Social Responsibility as a Solution to Sustainable Employee Retention in the Hospitality Industry: Empirical Evidence from Prague, Czech Republic

Abstract

The hospitality industry plays a significant role in regional development as its services are a prerequisite for tourism growth, which on the premises of sustainability has become a major contributor to socio-economic growth. Unfortunately, the hospitality industry has been continuously struggling with high employee turnover and a significant "within" and "out of" labour mobility, regardless of the phase of the business cycle, time, or geographical region. This could be reasoned by employees historically viewing offered jobs in the hospitality industry as low-paid, with little or no promotion possibilities, giving the employees little or no room for self-development and realization of their full potential as human beings, and thus "labelled" as low social status jobs; yet seasonal, stressful, time demanding, and monotonous. Therefore, drawing upon Carroll's (2015, 2016) four-dimensional concept of corporate social responsibility, this study, using a set of multiple regression analyses, empirically examines the effect of each dimension (economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic) on hospitality industry employees' attitudes and behaviour such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which eventually lead to lowering employees' turnover intentions. The sample under analysis (n = 411) was collected from employees of 24 small- or medium-size lodging enterprises located in Prague, as the small- to medium-size businesses are the "backbone" of local economies. Results indicate a significant influence of corporate social responsibility on the above-mentioned employees' attitudes or behaviour. However, not all four dimensions play the same role in stimulating the desired employees' behaviour outcome. This study also contributes to the literature on corporate social responsibility as scholarly literature gives it little room in relation to employees, especially in the Central European context.