Thesis Director, Meng, FangCommittee Reader, Martin, DrewCommittee Reader, Ma, Ting FungMesawi, Albaraa2026-05-172026Mesawi, A. (2026). An Agile-Informed Job Demands-Resources Framework in Hospitality: A Dual-Pathway Structural Model of Employee Satisfaction, Burnout, and Turnover Intentions [Master’s thesis, University of South Carolina].https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14154/78991This thesis develops and tests an Agile-informed Job Demands-Resources framework for hospitality work. The study addresses a structural gap in hospitality human resources research: JD-R theory explains how demands and resources shape employee outcomes, but it provides limited operational guidance on which internal work conditions generate those resources consistently. Adapted Agile philosophy serves as a heuristic framework for specifying those conditions. Agile tenets are mapped to validated psychological constructs through Psychological State Matching: self-organization to Psychological Empowerment, interactions over processes to Perceived Psychological Safety, regular reflection to Perceived Team Learning Behavior, deviation from sustainable pace to Quantitative Workload, and deviation from simplicity to Hindrance Stressors. A cross-sectional survey of 386 non-management hospitality employees tested 13 hypothesized relationships using covariance-based structural equation modeling with robust maximum likelihood estimation. The data supported 5 of 13 hypotheses. Psychological Empowerment dominated both pathways, predicting higher Employee Satisfaction and lower Burnout. Hindrance Stressors predicted Burnout, and both Satisfaction and Burnout predicted Turnover Intentions. The model explained 53.2% of variance in Turnover Intentions. The findings show that Agile philosophy functions as a valid but imprecise heuristic: it identifies the dual-pathway JD-R structure while overestimating the independence of team-level resources relative to individual empowerment.Persistent labor shortages and elevated voluntary turnover define the hospitality industry. High-intensity service interactions increase workload, emotional labor, and time pressure for non-management employees. The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model predicts engagement and retention when job resources offset job demands. Existing research has not specified which operational conditions reliably predict this balance in dynamic service work. This study evaluates whether adapted Agile philosophy serves as a heuristic framework for specifying JD-R constructs in hospitality. The study maps Agile values and principles to validated psychological constructs through Psychological State Matching: Self-Organization to Psychological Empowerment (PE), Regular Reflection to Perceived Team Learning Behavior (PTLB), and Interactions over Processes to Perceived Psychological Safety (PPS). Deviation from Simplicity maps to Hindrance Stressors (HS); deviation from Sustainable Pace maps to Quantitative Workload (QWL). This mapping is subjective and isolated to theory-building; the empirical measurement relies on validated scales. A cross-sectional survey collected data from 386 non-management hospitality employees. Covariance-based structural equation modeling with robust maximum likelihood estimation tested the model. The data supported 5 of 13 hypothesized relationships. PE dominated both pathways: it showed a large positive association with Employee Satisfaction (β = .861) and a large negative association with Burnout (β = −.814). PPS and PTLB showed large bivariate associations with outcomes but contributed no unique variance after controlling for PE; the three resources formed a correlated cluster whose effects concentrated in PE. HS predicted Burnout (β = .158). Employee Satisfaction and Burnout both predicted Turnover Intentions. The model explained 80.2% of variance in Employee Satisfaction, 81.0% in Burnout, and 53.2% in Turnover Intentions. Agile philosophy functions as a valid but imprecise heuristic: it correctly identified the dual-pathway structure but overestimated the independence of team-level constructs relative to individual empowerment.138en-USJob Demands-ResourcesBurnoutHospitality EmployeesAgile Work DesignThesis