Do green human resource management and self-efficacy facilitate green creativity? A study of luxury hotels and resorts

Tourism’s growth is accompanied by significant environmental impacts, with hotels being highly energy-intensive and waste-generating. While many studies examine hotels’ environmental initiatives, fewer explore how employees drive sustainability and how firms can foster green-oriented behaviors. Addressing this gap, the study investigates organizational antecedents of employee green behavior—green human resource management (GHRM) and green transformational leadership (GTL)—and employee factors—green self-efficacy (GSE) and green creativity (GC)—through the lens of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). The research questions are: RQ1: How is GHRM associated with GSE and GC? RQ2: To what extent does GSE mediate the association of GHRM with GC? RQ3: How does GTL interact with (a) GHRM to impact GSE and (b) GSE to impact GC? The study focuses on luxury hotels and resorts, where employee behaviors critically shape service delivery and environmental performance.

Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the study posits that environmental (organizational) factors and personal factors interact to shape behavioral outcomes. Self-efficacy, central to SCT, links environment to behavior and is enhanced through clear goals, training, and positive feedback. The literature on GHRM highlights practices such as green recruitment, training, performance management, and rewards that foster employees’ environmental behaviors and consciousness, yet studies in hotels remain limited and rarely integrate creativity and leadership simultaneously. Green creativity (GC) reflects novel, useful, environmentally oriented ideas in products, services, and processes; HRM can play a pivotal role in fostering such creativity. Green self-efficacy (GSE) captures employees’ beliefs in their capabilities to achieve environmental goals and address environmental problems, predicting pro-environmental behaviors. Green transformational leadership (GTL) communicates environmental vision, builds confidence, and provides support and opportunities for employees to develop green capabilities, potentially enhancing both GSE and GC. Prior research often examines these constructs piecemeal across sectors; this study integrates them to explain how GHRM (environmental factor) and GTL (leadership context) shape GSE (personal factor) and GC (behavioral outcome) in hotels. Hypotheses: H1: GHRM → GC; H2: GHRM → GSE; H3: GSE → GC; H4: GSE mediates GHRM → GC; H5: GTL moderates the mediation (strengthening GHRM → GSE and GSE → GC).

Design: Multi-wave, multi-source survey with one-month intervals to reduce common method bias. Context: 45 luxury hotels and resorts in Morocco. Sampling/procedure: After organizational consent, employees and their supervisors participated. At Time 1 (T1), subordinates rated GTL and supervisors rated employees’ GC. At Time 2 (T2), employees rated GHRM and two leaders/managers assessed employees’ GSE. Eligibility required at least one year of tenure. Instruments: 5-point Likert scales. GC: 6 items (Chen & Chang, 2013); GSE: 6 items (Chen et al., 2014a); GHRM: 6 items (Dumont et al., 2017); GTL: 6 items (Chen & Chang, 2013). Translation: English to Arabic via back-translation with bilingual experts. Sample: 556 surveys distributed at T1, 400 returned (71.94%); T2: 248 returned (62%). After screening via z-scores, final N = 235 employees (on average one manager evaluated three employees). Controls: age, gender, education, total experience, tenure in current firm. Analysis: SPSS and covariance-based SEM. CMB checks: Harman’s single-factor (<44% variance), latent marker variable (blue attitude; |r|<0.06). Multicollinearity: VIF<5. Measurement model: Good fit (χ²=160.68, df=101, NFI=.95, CFI=.98, TLI=.98, RMSEA=.05), strong reliability (α>0.70), convergent validity (loadings>0.70; AVE>0.50; CR>0.70), discriminant validity (correlations<0.80; HTMT<0.90). Structural model: Good fit (χ²=230.09, df=171, NFI=.94, CFI=.98, TLI=.98, RMSEA=.04). Moderated mediation tested via PROCESS Model 58.

- Common method bias: Not a concern (Harman’s single factor <44%; marker variable correlations r<0.06). Multicollinearity: VIF<5. Measurement model showed excellent fit and validity. - Direct effects supported: H1 GHRM → GC β=0.33, p<0.001; H2 GHRM → GSE β=0.80, p<0.001; H3 GSE → GC β=0.51, p<0.001. - Variance explained: R²(GSE)=64.60%; R²(GC)=63.50%. - Mediation (H4): GSE partially mediates GHRM → GC. Direct effect GHRM → GC β=0.32, t=5.44; Indirect effect via GSE=0.31, 95% CI [0.19, 0.44]. - Moderated mediation (H5): Not supported overall. GTL positively moderates GHRM → GSE (interaction β≈0.20, p=0.01; simple slopes indicate stronger GSE at higher GHRM under high GTL), but GTL does not moderate GSE → GC (interaction ns). Pairwise contrasts of conditional indirect effects had CIs including zero, indicating no moderated mediation. - Controls: Age, gender, education, tenure, and total experience showed no significant confounding effects on GSE or GC.

Findings align with SCT: environmental (GHRM) and personal (GSE) factors interact to shape behavioral outcomes (GC). Hotels that communicate a green agenda, provide green training, and link green behaviors to appraisal, compensation, rewards, and promotion enhance employees’ beliefs in their green abilities (GSE), which in turn fosters GC—employees propose, promote, plan, and implement novel green ideas and solutions. GSE partially mediates the GHRM–GC link, demonstrating complementary mediation: GHRM directly and indirectly (via GSE) enhances GC. Although GTL did not produce moderated mediation overall, it strengthened the path from GHRM to GSE, indicating that leadership can potentiate HR policies’ impact on self-efficacy even if it does not significantly shape how GSE translates into GC in this dataset. The study contributes by integrating organizational practices and leadership with employee cognitions to explain green-oriented creativity in hotels and by extending SCT to the green HRM–creativity domain.

The study demonstrates that GHRM significantly enhances employees’ green creativity in luxury hotels and resorts and that green self-efficacy partially mediates this relationship. While the hypothesized moderated mediation via green transformational leadership was not supported, GTL strengthened the GHRM–GSE link. By applying Social Cognitive Theory, the research clarifies how and when HRM practices foster green creativity through self-efficacy, offering actionable insights for hospitality organizations aiming to align operations with sustainability goals.

- Contextual generalizability: Data from luxury hotels and resorts in Morocco may limit generalization to other countries, cultures, and segments; replication across diverse geographies and hospitality contexts is recommended. - Measurement specification: GHRM was treated as a unidimensional construct; future work should model it multidimensionally (e.g., training, recruitment, performance management, rewards) or as a higher-order construct for greater granularity. - Model scope: Only GTL was examined as a moderator; future research should test other leadership styles (e.g., environmentally specific servant leadership) and expand the model with constructs such as green psychological climate and green work engagement; qualitative or psychometric approaches could further refine GC, GSE, and GHRM dimensions.