An Investigation Into Hotel Employees\u27 Perception Of Green Practices

This study examined how employees of the hotel industry perceived green practices. Data was collected from 220 employees working in eight green certified hotels in Orlando. Research results revealed that performance levels of green practices implemented by hotels were lower than the importance levels of those same green practices as perceived by hotel employees. The results of the study illustrated that (1) the employees\u27 perception regarding green practices was not different than one of hoteliers in terms of importance and performance, and (2) employees weighted the green practices that were beneficial to them as more important than green practices that required their behavior change. Also, a positive correlation between organizational commitment and green practices detected in this study which suggests that hotel organizations may anticipate positive ramifications of green practices in relation to HR approach when they embrace green practices. Unfortunately, employees\u27 green perceptions at work were not generalized by their demographic characteristics, yet a number of considerable results were garnered from this study. These were (1) employees in operational departments were more green conscious than employees in other departments, (2) generation X was critical about green performance by the hotels, and (3) minorities showed more green concerns than other ethnicities. This study suggests that hotels need to spend more time and effort in communicating their green practice to employees. Training to improve green practices should be versatile and job-specific with strategies developed to motivate the employees to engage in green practices. Overall, this study proposes for hotels simply deploying green practices is not enough. They should carefully plan their green practices by training and motivating employees