Morality in HR: Implications for Employee Turnover in the Hospitality Industry

To address the hospitality industry’s ongoing employee turnover challenge, many firms have adopted a set of human resources (HR) policies and practices known as high-performance work systems (HPWS). There is a large volume of research that links HPWS to a wide range of employee outcomes, including and especially perceptions about organizational justice and subsequent turnover intentions. However, we contend that this mediated explanation is incomplete and argue that perceptions about HPWS may also give rise to moral judgments because the embedded policies and practices are viewed to be not only effective and just, but also moral. Using the Unfolding Model of Turnover and integrating the Moral Foundations Theory, we develop and test a model that introduces perceptions about HR morality as another important outcome of HPWS that amplifies the effect of justice on turnover intentions. Using data gathered from N = 841 U.S. hospitality employees, the results from a series of regression and structural equation modeling analyses demonstrated support for the proposed model. The findings offer a conceptual extension to the Unfolding Model of Turnover and provide actionable recommendations for reducing turnover and developing more sustainable workplaces.