Corporate social responsibility in the New Zealand hotel industry: An explorative study

Abstract

This explorative study examines the extent to which New Zealand 4 and 5 star hotel managers have adopted CSR practices and their commitment through CSR participation. Additionally, this study investigated the influence that New Zealand Government CSR sponsored incentives (“Qualmark” and “Enviro Awards”) have on the adoption of social and environmental practices into the hotel industry and the effect this has on hotel employees' CSR participation. Importantly, previous studies have indicated that employee involvement in CSR has been shown to result a more committed and loyal workforce. This study has indicated that through a greater CSR participation, hotel managers can influence attraction and retention of employees, therefore lowering employee turnover. A pragmatic interruptive methodological approach was adopted in designing the research method for this study. By employing a mixed method research approach the findings of this study reveal that Chain hotel is more likely to incorporate a CSR approach in daily operations. However, evidence from this study has indicated that a hotel's involvement in social and environmental activities have no significant affect upon employee decision to seek employment with that hotel. This study also provides evidence that the initial cost of CSR implementation affected the type and range of CSR involvement. Although employee involvement in CSR activities was viewed as important, there was a lack of related rewards and incentives for CSR participation in line with organisational and employee goals and perception offered in this study. Evidence from this study also implies that an employee's social and environmentally responsibility, although beneficial, was not looked upon as essential in employee selection criteria. However, some hotels had incorporated social and environmental questions when selecting employees, indicating a gradual change in adopting a more knowledgeable and socially involved employee. These findings will contribute to evaluating the impacts of a hotel manager's CSR decisions influencing employee turnover and CSR participation.