Thoughts about life after school can be frightening for college students. The uncertainty about employment expectancies can engender crippling anxiety, especially in a time of a major pandemic—COVID-19, and urgent attention is needed. This study, drawing on the self-determination theory, demonstrates preliminary protective effect of positive psychological capital (PsyCap) on employment anxiety among a relatively understudied group—graduating college students (Chinese sample = 546). It further illustrates the mediating mechanism of coping styles in this relation. Thus, the motivational impetus of PsyCap facilitates positive coping style (PCS) while diminishing negative coping style (NCS) which, in turn, hinders students’ employment anxiety. Furthermore, the results revealed that students’ internship experience strengthens the influence of graduating students’ PsyCap on their PCS, but that with NCS and anxiety was nonsignificant. This research proffers valuable insights on college students’ from-school-to-work transition for higher education institutions and career counselors, particularly in this turbulent labor market.

Given the competitiveness of twenty-first-century airport landscape, catalyzed by airports’ evolution toward multi-service, and market-driven firms, a thorough investigation into employees’ creativity and its antecedents at the airport environment is warranted. Adopting the two-dimensional job demand stressors – outcome relationships framework and the cognitive-relational theory of stress, the current study interrogated the challenge (i.e. workload and time pressure)/ hindrance (i.e. role conflict and role ambiguity) stressors – creativity curvilinear relationships, and the buffering effects of within-person resources – dispositional mindfulness, and core self-evaluation. Using multi-sourced, cross-sectional data from employees in three airports in Ghana, the research findings showed creativity to have a U-shaped relationship with role ambiguity and role conflict, but with time pressure the relationship was an inverted U-shape. Employees’ workload showed a near-linear relationship with creativity, flattening at high levels of workload. Core self-evaluation displayed itself as an effective buffering component on role ambiguity – and time pressure – creativity relations but not role conflict and workload. Dispositional mindfulness interacted with role ambiguity, role conflict and time pressure – creativity relations, but not workload. To optimize employees’ creative performance, the study findings make a strong case for attending to individual-level factors necessary for stressors management. Further implications and recommendations are discussed.