An integrated framework of behavioral reasoning theory, theory of planned behavior, moral norm and emotions for fostering hospitality/tourism employees’ sustainable behaviors

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop an integrated framework for a deeper understanding of employee sustainable behaviors in the workplace by using theories, such as behavioral reasoning theory, planned-behavior theory, goal-directed behavior theory, norm activation theory and belief-value-norm theory.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative approach is used in the present research. This study used data from 343 employees who are from the hospitality and tourism industry to investigate the formation of employees’ sustainable behaviors.

Findings

The research framework assumes that the reasons for sustainable behavior and the reasons against sustainable behavior predict global motives, which comprise attitude, subjective norm and behavioral control, and moral norm mediates the relationship between global motives, positive and negative anticipated emotions and behavioral intention. The hypothesized theoretical model had a sufficient degree of total variance with the behavioral intention and generally verified the hypothesized relationships, which served as a basis for modeling employee sustainable behavior in the workplace.

Originality/value

This study integrated a framework that contributes to employee sustainable behavior in the tourism and hospitality industry by identifying the effects of motivational process, moral process and emotional process to perform sustainable behavior.

Citation

Meng, B., Lee, M.J., Chua, B.-L. and Han, H. (2022), "An integrated framework of behavioral reasoning theory, theory of planned behavior, moral norm and emotions for fostering hospitality/tourism employees’ sustainable behaviors", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 34 No. 12, pp. 4516-4538. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-02-2022-0151