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This paper aims to specifically analyse the extent to which talent management practices in the post-COVID-19 era differ from those before the pandemic in the extreme work context of Egyptian hospitality sector.

The study uses an exploratory qualitative research approach where semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 full-time employees working at hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt). Moreover, thematic analysis was undertaken on the interview transcripts.

The findings revealed that in the post-COVID-19 era, the case hotels exclusively use the inclusive talent management approach, in which all staff are recognised by the management as talents with the same workplace privileges. This approach helped to mitigate the negative influences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the findings highlighted the criticality of competencies such as multitasking along with in hospitality sector employees in relation to extreme context necessitated by COVID-19. The findings further established that when facing extreme events, such as COVID-19, a shift in training activities towards activating positive mental health and effective shock management among employees is also needed. This study found that organisational support and continuous learning play a vital role in individual employees’ resilience development, which also helped in retaining them.

This paper is one of the pioneering empirical studies on the relationship between talent management practices in extreme contexts and the influences of global disruptions resulting from COVID-19. Moreover, it is one of the few studies to specifically undertake a comparative assessment of the differences in talent management practices pre- and post-COVID-19 time period in the hospitality sector. The study findings contribute to multiple literature streams including extreme context, hospitality, human resource management and transaction stress model.

This paper aims to identify why hotel employees in the Egyptian context accept the extreme job duties resulting from hosting too many mega sporting events and what outcomes they experience as a result.

The empirical data is based on semi-structured interviews with 36 hotel employees working in reservations, front desk and events management roles in four 4-star hotels located in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Thematic analysis was subsequently used to determine the main ideas in the interview transcripts.

The findings show that hotel employees accept the extreme job duties resulting from hosting mega sporting events for the following four reasons: linking pay with performance, difficulty finding alternative jobs, proving their occupational identity and being subject to patriotism. Furthermore, this paper highlights that the engagement of hotel employees in extreme work conditions during such mega-sporting events might be detrimental to their mental health, resulting in increased cronyism and gender bias among them.

This paper is a pioneering study to specifically investigate how hosting mega sporting events influences the extremity of work conditions for hospitality sector employees. Prior studies (to the best of the authors’ knowledge) have not theorised and empirically analysed this specific topic, especially in under-researched settings, such as developing countries in the global south.