The hospitality industry has been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with changes that have harmed employees’ psychological well-being. However, having supervisors who are servant may make a difference. With a focus on serving others and the care taken to ensure their employees’ highest priority needs are served, these leaders could help employees feel less depressed in these complicated times. By instilling servant behaviors in followers that help them become people that others can trust or with whom they can develop friendships, leaders could help these employees earn greater levels of personal social capital (PSC) through which to more successfully address pandemic times, especially if furloughed. Using structural equation modeling to analyze a sample of 205 hotel employees in Spain, we found that servant leadership directly decreases depression, and that PSC mediates this relationship. Our multigroup analyses (MGA) findings also reveal that when these employees are furloughed, the negative effect of PSC and the mediating role of PSC in this relationship is stronger. New light is thus shed on how servant leadership is effective in reducing employee depressive symptoms in times of severe changes such as those produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

酒店业受到 COVID-19 大流行的严重打击，其变化损害了员工的心理健康。然而，拥有仆人式的主管可能会有所不同。通过专注于为他人服务并确保员工的最高优先需求得到满足，这些领导者可以帮助员工在这个复杂的时代减少沮丧。通过向追随者灌输仆人行为，帮助他们成为他人可以信任或可以与之建立友谊的人，领导者可以帮助这些员工获得更高水平的个人社会资本 (PSC)，从而更成功地应对大流行时期，尤其是在休假期间. 使用结构方程模型分析西班牙 205 名酒店员工的样本，我们发现仆人式领导直接减少抑郁，而 PSC 调节这种关系。我们的多组分析 (MGA) 结果还表明，当这些员工休假时，PSC 的负面影响以及 PSC 在这种关系中的中介作用更强。因此，在发生严重变化（例如 COVID-19 大流行所产生的变化）时，仆人式领导如何有效减少员工的抑郁症状有了新的认识。