Greening the hospitality sector: Employees' environmental and job attitudes predict ecological behavior and satisfaction

• Published in: International journal of hospitality management 2022-04, Vol.102, p.103173, Article 103173
• Main Authors: Arshad, Muhammad, Abid, Ghulam, Contreras, Francoise, Elahi, Natasha Saman, Ahmed, Saira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ecological behavior; Employee commitment; Environmental concern; Environmental intent; Job satisfaction
• ISSN: 0278-4319; 1873-4693
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2022.103173

Employees' organizational commitment is significant for developing ecological behavior in the context of greening the hospitality sector. Notwithstanding this importance, limited literature exists discussing the significant contribution of hospitality sector employees in their organizations' environmental management system. A theoretical framework was proposed based on the literature review, and data was collected via survey-based questionnaires from 508 hotel industry employees. By applying Hayes PROCESS Macros, data was analyzed. The findings suggest that employee environmental attitudes instigate employees' ecological behavior and satisfaction with the organization. The mediating role of employee organizational commitment was also found statistically significant. This study recommends that hospitality sector managers and practitioners promote employees' organizational commitment. The results also verify that employees' organizational commitment stimulates their environmental attitudes to demonstrate ecological behavior to adopt green practices in the hospitality sector. •There is a nuanced understanding of the employee environmental attitudes for ecological behavior and job satisfaction.•We employ a two-wave time-lagged study design to minimize the common method biases.•We tested our hypothesized model with the help of Hayes’ PROCESS macro.•We found that employee environmental attitudes instigate employees' ecological behavior and satisfaction.•The importance of environmental attitudes, organizational commitment, and employees’ ecological behaviors are discussed.