We need support! Examining hospitality employees’ AI anxiety and job insecurity: the moderating role of organizational support

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of hospitality employees’ anxiety about AI technology and its impact on their job insecurity and turnover intention. Additionally, this study examines the direct impact of organizational support on job insecurity, affective organizational commitment, and turnover intention. Lastly, the present study demonstrates the moderating roles of organizational support in the relationships between organizational commitment and turnover intention and between job insecurity and turnover intention. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an online self-administered survey with 357 hospitality employees. The data were analyzed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings of this study indicate that employees’ anxiety about AI technology has a positive impact on their job insecurity, which increases their turnover intention, but has a negative effect on employees’ organizational commitment. Employees’ organizational commitment has a negative effect on their willingness to leave the organization. Furthermore, the negative relationship between employees’ organizational commitment and turnover intention was significantly reinforced by the organization’s support for employees. Practical implications The findings provide multiple practical implications for hospitality management in developing strategies to reduce its employees’ job insecurity caused by AI technology anxiety in the workplace. One key strategy is to provide strong organizational support to help employees increase their organizational commitment and reduce their likelihood of turnover. Originality/value This study enhances both the theoretical foundation and practical insights into employees’ job insecurity by AI adoption in the hospitality industry. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies attempting to empirically analyze the impact of anxiety about AI technology on job insecurity, organizational support, organizational commitment and turnover intention.