Impact of acceptance and commitment therapy on work resilience among restaurant and hotel workers in tourism zones: a case of multivariate analysis

Abstract

Background: Cooperative efforts and the courage to withstand difficult times among workers in an organization enhance productivity. However, some employees become discouraged by hard times and unusual tasks in the organization, which leads to low resilience among workers. Empirical evidence shows that restaurant and hotel workers demonstrate low work resilience in the workplace. For this reason, this study investigated the impact of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on work resilience among restaurant and hotel workers in tourism zones in Nigeria. Methods: Of the 189 restaurant and hotel workers who were recruited and assessed at the pretest stage, 122 participated in a 12-session ACT intervention and were assessed twice immediately after the intervention was implemented. Multivariate analysis was used to precisely examine how the intervention affected the dependent variable. Results: The findings showed that the ACT treatment group was more successful in improving workers’ resilience in the restaurant and hotel industries. The difference in mean stress scores between the pretest and posttest for male and female workers indicates a reduction in mean resilience scores for both groups. Male workers showed a smaller decrease in mean resilience scores compared with their female counterparts at the posttest stage. Conclusion: ACT intervention is an effective strategy for improving the resilience skills of restaurant and hotel workers with low resilience. Therefore, researchers and practitioners are encouraged to advance the practice and implementation of ACT tenets and principles in the workplace.