Perceived Sustainability Practices, Turnover Intentions, and Organizational Identification in Hotel Industries

Abstract

Research Question: The present study intends to study the effect of employees’ perception of their hotel’s sustainability practices and motive to undertake those practices on their identification with the organization and their intentions to quit. Motivation: Over the past few years, the hotel industry has heeded to the need of sustainability, but its effect on human resource outcomes needs attention. Earlier research reports that adopting sustainable practices enhances the reputation of the organisations, and positively impacts the employees’ organisational identification and intention to stay in the organisation. The bearings of such practices are seen in the expected cash flows and growth of the industry. Idea: The core idea behind this research was to investigate the effect of perceived sustainability activities and motive attribution on human resource outcomes. In the study, perceived sustainability activities and motive attribution were the independent variables whose effect was seen in the human resource outcomes, namely, organizational identification and intentions to quit. Data: The sample comprises 137 managers from star hotels of Vadodara and Ahmedabad. The data were collected over a period of 4 months. Tools: The survey questionnaire adopted already established scales on environmental sustainability, turnover intentions, organisational identification and motive attribution. The researchers added a few questions on social and economic sustainability to capture the whole concept of sustainable development. Findings: The findings of the study indicate employee welfare is a significant predictor of organizational identification and turnover intentions in hotel industries. Moreover, intrinsic, as well as extrinsic motive attribution are necessary to encourage employees to take ownership and retain it. Contribution: The study implies that hoteliers must channelize their resources to enhance employee welfare. Utmost care and support will be reciprocated in terms of higher organisational identification and lower turnover rates. Efforts must also be made to educate all the employees as regards the reasons for undertaking policies and actions. This will help them understand the organisational values and encourage them to align their values with the organisation. The way employees allocate reasons for conducting sustainability has implications for the judgement and actions of both managers and employees. It also plays a role in motivating them to involve themselves in sustainable activities. This research also suggests research areas for future studies. The researchers foresee the results of this research will be intriguing for policy makers and future researchers as knowledge of how employees inculcate sustainability in their actions proves the policy success rate.