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Purpose: Governments around the world have shown poor capabilities in responding effectively to the COVID-19 health emergency outbreaks. After the declaration of COVID-19 as an international pandemic by the World Health Organization on January 31, 2020, three countries experienced the greatest initial impact in Europe. Sequentially Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK) were hit by the highest numbers of contagion and death in the first few months in Europe. The aim of this paper is to assess how information channels and sources influenced the public's evaluation of the three government's communication response strategies. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was conducted between March 14 and April 14, 2020, during the first wave of lockdowns and declarations of States of Emergency in the three countries. Findings: Findings show particularities for the different countries, but also similarities in response and reactions of the public in the three scenarios. The response strategy of the UK Government was the most untrusted and criticized by citizens. In contrast, the Italian and Spanish Governments, which both chose to respond with the severest restrictions, attracted more support from citizens, especially in Italy, which was the first to close borders and impose lockdowns for the population. Research limitations/implications: Despite the national differences in the preference of information channels and sources, overall, an empirical relationship between government communication assessment and media use were found in all the scenarios. Practical implications: This empirical study has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, findings will add evidence of implications of the Channel Complementary Theory to the field of risk, crisis and emergency communication. The results also provide insights for communication practitioners in the public sector on how forms of information and trust in sources influence the public's assessment of authorities' communication. Originality/value: Implications for theory and empirical research about communication during a health pandemic are identified and discussed. Highlights: Citizens engage at a high level and synchronize their use of multiple media and platforms in all the three national scenarios. Stronger criticism is provided by online media, especially social media and online press in the different national contexts. Results corroborate that factors related to media choice need to be operationalized for risk and crisis communication research. When public health depends on people understanding the actions they need to take, the possibility of disobedience is highly dependent on trust. Compared with Spain and the United Kingdom (UK), trust in government institutions in Italy was stronger and could be explained by the higher use of owned media for information-seeking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Studies have shown that due to the high direct and indirect costs of staff turnover, there is a need for managers to use approaches that engender a feeling that the organisation is fair to its employees and consequently reduce the intention to leave. However, to understand how to apply the research findings and theories from different parts of the world, we need to understand how employees' perceptions of such factors as ethical leadership and organisational justice are affected by the national culture. Therefore, this study aims to compare the impact of ethical leadership on the intention to leave through justice, loyalty and satisfaction among employees of independent hotels from two Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural clusters. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 1,561 questionnaires were received from independent hotel employees, which were analysed using structural equation modelling. Data were collected in the USA, the UK, Italy and Spain whose national cultures fall into two different GLOBE regional clusters. Findings: The results show similarities and differences between countries and within and between clusters. No relationship was found between procedural justice and intention to leave in any of the four countries. Ethical leadership had no significant impact on job satisfaction and organisational justice in the UK, which contrasts with results in the other three countries. The study findings also show that distributive justice has a significant relationship with the intention to leave in the USA and the UK (Anglo cluster), whereas no specific relationship was found between these two variables in Italy and Spain (Latin European cluster). Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature of ethical leadership and its application to the hotel industry in two culturally different GLOBE clusters. This study shows how the relationships between organisational variables are affected by national culture and emphasises the importance for hotel managers of being aware of the specific characteristics of the culture of the country in which they are operating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]