Managing digital workloads in hospitality: Insights from Serbia on employee retention and performance

The rapid digitalization of hospitality work has intensified pressures on employees through hyperconnectivity, online reviews, and 24/7 digital communication. This study examines how these digital job demands affect employees? psychological well-being, job satisfaction, job performance, and turnover intentions in Serbia?s hospitality sector, and whether leadership style moderates these effects. A survey of 405 hospitality employees was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Results show that all three digital job demands significantly reduced psychological well-being, satisfaction, and performance, while increasing turnover intentions. Online reviews emerged as the most negative predictor of psychological well-being, accounting for nearly 59% of explained variance, whereas 24/7 digital communication strongly predicted turnover intentions. Hyper-connectivity and online reviews equally affected job satisfaction, while job performance declined most with hyperconnectivity and constant communication. Leadership style had a significant moderating effect, with supportive leadership significantly reducing the negative impacts of digital demands. A comparative analysis between employees working in large urban areas (Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Nis) and those employed in rural areas showed significant spatial differences in how much they are exposed to digital job demands and how those demands affect their work experience. The findings underscore the importance of organizational strategies such as ?right to disconnect? policies, structured online review management, and targeted leadership development to keeping positive level of employees? well-being and performance.