Employee strain is a significant and costly issue for hospitality organizations. This study investigated the change trajectory of strain pre, during, and post a discrete stressful event and how cohesion and group emotional variability altered the shape of the trajectory. Using an experience sampling method approach, we gathered 402 daily observations from 84 workers in a period that included a specific stressful event, the opening of a one-night “theme dinner” restaurant that catered to dinner guests from the general public. We used latent growth curve modeling to investigate the change of strain among employees over time. The results showed that indicators of strain displayed inverted U-shaped trajectories (i.e., strain increased before and decreased after the stressful event) and that group cohesion and emotional variability affected the starting value and the change trajectory of strain. By investigating strain on a daily basis and considering group-based influences in response to discrete stressful events, this study provides significant implications to the hospitality literature and suggestions to hospitality managers on how to alleviate the impact of strain among their workforces.

对于酒店组织而言，员工压力是一个重大且代价高昂的问题。本研究调查了离散压力事件前后应变的变化轨迹，以及凝聚力和群体情绪变异性如何改变轨迹的形状。使用体验抽样方法，我们收集了 84 名工人在特定压力事件期间的 402 次日常观察结果，其中包括为公众提供晚餐的一晚“主题晚餐”餐厅的开业。我们使用潜在增长曲线模型来调查员工之间的应变随时间的变化。结果表明，应变指标显示出倒 U 形轨迹（即，压力事件前应变增加而压力事件后降低），并且群体凝聚力和情绪变异性影响了应变的起始值和变化轨迹。通过每天调查压力并考虑基于群体的影响对离散压力事件的反应，本研究为酒店文献提供了重要意义，并为酒店管理人员提供了有关如何减轻员工压力影响的建议。