Citation: Elshaer, Ibrahim A., Alaa M.
S. Azazz, Chokri Kooli, and Sameh
Fayyad. 2023. Green Human
Resource Management and Brand
Citizenship Behavior in the Hotel
Industry: Mediation of
Organizational Pride and Individual
Green Values as a Moderator.
Administrative Sciences 13: 109.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
admsci13040109
Received: 16 March 2023
Revised: 5 April 2023
Accepted: 6 April 2023
Published: 8 April 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
administrative
sciences
Article
Green Human Resource Management and Brand Citizenship
Behavior in the Hotel Industry: Mediation of Organizational
Pride and Individual Green Values as a Moderator
Ibrahim A. Elshaer
1,2,
* , Alaa M. S. Azazz
3,4,
* , Chokri Kooli
5
and Sameh Fayyad
2
1
Department of Management, College of Business Administration, King Faisal University,
Al-Ahsaa 380, Saudi Arabia
2
Hotel Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt
3
Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Arts College, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsaa 380, Saudi Arabia
4
Tourism Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt
5
The Telfer School of Management, The University of Ottawa, 75 Laurier Avenue East,
Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada; Ibm4chk@yahoo.fr
* Correspondence: ielshaer@kfu.edu.sa (I.A.E.); aazazz@kfu.edu.sa (A.M.S.A.)
Abstract: In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the need for sustainability in the
hospitality industry. The hotel industry, in particular, has been identified as a significant contributor to
environmental degradation. To address this issue, hotel managers have begun to adopt green human
resource management (GHRM) practices to promote sustainable behavior among employees. This
research paper explores the relationship between GHRM practices, brand citizenship behavior (BCBs),
organizational pride, and individual green values in the hotel industry. The study examines how
GHRM practices influence BCB through the mediation of organizational pride and the moderation of
individual green values. A survey was conducted with 328 employees from five-star hotels and the
obtained data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results indicate that GHRM practices positively
affect BCB and that this relationship is partially mediated by organizational pride. Furthermore,
individual green values were found to moderate the relationship between GHRM practices and BCB,
indicating that employees with stronger green values are more likely to exhibit BCB. These findings
contribute to the literature on GHRM and BCB and offer insights for hotel managers on how to
enhance their sustainability efforts through effective GHRM practices.
Keywords: green human resources management; brand citizenship behavior; hotel industry; organi-
zational pride; green management; sustainable performance; green values
1. Introduction
In the current climate of hotel firms’ rapid growth, increasing competition, and choppy
market conditions, hotel businesses are investing more than ever in building solid brands
(Eriksson et al. 2022). Due to the “intangibility, inseparability, and heterogeneity” of services,
hotel brands differ from other product brands (Xie et al. 2014). As a result, a strong brand
is a vital performance driver for any hospitality service firm because it distinguishes its
service offerings from its competitors, building guest trust and lowering apparent financial,
social, and safety-related risks (Simões and Dibb 2001). Thus, the service delivery conduct
of frontline guest-contact staff significantly influences guests’ perceptions of a hotel service
brand (Hartline et al. 2000). Therefore, it is not sufficient for service people to merely act
in a manner that fulfills the brand’s promise to develop a strong brand for the company;
instead, they are urged to go above and beyond their formal in-role performance to meet
the expectations of the brand and customers (Pornpitakpan et al. 2017). Here, hotels can
resort to employees’ brand citizenship behaviors (BCBs) to use their extra-role behaviors
to defend, promote, and enhance the brand. Through BCB, hotel employees, for example,
can help solid brand-establishing efforts by discretionary positive word of mouth (extra
Adm. Sci. 2023, 13, 109. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci13040109 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/admsci