The effect of environmental education on the attitudes and beliefs of hotel housekeepers

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2011-01-01
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Quinn, Michael
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Robert H. Bosselman
Tianshu Zheng
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Altmetrics
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Apparel, Events and Hospitality Management
Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if environmental education causes a change in the environmental attitudes and behaviors of hotel housekeepers. Hotels are attempting to act socially and financially responsible by adopting environmentally conscious policies including recycling programs. Hotel employees, particularly housekeepers, are the recycling stewards and their environmental attitudes influence recycling behaviors. The 10 item, 5-point Likert style New Ecological Paradigm Scale for Children was used to assess the environmental attitudes and behaviors of hotel housekeepers in the areas of rights of nature, eco-crisis, and human exemptionalism. The experimental design involved a pretest for all participants in the experimental and control groups. The experimental group then received environmental training; while the control group did not receive any training or information. After 60 days, the hotel housekeepers at both the control and experimental hotels answered the identical questions a second time. The pretest and posttest data was analyzed using a mixed method design. Findings, as reflected in the overall score, rights of nature, eco-crisis, and human exemptionalism, indicated that no significant change occurred in the attitudes and behaviors of the experimental group. These findings indicate that upper management support, training selected and the sample surveyed influenced the results of this study. Further research addressing these limitations is required to determine if environmental education can cause a change in environmental attitudes and behaviors of hotel housekeepers.

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Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2011