee loyalty come from Fan et al. (2021). The Subjective well-being scale adopted four measurement items (Yang and Jo 2022). organizational belonging is measured by five measurement items (Su et al. 2024), and Job Performance is composed of three measurement items (Karatepe 2013). The relevant measurement items were also adjusted appropriately according to this study. This survey employed a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, to evaluate each measurement item. The personal demography of respondents is included at the end of the survey.

Data collection and analysis

For this study, Tencent, a Chinese online survey platform, was utilised to select qualified respondents employed in Macao hotels post-pandemic. In China, Tencent questionnaire is a popular online questionnaire survey platform with good recycling effect and quality that have been verified in mainstream tourism marketing journals (Zhou et al. 2023;Zhu et al. 2024). For formal data collection, this study conducted a pre-survey of 30 participants to ensure that participants were clear about the measurement questions before formal collection. The questionnaire collection took 10 days (November 9–19, 2024). Finally, 266 valid samples were used for data analysis.

Findings

Sampling background

A total of 266 respondents (138 female, 51.9%; 128 male, 48.1%) who met the selection criteria participated in this study. In terms of age, those between 26 and 30 years accounted for 35% of the total number of participants. Furthermore, 50% are bachelor’s degree holders. Those with an income of MOP 15,001–20,000 comprised 31.6% of the sample (see Table 1).

Table 1 Participant information (N = 266).

Measurement of model

When performing structural modelling analysis, the validity and reliability of the current research model were first tested. We used PLS-SEM to run bootstrapping analysis with 5000 resamples. The data analysis (see Table 2) shows that all the outer loading ranges were greater than 0.7, Cronbach’s alpha values and composite reliability values were greater than 0.7, and the values of average variance extracted (AVE) were greater than 0.5. Thus, the current study has good reliability and validity. In addition, in Tables 3 and 4, all the values of the square root of each AVE were greater than their construct correlations, and heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio statistics values were all lower than 0.9; hence, discriminant validity was obtained (Hair et al. 2021). All variance inflation factors (VIFs) were below 5, so there is no collinearity problem in the current study model (Hair et al. 2021).

Table 2 Measurable items.
Table 3 Discriminant validity (Fornell-Larker Criteria).
Table 4 Discriminant validity (HTMT).

Hypothesis testing

The current study also tested the research hypotheses, all of which held true. The findings indicated that perceived trust and psychological safety positively affect employee loyalty (0.431*** and 0.412***, respectively), and employee loyalty positively affects subjective well-being, organizational belongings and job performance (0.665***, 0.775*** and 0.623***, respectively) (See Fig. 2). Finally, all R squares exceeded 0.25, showing that the current model has good predictive validity (Hair et al. 2021).

Fig. 2: Results of PLS-SEM.
figure 2

All the hypothesized relationships and PLS-SEM findings are shown in the figure.

Discussion and conclusion

This study suggests that employee loyalty is predicated on perceived trust, and that more perceived trust results in a higher loyalty to the company (Jin et al. 2024). Employee loyalty was significantly impacted by trust in the hotel business during the COVID-19 pandemic, and once trust is built between the organization and its workers, the employees will be loyal to the company. Therefore, trust is a prerequisite for loyalty (Aristana et al. 2022). This helps explain why loyalty increases even more when employees feel well-trusted.

Secondly, according to our research, loyalty in the post-pandemic era is positively impacted by the psychological safety of hotel employees. This finding supports earlier research (Singh 2024). Psychological safety pertains to the comfort and sense of safety that employees experience within the organization (Zeng et al. 2020), as well as the mutual trust and respect among employees (Guchait et al. 2014). Only when employees have good interpersonal relationships and mental health, can they be trusted and respected. Employee loyalty will thus be improved (Singh 2024). This finding helps to better understand why employees’ loyalty to the organization is significantly increased when they feel psychologically secure.

Thirdly, employee loyalty has a positive impact on subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is considered an emotional response that describes a person’s general thinking, assessment and appraisal of life happiness and quality (Proctor 2024). Similarly, employees’ subjective well-being refers to the overall emotional evaluation of their job cognition (Liu-Lastres and Wen 2021). Loyalty is positively correlated with happiness. It is a type of interpersonal relationship, with good interpersonal relationship being the core key to individual happiness. Therefore, loyalty is crucial to personal happiness, and individual lives become better because of loyalty relationships (Aksoy et al. 2015). This finding makes it easier to understand why subjective well-being is positively impacted by employee loyalty.

Fourthly, organizational belonging is positively impacted by employee loyalty, demonstrating that a greater sense of belonging to the company is associated with increased employee loyalty. Employee loyalty is a mental state that highlights the connection between staff and the organization. It plays a crucial role in assessing employees’ willingness to remain with and contribute to the company (Ibrahim and Al Falasi 2014; McGinley and Shi 2024; Pelaez and Roman Calderon 2024), while organizational sense of belonging focuses on how employees connect and identify with the organization (Su et al. 2024). In a workplace, the feeling of belonging among employees is strongly connected to their psychological factors. When the psychological needs of employees are satisfied, their sense of belonging is also raised (Mohamed et al. 2014). This finding clarifies the reason why employee loyalty positively influences a sense of belonging within the organization.

Finally, employee loyalty positively influences job performance. Research shows a strong relationship between employee loyalty and job performance, supporting earlier findings (Phuong and Tran 2020; Khan et al. 2020; Yee et al. 2010). In the service industry, employee loyalty is a key factor for good corporate performance (Yee et al. 2010). Additionally, job performance in the hospitality sector is significantly impacted by employee loyalty (Phuong and Tran 2020). Performance is the level and extent to which workers in an organization do their assigned jobs (Gupta and Sharma 2016). Employees with strong loyalty will be more active, efficient and willing to take the initiative to complete work, connect personal interests with organizational interests, achieve personal and organizational goals and create value for the organization (Latifah et al. 2024). These findings enhance our understanding of how employee loyalty affects job performance.

Theoretical contributions

This research has three primary theoretical contributions. Firstly, it confirms that trust theory is appropriate to understand perceived trust in hotels in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier research employed trust theory to examine how employee trust influences organizational performance via loyalty (Alriyami et al. 2024). However, it neglected the relevant emotional factors, such as subjective well-being and organizational belonging. Therefore, such research is limited in exploring how trust theory can simultaneously affect the emotions and behaviours of hotel employees in the post-pandemic era through employee loyalty. In an organization, trust is very important when the future is uncertain and the environment becomes unpredictable (Härenstam et al. 2024). Employees’ trust in the organization or management affects their relevant behaviour performance, but there is still limited attention in the literature (Brown et al. 2015). Thus, this research expands the application of trust theory in hotels.

Secondly, this study employs trust theory to enhance understanding of the link between employees’ perceived trust and their loyalty. Perceived trust reflects the belief or attitude of one party towards another (Kim et al. 2011), while an employee’s attachment to the company may be used to gauge their level of loyalty (Yee et al. 2010). Therefore, this study explored whether trust has an impact on employee loyalty from the perspective of perceived trust. While previous research has highlighted the significance of trust in fostering employee loyalty (Aristana et al. 2022), the majority only address how trust directly affects loyalty, and by seeing loyalty as a connection function, the discussion about employee emotion and behaviour is still constrained. According to research, highly loyal employees focus more on behaviour, which is directly tied to their performance (Aristana et al. 2022). Therefore, this study examines how perceived trust influences employee loyalty by linking key aspects of loyalty. In addition, before the pandemic, interpersonal trust and loyalty in organizations were closely related, affecting employee loyalty (Matzler and Renzl 2006), and related studies mentioned that in the hotel industry, loyalty was significantly impacted by trust (Palacios-Florencio et al. 2018). During COVID-19, trust became a crucial indicator of employee loyalty (Rombach et al. 2023; Aristana et al. 2022). After the pandemic, investigating the function of employee trust in organizations remains a worthwhile effort (Ecklebe and Löffler 2021). Therefore, based on the research on trust and loyalty before and during the pandemic, from a post-pandemic viewpoint, this study broadens the link between employees’ loyalty and perceived trust.

Finally, this research expands the connection between trust theory and employees’ emotions and actions. While perceived trust is rooted in trust theory, its indirect influence on employees’ subjective well-being, sense of belonging to the organization and job performance remains somewhat constrained when linked to employee loyalty, particularly within the hotel sector post-pandemic. Therefore, this study’s results offer theoretical inspiration for future investigations on the emotion and behaviour of hotel staff in the post-pandemic context.

Practical contributions

This research holds practical importance for post-pandemic hotel staff management. Research shows that employees who feel trusted exhibit higher levels of loyalty, leading hotel management to investigate ways to build trust among their staff, which is crucial for promoting employee loyalty. For example, employees should feel that the organization is trustworthy, and organizational managers should be transparent about relevant decisions or policies, so that employees can understand and trust the organization. At the same time, hotel managers can delegate part of their power to front-line staff to make them feel that they are not only task performers but also significant members of the team. By strengthening the presence of employees and the sense of trust of the organization, employees will be closely linked to the interests of the hotel, its organizational goals and their personal goals, thus improving the hotel’s development.

Secondly, when employees feel psychologically safe, their loyalty is significantly improved as well. Therefore, hotel organizations should prioritise fostering psychological safety and supporting the mental health of employees in the post-pandemic era. When employees experience psychological insecurity, it is essential to engage in in-depth communication to understand their mental state and perspectives. This can be achieved directly through conversations or indirectly by examining their interpersonal relationships within the organization. Assess whether they face interpersonal challenges, feel trusted and are respected by others. Regular dialogue with employees and dynamic adjustments according to their situation can help address the needs of employees effectively. This approach ultimately strengthens their loyalty to the organization.

Finally, the research results show that when employees have stronger loyalty, relevant positive emotions and performance behaviours are greatly enhanced, such as subjective well-being, organizational belonging and job performance. Therefore, hotel managers must focus on cultivating and promoting employee loyalty in the management process. For example, they should go deep into the inner emotions of employees, pay attention to their psychological dynamics, and understand their psychological needs and career expectations (e.g.understanding employees’ psychological expectations in career development, salary, working conditions and environment) in order to remove as many barriers to employee instability as possible and encourage staff members to remain with the company and work for the hotel.

Limitations and future study

Despite the insightful information this study offers for further investigation, it still has some limitations. Firstly, this research takes perceived trust and psychological safety as explanations of how they affect the performance behaviour and response of hotel staff in the post-pandemic era. Future studies can explore the formation of hotel staff performance behaviour from more theoretical perspectives. Secondly, the pre-variables in this study only focus on perceived trust and psychological safety while ignoring other significant factors, such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organizational identity and interpersonal relationship. Future studies may consider incorporating these factors into the current model. Thirdly, the study’s sample is restricted by geographic area and mostly consists of hotel workers in Macao. Future research could investigate the application of this approach to employee groups in other nations and increase the sample size. Finally, this study only focuses on the psychological and behavioural research of hotel employees in Macao after Covid-19. Future studies can explore the psychological and behavioural changes of hotel employees before, during and after Covid-19.