Beginning in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we do business globally, particularly the hospitality industry. Additionally, preventive strategies as quarantine, , social distancing, hand hygiene, and face covering were imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease. In other words, many countries declared a state of emergency to support the moves. Consequently, hotel employees suffered the negative impact of the lockdown. Despite significant indications that COVID-19 impacted the essential workers, there was a lack of studies conducted. Hence, this research attempts to investigate self-esteem as mediating the relationship between religiosity and employee motivation. A pilot test involving 30 respondents was utilized to test the reliability and validity of the research instruments before implementing the quantitative research design. By utilizing a the web-based cross-sectional survey, a total of 210 employees who work in a few selected big hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, responded to the online survey. Multiple Regression and Hayes’ mediation process analysis were deployed from the SPSS version 28 to conduct the statistical analysis. The results revealed self-esteem did mediate the relationship between religiosity and motivation. In addition, it was found that the relationship between religiosity and employee motivation was significant. This meant that employees with strong religiosity have high self-esteem. In turn, this will increase their motivation. Finally, this study evidenced faith as facilitating employees to gain strength to move forward. For this reason, organizations should develop training programs for employees to gain faith as this ensures employees to continue remain motivated to face challenges inside and outside the organization.
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