Making bad things less bad? Impact of green human resource management on counterproductive work behaviors of grassroots employees: Evidence from the hospitality industry

Abstract

Hotels are implementing green human resource management to respond to the growing environmental expectations from society. In this context, the impact of implementing green human resource management in the hospitality industry on the negative behaviors of grassroots employees remains to be further explored. To contribute in this field, this research collected 326 data from 1 to 5-star hotels in mainland China and analyzed them by constructing structural equation model based on social identity theory and social exchange theory. The research results confirmed that green human resource management inhibits the counterproductive work behaviors of grassroots employees toward organizations and customers, respectively, and that both organizational identification and work engagement have sequential mediating effects in the above relationships. Additionally, green human resource management has better inhibitory effects on counterproductive work behaviors of grassroots employees with higher levels of individual green value. By validating these relationships and testing for moderating and sequential mediating effects, this study helps to enrich the present literature in the area of green human resource management influencing employee behavior, especially on negative employee behaviors. The findings of this paper provide suggestions for hotel managers that could curb employees' negative behaviors through green human resource management practices and achieve an expansion of the non-green aspects of the advantages of implementing green human resource management in the hospitality industry.