Employee social responsibility practices and outcomes in Kenya’s tourist hotels

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and espouse employee corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in classified hotels in the coastal region of Kenya, then to evaluate perceived job satisfaction, employee turnover/retention and organizational commitment by employees and explore any inherent paradox in the employee perceptions on both employee CSR practices and the job-related outcomes in the African context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an exploratory survey that targeted a population of 5,595 hotel employees from 20 selected classified hotels. A sample size of 699 employees was systematically selected and data collected using a structured questionnaire anchored on a five-point Likert scale. The instrument was evaluated for internal consistency and subjected to principal component analysis to explore extant dimensions. Findings – Though initially employee CSR practices by the hotel enterprises were defined by four dimensions, while employee job satisfaction-related outcomes were defined by three dimensions, principal component analysis revealed six dimensions of the employee CSR practices and four dimensions of the job-related outcomes. This paper, therefore, identifies and discusses the inherent paradoxes of employee job satisfaction, employee commitment and employee retention as revealed by the study. Originality/value – Internal social responsibility practices among enterprises in Africa, has relatively been downplayed by government, respective enterprise management and scholars. Keywords Kenya, Employees behaviour, Job satisfaction, Hotels, Social responsibility, Paradox, Classified hotels, Employee CSR dimensions Paper type Research paper