The impact of hotel business ethics on employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention

While there has been some research on ethics in the hospitality industry the amount is not proportionate to the importance of the issue. Hotel organizations can benefit from conducting their business in an ethical and more responsible manner. This study examines the impact of hotel business ethics on employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee turnover intention. It is proposed that employees who work in an ethical hotel environment will be more satisfied with their job, more loyal to the organization, and have low turnover intentions. It is also proposed that there are strong relationships between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. More specifically, higher levels of job satisfaction can positively affect organizational commitment, and negatively affect turnover intention. Furthermore, it is supported that hotel employees’ perception of their organization’s ethical climate and their job satisfaction predict organizational commitment. Finally, it is supported that hotel employees’ perception of their organization’s ethical climate, their job satisfaction, and organizational commitment predict their turnover intentions. A number of selected demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, length of work and income) are also analyzed to examine the extent to which they can influence these relationships. Data were collected in the spring of 2012. The survey was distributed in person or online to hotel employees working in various hotel segments ranging from luxury to midscale in the United States and Europe. A total of 217 usable surveys were collected. Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that hotel employees’ perception of their organization’s ethical climate is positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. The results also showed that job satisfaction is positively related to organizational commitment and turnover intention. Finally, there is a positive relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention. Results suggested that hotel employees’ perceptions of a positive ethical climate are negatively associated with their organizational commitment. However, their job satisfaction is positively related to their organizational commitment. Results also showed that hotel employees’ perception of their organization’s ethical climate had no significant effect on turnover intention, but their organizational commitment had a positive effect on their turnover intention. Additionally, when further multiple regression analyses controlling for the following demographic variables: the respondents’ gender, age, the amount of time they have worked at the hotel, and their annual income, were conducted, none of those demographic variables was significant.