اثر مدیریت منابع انسانی سبز GHRM بر رفتار سازگار با زیست محیط کارکنان هتل

ABSTRACT The effect of green human resource management on hotel employees’ eco-friendly behavior and environmental performance

The preservation of the natural environment (hereafter, “environment”) has been an important issue for the last few decades. Nearly every industry has embraced environmental protection practices. Most manufacturing companies have aimed to eliminate waste created during the production and disposal of their products and, therefore, have improved corporate performance (Melnyk et al., 2003). In terms of service industries such as hotels, their green efforts include reducing waste, conserving energy and water in their operations, and educating customers and employees (Bohdanowicz et al., 2011; Rahman et al., 2012). For example, to protect the environment, Hilton established operational goals and policies and eco-friendly programs and developed reporting tools to monitor its progress. As a result, Hilton Worldwide reduced its overall water consumption by 14.1% and energy usage by 14.5% from the period of 2009–2014. Marriott International, another large hotel chain, has promoted preservation initiatives to help conserve the environment.

Most of previous environmental management research has examined hotel firms’ environmental management practices (e.g., energy saving and water preservation) (Hsiao et al., 2014; Molina-Azorín et al., 2015). For example, Hsiao et al. (2014) established environmental management attributes for the hotel industry to use to audit green hotels. In addition, studies have approached environmental research in the hotel industry from two distinct aspects: the consumer and the employee. However, most of the studies have concentrated mainly on green marketing, the consumer perspective (Kim and Choi, 2013). For instance, Manaktola and Jauhari (2007) explored consumer attitudes and behaviors concerning hotels’ environmentally friendly practices. Kang et al. (2012) disclosed that American hotel consumers had deeper concerns about their environment and showed a higher price premium for green hotels. The other stream, the employee perspective, deals with issues pertaining to the attitudes or awareness of hotel staff (Bohdanowicz, 2005; Harris and Crane, 2002). However, regardless of the important role of employees’ behavior in enhancing environmental outcomes, there is a lack of empirical studies that link human resource management (HRM) to environmental performance via employees’ commitment and their behavior (Fernández et al., 2003; Paillé et al., 2014). HRM supports a company’s strategic vision and goal. Traditionally, the roles of HR are to communicate corporate executives’ strategic vision to their workers and to help them comprehend the vision (Evans, 1986; Lado and Wilson, 1994). Evans (1986) argued that the direct consequences of HRM include success in the implementation of the strategic vision and organizational effectiveness. Considering the important role of HRM in an organization, this study links HRM to environment conservation in the hotel industry. The term GHRM is used as shorthand for green human resource management. GHRM includes hiring and maintaining eco-friendly employees, providing environmental training, and reflecting on employees’ eco-friendly contributions in employee performance appraisals (Guest, 1997). GHRM is instrumental in environmental management since the HR function plays an important role in accomplishing environment-friendly corporate goals (Bohdanowicz et al., 2011; Jabbour and Santos, 2008; Paillé et al., 2014).

The success of a firm’s environmental management hinges on employees’ eco-friendly behavior because their behavior improves the firm’s environmental performance in the aggregate (Daily et al., 2009; Lo et al., 2012). For a company to achieve ecological sustainability, it is critical to comprehend how GHRM affects employees’ eco-friendly behavior, which in turn, influences a company’s environmental performance. Social identity theory provides a theoretical base for employees’ psychological process of a firm’s green efforts: organizational commitment acts as a mediator of GHRM on eco-friendly behavior. Based on social identity theory, employees who are likely to integrate positive organizational values (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Carmeli, 2005; Peterson, 2004) tend to demonstrate strong organizational commitments (Turker, 2009). If employees are concerned about environment conservation, they are more likely to attach themselves to their company’s implementation of environmental management initiatives, including GHRM. Once employees become emotionally involved in their company, they are likely to demonstrate a higher level of organizational commitment to the company (Bhattacharya et al., 2009). Organizational commitment is “the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization” (Mowday et al., 1979, p. 4). Organizational commitment is a vital element of employee attitude because it leads to employees’ altruistic or prosocial behavior, for example, organizational citizenship behavior (Balfour and Wechsler, 1996; Carmeli, 2005; O’Reilly and Chatman, 1986). However, previous studies have rarely considered employees’ eco-friendly behavior as an outcome variable of organizational commitment. In addition, few studies have investigated the association between employees’ eco-friendly behavior and a company’s environmental performance. Environmental performance refers to a hotel’s environmental outcome from environmental activities it implements to reduce the negative effects on the environment. In sum, there has been a notable lack of research that explores how GHRM stimulates employees’ commitment and ecofriendly behavior, empowering hotels to improve their environmental performance. The main contribution of this research endeavor is to facilitate a better understanding of how implementing GHRM practices enhances environmental performance via employees’ commitment and eco-friendly behavior.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the interrelationship between hotels’ GHRM and environmental performance via employees’ eco-friendly behavior. The objectives of this research are fivefold: (1) to investigate the relation between GHRM and employees’ eco-friendly behavior (EEB); (2) to assess the role of employees’ organizational commitment (EOC) between GHRM and employees’ eco-friendly behavior (EEB); (3) to examine the role of EEB between GHRM and hotel environmental performance (HEP); (4) to investigate the relation between employees’ eco-friendly behavior and HEP; and (5) to explore a non-green hotel’s boundary effect in the relationships among GHRM, EOC, EEB, and HEP.