Mandatory vaccination policies in hospitality and tourism organizations: Employees' perceived ethicality, its determinants, and consequences

Given the controversial nature of mandatory vaccine policies in hospitality and tourism organizations and their implications for employees, two studies were conducted to understand the employees' perceived ethicality of such policies, their determinants, and their consequences. In Study 1, data were collected from 318 employees working in hospitality and tourism industry in the U.S. Statistical tests were conducted to test the influence of the perceived ethicality of mandatory vaccination policy in an organization on employees' commitment and well-being. Findings indicate that both relationships are significant and almost similar in strength. Study 2 extends these findings and incorporates determinants of the perceived ethicality of vaccination policy. Data collected from 679 employees in hospitality and tourism industry were subjected to partial least squares (PLS-SEM), and the findings confirm the results from Study 1. Furthermore, all the vaccine-related factors, including perceived effectiveness, safety, and necessity, significantly influence the ethicality of vaccine policies. Regarding employee-related antecedents, respect for autonomy and beneficence are non-significant, whereas justice and nonmaleficence significantly impact the perceived ethicality of vaccine policies. It is one of the initial papers that empirically studies the antecedents and consequences of the ethicality of vaccine policies using the ethical decision-making framework.