Socially Responsible Human Resource Management and Knowledge Sabotage: Roles of Workplace Belongingness and Corporate Ethical Values

ABSTRACT Social responsibility‐based practices have become crucial for the long‐term growth of organizations. Empirical studies show that socially responsible human resource management (HRM) positively influences individual behavior; however, limited research investigates its role in mitigating negative employee attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on social exchange theory and self‐determination theory, we investigate how and when socially responsible HRM affects knowledge sabotage among employees in the hospitality and tourism industry. We obtained 150 valid surveys from five‐star hotel employees in Kyrgyzstan and 240 from hotel employees in Türkiye and tested the hypotheses using PLS‐SEM. The results show that socially responsible HRM reduces knowledge sabotage and increases workplace belongingness. Workplace belongingness is found to negatively affect knowledge sabotage. Our findings reveal that work belongingness mediates the influences of socially responsible human resource management on knowledge sabotage. More importantly, corporate ethical values strengthen the negative effect of socially responsible HRM on knowledge sabotage via work belongingness, thereby amplifying this impact further in the hospitality and tourism industry. This paper provides theoretical and practical implications for hospitality and tourism researchers and practitioners by demonstrating how socially responsible HRM reduces employee knowledge sabotage through psychological mechanisms and corporate values.