While there is evidence of job-related antecedents of work engagement, there is little information in the relevant literature on cross-domain effects. The purpose of this empirical study is to examine this under-researched aspect by analyzing data from the conservation of resource theory and the job-demand resource model. A moderated mediation model is proposed wherein COVID-19, the fear reduces service employees’ work engagement through job insecurity, and safety leadership acts as the supportive construct to cope with adverse effects of the pandemic on mentioned outcomes. The research, based on the experiences of 376 Norwegians working in the service sector, found that: the fear of COVID-19 had a major deterrent effect on employee engagement. One of the reasons for this relationship was job insecurity, which acted as a mediator between the COVID-19 fear and engagement, in work. In addition, the moderating role of the safety leadership in the relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and worker engagement was confirmed. In other words, workers who were under the supervision of safety leaders had lower links between these concepts, even if they were indirectly linked through job insecurity. With regard to the stress-related effects of COVID-19 on service personnel’s perceptions, attitude, and actions regarding their jobs and conditions of employment, this study has both theoretical and managerial implications. It also expands upon the existing understanding of how managers can handle such negative consequences. The limitations of the study’s contextual scope and sampling procedure of the study are discussed.

While there has been considerable research on the concept of destination image, there is a notable gap in the literature regarding exploring Norway's destination image (DI) through User-Generated Content (UGC). This study uses content analysis to identify the key themes that appear in tourists’ UGC and are associated with satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Our research results demonstrated nine dominant themes in descriptions of Norway travel experiences: “Norway,” “places,” “train,” “hiking,” “rental,” “expensive,” “hotel,” “northern lights,” and “restaurants.” The themes used with negative comments were “train,” “rental,” and “expensive.” The benefits of incorporating UGC in tourist research are highlighted by the excellent insights acquired. The findings also provide a visual depiction of the primary themes and concepts in visitors' narratives, allowing for a better understanding of the key features of destination image.

Followers do not passively observe leaders—they actively infer intentions, and these inferences shape their attitudinal and behavioral responses toward leader behaviors. While such attributional processes are central to social psychology, they have been largely overlooked in leadership research. Instead, leadership measurement models often conflate inferred intentions with behavioral constructs, making causal claims indeterminate. Empirical evidence, in its current form, risks misleading leadership theory into assuming causality without clarifying whether leadership outcomes result from leaders’ actions or from what followers believe they want to achieve through those actions. This conceptual entanglement introduces a unique form of endogeneity bias by embedding into behavioral measures what would otherwise be treated as an omitted explanatory variable—namely inferred intentions. This conflation is particularly salient in responsible leadership research and, when combined with challenges such as limited dimensional coverage, weak qualitative grounding, and overreliance on reflective models, poses substantial challenges to valid and reliable measurement. To address these concerns, this study develops and validates the Responsible Leadership Intentions (RLIs) Index, a new instrument designed to capture how followers evaluate a leader’s underlying intention. A multi-methods approach was adopted, combining a literature review, topic modeling of qualitative interviews, and a cross-sectional survey of service sector employees (N = 506). The RLIs index was modeled as a second-order reflective–formative construct across five distinct but complementary dimensions. The scale demonstrated strong psychometric properties and predictive power in explaining overall leader trust. This study contributes to reducing endogeneity bias in leadership research and marks a conceptual shift toward intention-based evaluations of leadership.

Followers do not passively observe leaders—they actively infer intentions, and these inferences shape their attitudinal and behavioral responses toward leader behaviors. While such attributional processes are central to social psychology, they have been largely overlooked in leadership research. Instead, leadership measurement models often conflate inferred intentions with behavioral constructs, making causal claims indeterminate. Empirical evidence, in its current form, risks misleading leadership theory into assuming causality without clarifying whether leadership outcomes result from leaders’ actions or from what followers believe they want to achieve through those actions. This conceptual entanglement introduces a unique form of endogeneity bias by structurally incorporating what would otherwise be considered an omitted explanatory variable—namely, inferred intentions —into behavioral measures. This conflation is particularly salient in responsible leadership research and, when compounded by challenges such as limited dimensional coverage, weak qualitative grounding, and overreliance on reflective models, makes valid and reliable measurement especially difficult. To address these issues, this study develops and validates a new measurement instrument—the Responsible Leadership Intentions (RLIs) Index—which captures how followers evaluate a leader’s underlying intentions. A multi-methods approach was adopted, combining a literature review, topic modeling of qualitative interviews, and a cross-sectional survey of service sector employees (N = 506). The RLIs index was modeled as a second-order reflective–formative construct across five distinct but complementary dimensions. The scale demonstrated strong psychometric properties and predictive power in explaining overall leader trust. This study contributes to reducing endogeneity bias in leadership research and marks a conceptual shift toward intention-based evaluations of leadership.