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Psychological Impact of COVID-19 The emergence and spread of the recent global pandemic have affected the hospitality sectors, with coffee shops such as Starbucks experiencing the worst impact from spreading the COVID-19 virus

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Psychological Impact of COVID-19 The emergence and spread of the recent global pandemic have affected the hospitality sectors, with coffee shops such as Starbucks experiencing the worst impact from spreading the COVID-19 virus. According to Davahli, Karwowski, Sonmez, and Apostolopoulos (2020), the critical global response employed to enhance control of the pandemic resulted in travel restriction from one point to another domestically well as internationally, maintaining the social/psychical distance, among other measures. The coronavirus’s emergence significantly affected the population, resulting in most people losing their livelihood, with millions of people becoming instantly unemployed, bad economic time, and subsequent fear of future waves of the virus. In the wake of the coronavirus spread, the entire hospitality sector was the primary industry that realized the initial coronavirus impact and depicts the last sector that will fully recover from the virus’s negative implication (Davahli et al. 2020). For instance, in the United States, after the confirmation of the first coronavirus case in January, the country had experienced the subsequent unprecedented economic and social implication from February to March. The public health raised concerns and commenced escalating the issue and possible implications resulting in the hotel losing revenues from the rooms’ services. Similarly, most of the hotel remained empty across the United States and internationally, leading to the enormous loss recorded losses and massive layoffs in the hospitality sector because the companies were not able to cope with diminishing revenues to pay the salaries. Additionally, travel restriction affected the hospitality sector significantly, given that most of the customers in the hostile sectors are travelers and tourists visiting a country. According to Khan, Mamun, Griffiths, and Ullah (2020), coronavirus has varying mental health impacts across different cohorts in the population. Khan et al. (2020) noted that the world health organization defined mental health as the state where people realize their capacities to 1 combat everyday life stressors and work competencies contributing to belonging in a community. Mental health and emotional health have become the immediate public health concerns amid the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019, leading to heightened fear of infection and related death from the coronavirus. Besides, individuals globally are suffering from increased anxiety, confusion, anger, and posttraumatic symptoms, with studies indicating that spatial distancing, quarantine, social and economic issues as well as the possible misinformation, especially in the social media forming the primary contributing attributed towards the unusual sadness, hopelessness, frustration, and nervousness. The corresponding mental health impact has affected how people socialize in recent days, with most people deciding to keep off from social gathering areas. This aspect has affected the hospitality industry, specifically the coffee and beverage sector, in which Starbucks Operates. Khan et al. (2020) indicated that the hospitality sector’s closure due to the pandemic such as the restaurants, theaters, cinemas, and gyms has resulted in permanent and temporary unemployment leading to significant mental and emotional issues. In support, Sönmez, Apostolopoulos, Lemke, and Hsieh (2020) noted that the hospitality industry was the worst affected by the emergence of the coronavirus leading to a stressful and challenging time for the employees working in the sector. The ban on travel and tourism that was hardest hit by the widespread travel restrictions focused on curbing the virus’s spread negatively impacted the industry, leading to the restaurant and coffee shop’s temporary closure globally (Sönmez et al. 2020). This issue has affected the operations of Starbucks Qatar as a company operating in the sector. Chen (2020) noted that the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in the significant disruption of the hospitality and tourism sectors, culminating in psychological distress among the employees working in the industry. Staff working in the sector reveals substantial stressors such as pandemic-induced panic, unemployment, and social support as the industry’s primary issues. 2 The studies are highly significant to this research because they inform the current situation in the coffee and beverages sector, the industry in which Starbucks Qatar operates. Based on the journal articles, it is apparent that the emergence of the Covid-19 globally has negatively impacted the operation of Starbuck leading to scaling down of the process, diminishing revenues, and related issues with the company’s management of workers. Besides, the selected articles inform the possible problems that employees in the sector are facing that the companies require addressing post-pandemic to augment employee and client delight necessary in promoting the subsequent growth of the company that has faced significant negative implication. Thus, the journal articles play an imperative and are consequently informative toward this research in terms of the pandemic’s psychological impact and the possible areas that Starbuck’s coffee shop Qatar could focus on to ensure quick recovery from the pandemic in terms of the enhanced employee and customer satisfaction. Summary of Literature Review The literature review aimed to analyze the factors influencing employees’ and customer satisfaction at Starbuck Coffee shops, Qatar, to make recommendations that would improve the employee and consumers’ delights in the coffee shops. Moreover, the analysis included the assessment of the effects of COVID-19, a case study of Starbucks. The significance of evaluating employee job satisfaction among Starbucks employees will relate to the significance of enhancing individual staff’s level of motivation and satisfaction, which affects the company’s efficiency and, in turn, culminates in increased customer satisfaction. Factors influencing employee job satisfaction involve compensation, job responsibility, anatomy, professional involvement, work conditions, job stress, lack of communication, and promotion. Other factors include organizational 3 culture, appreciation, job security, job characteristics, peer relationship, work-life balance and flexibility, job duties, and educational qualification. Job dissatisfaction and satisfaction significantly impact staff’s conduct, thereby affecting a company’s activities and functioning. As a result, job satisfaction culminates in positive or harmful behavior. Therefore, Herzberg’s two-factor motivation theory, which suggests that two factors impact job satisfaction. The first factor is intrinsic job satisfaction, including attainment, advancement, career growth, responsibility, recognition, and work. The second factor comprises extrinsic job satisfaction, including variables like working conditions, management, policies, pay, company procedures, other employees, personal life, and status. Job satisfaction relates to the ability of that work to fulfill employees’ needs. Different studies have explained the aspect of job satisfaction. For instance, Maslow’s Need theory, which is predicated on the hierarchy of needs beginning from physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization. Notably, Herzberg’s crucial research indicated that factors culminate in employees’ work satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Such factors are hygiene factors. An Individual’s dissatisfaction with salary leads to discontent and decreased performance. Work commitment and employee intention to remain working for an organization are reliant on satisfaction factors like salary. The uncertainties of employment in the hospitality industry affected workers’ satisfaction and ability to perform. Although it is obvious that there were significant uncertainty and challenges in work before the crisis, the COVID-19 problem augmented the issues leading to increased employees’ dissatisfaction. Organizations have experienced increased restructuring and scaling down of employees, which have increased and aggravated employees’ job dissatisfaction due to work uncertainty. There has been increased job uncertainty in all industries, including the 4 hospitality industry and hospitality companies like Starbucks, as employees are uncertain about their work security. The coronavirus has compelled organizations to increase employees’ layoffs, engage in mergers, and downsize, a move that triggered employees’ perception of work security. Job security is linked to employees’ work-related stress. The adverse effects of job insecurity exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis have significantly influenced employees’ satisfaction and ability to deliver satisfactory services. The issues are worsened by employees’ perception of an increased lack of work opportunities due to the crisis. As a result, employees worry about their financial health, and the distress inhibits them from delivering satisfactory services. The increased anxiety due to work uncertainty is a significant force that has affected most employees, rendering them unproductive and incapable of meeting customers’ needs. Authentic leadership also has a positive relationship with employees’ satisfaction. Authentic leadership has a positive link with employees’ work satisfaction because they are transparent, share information, and practice what they preach, thereby augmenting employees’ resilience and work-efficacy. Job satisfaction is often an indicator of a worker’s psychological well-being and mental health, which is a significant determinant of employees’ job satisfaction. Notably, corporate culture is significant in determining how employees respond to changes in an organization. A genuine leader establishes a positive relationship with employees, enabling workers to enhance their performance and focus on meeting customers’ needs. Job stress is another factor crucial in determining employee satisfaction. Increased stress reduced employees’ ability to serve customers effectively, culminating in increased customer dissatisfaction. Thus, causes of job stress include inadequate enterprise support in providing required resources to complete duties proficiently. Besides, overloading staff with tasks culminates in increased work-related stress levels, leading to increased dissatisfaction and ultimately 5 decreased client satisfaction. Job stress is a negative factor that hinders employees’ work satisfaction. Job stress is the emotional and damaging physical of an employee, which emanates when the work desires compete with the means, capabilities, and needs of a worker. Thus, job stress results in damage and lousy strength. Another factor that determines employee satisfaction include low or lack of communication. Communication is a crucial management task in each enterprise as it is essential for staff to attain proper information concerning their jobs. The most vital type of connection is informal communication. Employees are given the freedom to express their feelings, relate with each other, and communicate the issues that affect them. Poor communication or lack of communication results in employee’s dissatisfaction and deepens their inability to serve customers effectively. Notably, lack of communication results in confusion between staff and management via the enterprise culminating in resentment and frustration. Increased poor working environment results in employee job dissatisfaction and increased turnover. Pay is a crucial motivating variable that enhances employees’ satisfaction. The nonmonetary compensation includes all types of staff benefits, such as recreational opportunities, family aid, pension plans, and health insurance. Thus, associating performance and money motivates staff to increase their productivity, thereby willing to serve customers effectively. Limited career development, job insecurity, poor association with management, lack of career development and growth, and limits freedom influence employees’ ability to perform and ultimately alleviate customer satisfaction. Human resources are vital in setting policies and practices that promote employee satisfaction. Job satisfaction, which in this case refers to the staff’s overall effective capability culminating from the acceptance of all job aspects, is determined by the way a company HR sets the motivators variables. An organization that allows staff to 6 participate in decision-making increases the employees’ job satisfaction. Such employees feel appreciated and recognized, thereby focusing on attaining the company’s goals and objectives. Another variable vital in affecting employee satisfaction is organizational culture. Thus, organizational culture is a unique trait and an enterprise style of a particular enterprise. Therefore, the more positive and encouraging the enterprise culture, the higher the job satisfaction, the degree of commitment, and the efforts put forward by staff. Besides, when enterprises find view themselves vital to firm growth, such staff take duties for the firm’s well-being. A culture that promotes innovation and a productive work environment can enhance proficient changes and produce high-quality customer services. Accordingly, the work environment has different features, which may affect employees’ cognitive and psychical well-being, thereby determining how they conduct their daily activities. Thus, good salaries, employee-management trust, logical workload, fairness, and equality characterize a good environment. A combination of these work conditions makes the work environment the best place for enhancing job satisfaction. 7 Conceptual Framework Enterprise climate Job Satisfaction -Reward: (Pay & Promotion Appreciation and recognition) -Work-life balance, Supervision & Working Environment -Employee Competences: (Educational qualification, Learning and development) -Leadership -Organizational culture -Attitude -Management support -Career development -Trust Organizational communication -Support from leaders -Setting clear objectives and goals. -Role clarity -Fair and just leadership -Co-worker’s support Customer Satisfaction The above conceptual framework will help understand and investigate the factors affecting employees’ job satisfaction at Starbucks. The variables will be vital in analyzing the effects of such factors on employees’ inability to deliver satisfactory services to customers, thereby enhancing the comprehension of each attribute and the significant impact that the company would realize by addressing the identified issues concerning increasing employee level and customer satisfaction. 8 References Chen, C.C., 2020. Psychological tolls of COVID-19 on industry employees. Annals of Tourism Research. Davahli, M.R., Karwowski, W., Sonmez, S. and Apostolopoulos, Y., 2020. The hospitality industry in the face of the covid-19 pandemic: Current topics and research methods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(20), p.7366. Khan, K.S., Mamun, M.A., Griffiths, M.D. and Ullah, I., 2020. The mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across different cohorts. International journal of mental health and addiction, pp.1-7. Sönmez, S., Apostolopoulos, Y., Lemke, M.K. and Hsieh, Y.C.J., 2020. Understanding the effects of COVID-19 on the health and safety of immigrant hospitality workers in the United States. Tourism Management Perspectives, 35, p.100717. 9