Anomia and displacement of responsibility as determinants of tourist company managers’ non-involvement in alleviating poverty

sustainability Article Anomia and Displacement of Responsibility as Determinants of Tourist Company Managers’ Non-Involvement in Alleviating Poverty Agustín J. Sánchez-Medina *, Juan Manuel Benítez-del-Rosario and Félix Blázquez-Santana Instituto Universitario de Ciencias y Tecnologías Cibernéticas, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; [email protected] (J.M.B.-d.-R.); [email protected] (F.B.-S.) *Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +34-928-458-133 Academic Editor: Fabio Carlucci Received: 28 January 2017; Accepted: 8 May 2017; Published: 11 May 2017 Abstract: The economic transformation produced by tourism sometimes has a positive influence on reducing poverty, but other times it does not. Discovering the reasons for this difference is highly relevant. In searching for these reasons, this study will focus on an important actor in tourism management, the manager. Specifically, the study will analyze how a certain negative mood state, anomia, influences the fact that managers do not consider it advisable for their companies to become involved in reducing poverty. The term future managers has been used as a proxy variable for managers. In addition, the study will also examine whether a moral disengagement mechanism, displacement of responsibility, is a mediator variable in this relationship. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 422 students in their last year of the Tourism degree at two universities, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and Ibn-Zohr-Agadir (Morocco). The results show that all the proposed hypotheses are supported. Keywords: Anomia; displacement of responsibility; tourism; poverty 1. Introduction Poverty is undoubtedly a scourge in today’s society. Moreover, it is not limited to certain under-developed countries because, according to [ 1 ], even in the European Union, 124.2 million people are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The importance of tourism in the economy is currently undeniable [ 2 , 3 ]. Many territories see tourism as the solution to their economic problems, considering it a catalyzer for their growth [ 4 ] and a way to alleviate poverty [ 5 , 6 ]. Tourism’s potential for reducing poverty is shown in various studies (e.g., [ 7 – 10 ]). However, Thomas [ 3 ] states that, although this industry clearly contributes to economic development, the idea that it is an effective tool for alleviating poverty does not receive consistent support. Thus, there is a debate about the true benefits this sector provides to local communities [ 2 , 5 , 6 ] because there is evidence that, in some cases, the development of tourism mostly enriches local elites and international firms, producing low quality and poorly paid jobs. Furthermore, the poor planning of tourism sometimes leads to the destruction of ecological systems, increases the cost of living of the local population, and damages the culture and lifestyle of the residents [ 5 , 10 – 12 ]. Therefore, as Williams [13] points out, tourism is a force that has to be monitored, if not controlled. According to Sánchez Cañizares et al. [ 14 ], the adequate management of the development of tourism requires responsible planning that seeks sustainable development while taking the community into account. In addition, Flagestad and Hope [ 15 ], emphasize that sustainability should be a high priority in tourism development, and Pulido-Fernández et al. [ 16 ] state that, although there might Sustainability 2017,9, 802; doi:10.3390/su9050802 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2017,9, 802 2 of 15 be an impression, at least in the short term, that sustainability can slow down economic progress, a destination cannot be competitive without being sustainable [17]. The importance of taking the perspectives of the different actors in tourism development into account has been mentioned in various studies (e.g., [ 14 , 18 , 19 ]). For Dodds et al. [ 20 ], practitioners consider that community participation contributes to sustainable development. In this regard, the tourism literature highlights the needs and capabilities of local communities. According to [ 21 ], tourism can be organized in different ways and, although it will always depend on the demand (exogenous factor), it is important to take into account the perspective of the offer by fomenting a local protagonist role (endogenous factor). Kontogeorgopoulos et al. [ 22 ] state that the study by Murphy [ 23 ] marks the beginning of the growing interest in Community-Based Tourism. This author indicates the importance the community can have as a key agent in tourism management. Moreover, Murphy argues that tourism must be managed as an industry of renewable resources and involve community decision-making. Thus, local communities affect or are affected by achievements in the tourism industry [ 24 ]. This influence is relevant because residents’ perception that costs and benefits are generated by tourism development conditions their support or opposition [ 25 ]. Therefore, the economic impacts are usually perceived as positive, whereas the sociocultural, legal, and environmental impacts are perceived as negative [ 24 ]. This question is important because if the residents fear tourism, their resistance and hostility can destroy the potential of the local industry [ 23 ]. According to Kontogeorgopoulos et al. [ 22 ], although there is no consensus about the definition of Community-Based Tourism, most of the studies include the characteristics of environmental sustainability, community participation, fair distribution of financial benefits, empowerment of the community, improvements in the quality of life and management of the community, control, and ownership of the tourism project. The community can become involved in and influence tourism management within its own structure. Thus, local people who work in the sector have a dual perspective, that of the company and that of the community. Therefore, it is important that the people who are going to manage the sector have a favorable attitude toward sustainable tourism development in general, and a reduction in poverty in particular, fomenting the contribution of tourism organizations to an endogenous development of the territory. According to Carlisle et al. [ 26 ], collaboration among the different stakeholders is crucial to support the entrepreneurial spirit and sales innovation of small and medium-sized companies in order to help to reduce poverty. Hence, having an ally as important as the tourism sector would be quite positive. Obviously, this may not be the solution for completely sustainable tourism, but it can contribute to its improvement. Aronsson [ 27 ] argues that the idea of sustainability in itself is a pipe dream, and the best case scenario would be to make the development of tourism more sustainable than it was before. Considering this situation where tourism is a useful tool for reducing poverty in some territories but not in others, the purpose of the present study is to shed some light on the reason for this difference. To do so, it will focus on the role played by managers of tourism firms. More specifically, it will analyze the effect of a managers’ negative mood state, anomia, on their willingness to become involved in measures to alleviate poverty. In addition, it will study whether displacement of responsibility functions as a mediator variable between these two variables. Managers were chosen because, according to Park et al. [ 28 ], they represent one of the main groups of interest in firms. For these authors, their role is fundamental, on the one hand, because they are responsible for designing and implementing human resources practices, that is, the salary policy, the working conditions, the elimination of child labor, etc. [ 29 ], and on the other, because they are also in charge of choosing and putting into practice the rest of the corporative social responsibility activities related to stakeholders outside the firm [30]. This study has used future managers as a proxy variable for managers. This study is important because it can help tourism firms to improve their relationship with their environment. Knowledge of the analyzed variables will allow human resources managers to better select personnel and general managers, and more efficiently control the CSR activities carried out by their high-level employees. Sustainability 2017,9, 802 3 of 15 1.1. Anomia Anomia, a human social and individual characteristic, has been used to understand people’s behavior and, more recently, to explore and understand moral behavior at work [ 31 ]. Emile Durkheim [ 32 , 33 ] developed the concept of anomia to describe a social situation involving a lack of norms, a lack of solidarity, and a dysregulation of the social structure, as well as a generalized lack of integration between people and groups (see also [ 34 ]). For Durkheim, anomia represents the wrongs the society as a whole has suffered due to the lack of moral and legal norms produced by the weakening of mediator institutions such as the family or the church. This situation leads to a decline in the value system of the society as a whole. Later, however, he explained anomia not only at the level of the organization of society, but also as the result of society’s failure to humanize people. Merton [ 35 ] explained this phenomenon as the product of a structural misfit among the social actors, between the objectives they seek and the means society provides to reach them. Unlike Srole [ 36 ], who perceives anomia as the dependent variable and the social conditions as the independent variable [ 37 ], Tsahuridu [ 31 ] views anomia as the consequence of the person’s social conditions, personality, or the interaction between the two. Thus, this author perceives anomia as the individual’s problematic socialization, rather than as an element induced by society. According to Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara and Sánchez-Medina [ 38 ], anomia did not have much presence in the empirical research until Srole [ 36 ] formulated an individual-level construct of anomia. This construct refers to individuals’ degree of social detachment, lack of values, and cynicism (or little faith in human relations). Hence, the authors developed a measurement scale to evaluate the impact of this type of feeling at the individual level. Studies on anomia in the organizational literature are scarce [ 38 ] However, some exceptions are the studies by Hodson [ 39 ], who found that anomia in managers has negative effects on their organizational civic behaviors and their employees’ collaboration, Caruana et al. [ 40 ], who found effects on the dysfunctional behavior of the clients, and Farrel et al. [ 41 ], who pointed out that the structure of informal roles in a work team is related to an anomic culture. Specifically, regarding the employees’ behavior, Henle [ 42 ] and Henle et al. [ 43 ] investigated topics similar to anomic feelings in employees, such as low morale, damaged self-esteem, and growing fear and insecurity at work. Finally, Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara [ 44 , 45 ], Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara and Melián-González [46], and Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara and Sánchez-Medina [38] recently studied anomia among employees, focusing on its capacity to interact with the links between organizational justice, job satisfaction, civic behaviors, Internet abuse, and work absence. However, there has been some debate about the validity of the Srole anomia scale to measure this construct. Thus, some voices state that what it really measures is some mixture of powerlessness and other forms of job alienation, instead of anomia (e.g., [ 47 , 48 ]). By contrast, other researchers support its validity, claiming, for example, that the scale satisfies the criterion of one-dimensionality in a latent structure analysis [ 31 , 49 , 50 ]. In spite of this debate, research on the concept, at both the psychological and sociological levels, has increased in recent years. Focusing the attention more on the psychological level, it is interesting that in his study, Srole [ 36 ] uses the definitions for the concept offered by MacIver [ 51 ] and Laswell [ 52 ]. Thus, the former defines it as “the rupture of the individual feeling of social attachment” [ 52 ] (p.86), and the latter as “the lack of identification by the individual’s primordial ego with a ‘self’ that includes others” [ 52 ] (p.123). According to Hays et al. [ 53 ], Srole [ 36 ] conceptualizes anomia as a feeling of distancing and alienation. Thus, it is differentiated from the notion of a “anomie” by Merton [ 35 ], who uses the concept to refer to a state of lack of norms in society, claiming that it is a structural, social phenomenon that reflects the breakdown of the rules that guide social behavior. Therefore, the absence of norms or alienation occurs at the level of the social system, rather than at the level of individuals [ 53 , 54 ]. With all this in mind, the following hypothesis is formulated. Hypothesis 1. Anomia has a positive influence on resisting the firm’s involvement in activities related to mitigating poverty. Sustainability 2017,9, 802 4 of 15 1.2. Displacement of Responsibility Based on the arguments made by Zoghbi-Manrique-De-Lara & Sánchez-Medina [ 38 ], it is more likely that managers who suffer from anomia will “neutralize” (that is, use rationalizations to excuse their bad conduct [ 55 ]) their inclination to not involve the firm they manage in actions designed to alleviate local poverty, and they will view their behavior as an acceptable option. This concept of neutralization and its mechanisms are quite similar to the theory of moral disengagement by Bandura [ 56 ], who refers to a process of convincing the self that the ethical norms do not apply in a particular case. Therefore, it seems logical to think that managers who have a high degree anomic feelings will be more likely to feel “legitimized” in not doing anything in their company to fight poverty or spend money on it. According to Samnani et al. [ 57 ], moral disengagement is a construct that has only recently been applied in the organizational research. Along the same lines [ 58 ] (p. 374) state that the study of moral disengagement is in its early stages. For Moore [ 59 ], the Theory of Moral Disengagement was developed to explain why some people are capable of participating in an inhumane behavior without finding themselves in a situation of apparent danger [ 60 – 62 ]. According to this theory, individuals with high levels of moral disengagement commonly use cognitive mechanisms that allow them to rethink their actions in a way that minimizes their ethical importance. Thus, moral disengagement refers to an individual’s capacity to deactivate moral self-regulation and self-censorship, and adopt a behavior that is inconsistent with the moral norms, without self-sanctions or associated guilt [ 58 , 63 ]. Bandura [ 64 ] states that most people have developed internal personal standards for what is perceived as good behavior, avoiding what is viewed as wrong. The majority will follow these norms because doing what one considers negative will lead to undesirable self-censorship, whereas acting in the way one believes to be positive will lead to a positive self-assessment. According to Hystad et al. [ 65 ], the cited theory offers an agential view of human behavior by considering that individuals have control over their own feelings and behaviors through self-regulation processes. Thus, Ashford & Anand [ 66 ] approach moral disengagement in terms of neutralizing the strength of what is moral and ethical. However, this self-regulation only functions when it is activated. Moreover, Bandura [ 60 ] suggests that it can be activated selectively, and he cites moral disengagement as the main mechanism for this purpose. It should be mentioned that the idea that it is possible to neutralize one’s beliefs or attitudes about a certain unethical behavior before carrying it out is receiving renewed attention [67,68]. Bandura [ 62 ] points out different maneuvers through which people can reach this moral disengagement: moral justification, the use of euphemistic language, advantageous comparison, minimizing or ignoring the consequences, the diffusion or displacement of responsibility, dehumanization, and the attribution of guilt. According to Christian and Ellis [ 69 ], these eight categories could be encompassed into three: displacement of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility, and distortion of the consequences. The present study will focus specifically on one of them, displacement of responsibility. For Bandura [ 60 ], people are more likely to behave ethically when they recognize that they have a role in the ethical behavior in which they are involved. They can release their moral controls if they deny responsibility for their actions, which are out of their control, due, for example, to group pressure, having a complicated financial situation, the existence of precedents, the argument that everyone does it, etc. [ 70 ]. Furthermore, Barsky [ 70 ] states that empirical studies have shown that displacement of responsibility can interfere with the individual intention to behave ethically. This conception of displacement of responsibility will be employed in the present study. Displacement of responsibility could be applied not only to moral disengagement when doing something unethical but also to justifying not doing something that is ethical. Thus, empirical studies have shown that displacement of responsibility can interfere with individual intentions to behave ethically [ 71 ]. Based on the above, one could suspect that displacement of responsibility would mediate the relationship between anomia and having a negative attitude about considering it appropriate for companies to be involved in performing activities related to mitigating poverty. Therefore, the following hypothesis is formulated. Sustainability 2017,9, 802 5 of 15 Hypothesis 2. Displacement of responsibility acts as a mediator variable between anomia and non-involvement in activities related to mitigating poverty. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Study Context On the one hand, according to ISTAC [ 72 ], the Canary Islands, with more than 14 million tourists in 2016, is one of the regions with the greatest influx of tourists in Spain and one of the destinations preferred by tourists from the European Union. The Canary Islands measures 7.447 km 2 and has a climate that is considered one of the best in the world, with an average temperature of 18 ◦ in the winter months and an average of no more than 25 ◦ in the summer months. The islands receive little precipitation per year, making the lack of seasons a determinant in the entrance of tourists. In spite of these data, in June 2016, the Canary Islands, with a population of 2,114,648, present a 24.9% unemployment rate, which shows the insufficient ability of the tourism activity to stimulate the economy. According to Hernández-Martín [ 73 ], this weakness is related to the way the tourism expenditure is articulated with the production and generation of profits. Only 28.6% of tourists’ spending is generated in the Canaries, whereas 71.4% remains in the origin. This imbalance in the distribution is what impedes greater economic impact on the islands. On the other hand, the city of Agadir is located in the meridional part of Morocco. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1500, with Morocco gaining sovereignty in 1956. Agadir is currently a modern city with a population of 100,000. Like the Canaries, Agadir is an important sun-and-beach tourist destination with more than 10 km of wide beaches with fine sand and an average temperature quite similar to that of the Canary Islands, but more extreme in winter and summer. According to the organism in charge of elaborating national statistics in Morocco, the Haut Commissariatau Plan (HCP), the unemployment rate in Morocco was 9.4% of the active population in 2016 [ 74 ]. Although unemployment declined by 0.2 percent in that year, the HCP warns that the national economy has registered a net job loss of 37,000 people. It also points out the increase in unstable unemployment, which affects 11.3% of Moroccan workers. 2.2. Sample The sample used in this study was chosen from students in the last years of the tourism degree at two universities: a. University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and b. Ibn-Zohr-Agadir University (Morocco). In all, 422 surveys were administered, distributed in the following way: 181 at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and 241 at Ibn-Zohr-Agadir University. The use of students about to finish their university studies in tourism is basically due to the fact that in the near future, many companies in the tourism sector will be run by people with this type of training, as this is one of the professional avenues of the degree. According to Liñán & Chen [ 75 ], the use of students is frequent in studies in the business organization literature (e.g., [ 76 , 77 ]). For example, and according to [ 78 ], of the articles published in the Journal of Consumer Research (journal situated in the first quartile of the Journal Citation Report from 1997 to 2015, with the only exception of the year 2008 when it was in Q2) during the last quarter of the 20th century, the use of students increased from 23% to 89%. However, it should be noted that samples of students are sometimes criticized, arguing that they are not generalizable to the rest of the population [ 79 , 80 ]. According to D ’innocenzo et al. [ 81 ], organizational research is not immune to this, pointing out that this criticism is focused on the fact that classroom and laboratory samples are not representative of organizational settings (e.g., [ 78 ]). However, other authors have the opposite opinion. Thus, Lucas [ 82 ] argues that students are appropriate research subjects when the emphasis of the study is on basic psychological processes or theory tested with human behaviors, regardless of the sample’s characteristics. Mathieu et al. [ 83 ] indicate that laboratory research with samples of students can be generalized to work teams when focusing on the underlying principles or on the constructive relationships in question. In addition, Ahmed et al. [ 84 ], Phau and Sustainability 2017,9, 802 6 of 15 Kea [ 85 ], Bageac et al. [ 86 ], Preble and Reichel [ 87 ] insist that the use of university students in business administration is valid because they are tomorrow’s business executives. Coldwell [ 88 ] establishes that university students offer a degree of impartiality because they do not belong to professions, they are not embedded in specific organizational cultures, and they make up the group of future leaders. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the work values established in youth are predictive of those obtained in maturity [ 89 ]. Thus, there is a relationship between one’s ethical standards when studying and those held later in professional practice [90–92]. 2.3. Measures and Data Analysis In the present study, the method used to obtain the necessary information to meet the proposed objectives was the survey, using the questionnaire as the basic observation instrument. With the prior permission of the professors, these questionnaires were administered in the classroom by a surveyor, who briefly explained the purpose of the study to the interviewees. Except for sex and country, all the items in this study are scored on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from (1) “Completely disagree” to (7) “Completely agree”. The questions on the survey were initially written in Spanish and then translated into French, following the back-translation process [ 93 ], by professional translators of both languages. In order to measure displacement of responsibility, the 5-item scale proposed by Barsky [ 70 ] was used. The items were adapted to read: ‘a hotel manager is not to blame for not doing anything to fight poverty in his/her region if his/her bosses are pressuring to make sure that all the resources are used to earn greater profits’; ‘a hotel manager cannot be guilty of inaction against poverty in the region if his/her bosses do not order him/her to do something in this regard’; ‘a hotel manager cannot be guilty of inaction against poverty in the region if he/perceives that in his/her company this issue is not considered important’; ‘a hotel manager cannot be guilty of inaction against poverty in the region when the rest of the managers do not take action either’; ‘it is unfair to blame a hotel manager for inaction against poverty because he/she only has a small role in solving this problem’. To measure anomic feelings, the original five-item scale by Srole [ 36 ] was used. The items are: ‘in spite of what some say, the (situation/state) of the majority of average citizens gets worse every day, not better’; ‘nowadays, one does not know whom to trust’; ‘nowadays, a person has to live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself’; the majority of the civil servants (people who hold public offices) are not really interested in the problems of ordinary people’; and ‘it is not fair to bring a child into the world the way things look for the future’. To measure the degree to which it is not considered appropriate to be involved in actions designed to reduce poverty, we used our own scale. The questions were the following: ‘hotels already participate enough in solving the poverty around them by giving employment and producing wealth’; ‘more important than questions like reputation, improving the situation of poverty in the area, or having good relations with the local community, I think profitability is the main objective a manager has to pursue’; collaborating with local society to reduce poverty would involve more costs than benefits for my company’. The analysis of the proposed model was performed with the Lavaan R-package [ 94 ], which applies a structural equations modeling technique based on covariance. 3. Results In order to examine the causal relationship between the constructs, a two-step procedure was followed, as recommended Hair et al. [ 95 ], Wang et al. [ 96 ] and Leong et al. [ 97 ]. The first stage consists of an exploratory factorial analysis, which is useful for refining and determining the dimensional character of the scale [ 98 ]. The second is a confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the validity of the constructs [99,100]. Sustainability 2017,9, 802 7 of 15 3.1. Measurement Model To assess the convergent validity, we examined the estimated load of each indicator in its construct. For such validity to exist, the load must be high and the values of t have to be statistically significant [ 101 ]. In the proposed model, these requisites are confirmed with acceptable convergent validity. Thus, the AFC results indicate that the relationship between each item and its respective construct is statistically significant with loadings that exceed 0.724 (all p-value = 0.000) in all cases, confirming the existence of convergent validity (see Table 1). In addition, it is necessary to determine the convergent validity of the constructs. According to Hair et al. [ 102 ] and Roldán and Sánchez-Franco [ 103 ], this validity must be evaluated by analyzing the Cronbach’s alpha, the composite reliability index by Fornell and Larcker [ 104 ], and the average extracted variance (AVE). For the first two cases, 0.7 is the reference point, and for the third, it is 0.5 [ 102 , 103 ]. In the model studied, and as Table 2shows, all these criteria are met. Thus, the minimum Cronbach’s alpha value obtained is 0.776, the composite reliability is 0.851, and the AVE is 0.534. Therefore, it can be concluded that the reflective constructs are reliable. To measure discriminant validity, the square root of the AVE (located on the diagonal of the matrix in Table 2) was compared to the correlations between the constructs (the elements located outside the diagonal) [ 103 , 105 ]. It can be observed that, on average, each construct is more strongly related to its own means than to the other constructs. Furthermore, the chi-square difference test [ 106 ] was also performed, and the results showed that all the constructs were significantly different. Therefore, there are no discriminant validity problems. Table 1. Confirmatory analyses. Construct/Indicator Standardized Loading z-Value p-Value Displacement of responsibility A hotel manager is not to blame for not doing anything to fight poverty in his/her region if his/her bosses are pressuring to make sure that all the resources are used to earn greater profits 0.725 A hotel manager cannot be guilty of inaction against poverty in the region if his/her bosses do not order him/her to do something in this regard 0.850 16.660 0.000 A hotel manager cannot be guilty of inaction against poverty in the region if he/perceives that in his/her company this issue is not considered important 0.822 16.160 0.000 A hotel manager cannot be guilty of inaction against poverty in the region when the rest of the managers do not do so either 0.770 15.147 0.000 It is unfair to blame a hotel manager for inaction against poverty as he/she only has a small role in solving this problem 0.760 14.954 0.000 Anomic feelings In spite of what some say, the (situation/state) of the majority of average citizens gets worse every day, not better 0.792 Nowadays, one does not know whom to trust 0.856 19.308 0.000 Nowadays, a person has to live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself 0.801 17.779 0.000 The majority of the civil servants (people who hold public offices) are not really interested in the problems of ordinary people 0.754 16.497 0.000 It is not fair to bring a child into the world the way things look for the future 0.772 16.989 0.000 Involved in actions designed to reduce poverty Hotels already participate enough in solving the poverty around them by giving employment and producing wealth 0.798 More important than questions like reputation, improving the situation of poverty in the area, or having good relations with the local community, I think profitability is the main objective a manager has to pursue’ 0.747 14.309 0.000 Collaborating with local society to reduce poverty would involve more costs than benefits for my company 0.724 13.949 0.000 Sustainability 2017,9, 802 8 of 15 Table 2. Reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity: correlation coefficients and Chi-square difference test. Cronbach’s Alpha Composite Reliability AVE Construct Anomia Displacement No Involvement 0.887 0.888 0.614 anomie 0.784 0.895 0.896 0.633 displacement 0.494 *** (92.124 ***) 0.796 0.798 0.800 0.572 no involvement 0.443 *** (62.522 ***) 0.697 *** (181.130 ***) 0.756 Note: n= 246; *** p< 0.001; ** p< 0.01; * p< 0.05; square root of AVE (in bold) is shown on the diagonal; Off-diagonal elements are the correlation coefficients, and values in the brackets show the chi-square difference statistics with df = 1 3.2. Test of Hypotheses Some goodness-of-fit measures were used to gauge the goodness-of-fit of the structural model. Robust maximum likelihood estimators were used to adjust the measurement model [ 107 , 108 ]. As reported in Table 3, all of them exceeded the recommended thresholds (CFI = 0.955; TLI = 0.943; RMSEA = 0.066; SRMR = 0.039). Hence, the structural model showed a good fit to the collected data. We used structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses; fitting a structural model that simultaneously included direct and indirect paths [ 109 ]. Table 4and Figure 1show that the relationships between anomia and displacement of responsibility (a = 0.494 ***) and displacement of responsibility and non-involvement (b = 0.633 ***) are significant. The hypothesis that relates anomia to non-involvement (H1: c = 0.225 *) is not supported because its 95% confidence interval includes zero. To test the mediation hypothesis, a bootstrapping procedure (using 5000 re-samples) was used to determine the 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals around these effects. Intervals that do not include zero indicate a statistically significant effect [ 110 ]. As Figure 1and Table 5show, anomia has a significant total effect on non-involvement (total = 0.443 ***). When adding the mediator variable, although it reduces its influence, its effect is not significant (c = 0.130). As reflected in Table 5, displacement of responsibility fully mediates the relationship between anomia and non-involvement (H2). Table 3. Measures of the model fit. Number of Observations 422 Estimator Maximum likelihood Robust Minimum Function Test Statistic 219.823 174.358 Degrees of freedom 62 62 P-value (Chi-square) 0.000 0.000 Scaling correction factor or the Satorra-Bentler correction 1.261 Model test baseline model Minimum Function Test Statistic 3191.720 2559.645 Degrees of freedom 78 78 p-value 0.000 0.000 Maximum likelihood Robust User model versus baseline model Comparative Fit Index (CFI) a0.949 0.955 Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) b0.936 0.943 RMSEA c0.078 0.066 SRMR d0.039 0.039 a Recommended value ≥ 0.90 [ 95 , 110 ]; b Recommended value ≥ 0.90 [ 95 ]; c Recommended value ≤ 0.08 [ 111 ]; dRecommended value ≤0.1 [112]. Sustainability 2017,9, 802 9 of 15 Sustainability 2017, 9, 802 9 of 14 Figure 1. Results of path analysis. Significance level: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05. Table 4. Results of path analysis. Effect Estimate Std. Error z-Value p-Value Percentile Bootstrap 95% Confidence Interval Remarks anomie -> displacement 0.494 *** 0.058 0.000 0.000 [0.363; 0.593] Sig Supported anomie -> no involvement 0.130 * 0.064 2.007 0.045 [−0.003; 1.825] NoSig No Supported displacement -> no involvement 0.633 *** 0.066 9.866 0.000 [0.525; 0.783] Sig Supported Significance level: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; ns not significant; Sig: Significant; NoSig: not significant. Table 5. Mediation analysis. Effect Estimate Std. Error z-Value p-Value Percentile Bootstrap 95% Confidence Interval c 0.130 * 0.064 2.007 0.045 [−0.003; 1.825] NoSig ab 0.313 *** 0.053 5.777 0.000 [0.213; 0.424] Sig total 0.443 *** 0.061 7.087 0.000 [0.317; 0.562] Sig Significance level: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; ns not significant; Sig: Significant; NoSig: not significant. 4. Discussion The main purpose of this study was to contribute to the knowledge about the factors that can make tourist companies’ future managers consider it inappropriate for these types of firms to be involved in actions to mitigate poverty in their area. Thus, we investigated the influence of a specific negative mood state, anomia, on this involvement. In addition, we analyzed the mediator role of a form of moral disengagement, displacement of responsibility, between anomie and non-involvement in actions to mitigate poverty. The results obtained show that, whereas there was support for hypothesis 2, which argued that displacement of responsibility acted as a mediator variable between anomia and not considering involvement important, support was not found for hypothesis 1, which said that there was a positive relationship between anomia and not considering it appropriate for companies to become involved in reducing poverty. It should be noted that the direct effect was not significant; however, the total was significant. All of these can be considered important theoretical contributions of the study, advancing the knowledge in a relatively unexplored line of research. Furthermore, the practical implications of the study are clear. Thus, the most important one directly involves the companies in the sector, as their human resources departments will have a series of useful variables if they want their organizations to be more socially responsible. They will have evidence that individuals who are in a state of anomia are going to be less willing to have their firms perform actions related to solving the important problem of poverty. Moreover, it is also valuable for companies to be aware of the mediator role that displacement of responsibility can play as a moral disengagement mechanism that can be used by managers to avoid performing a behavior that is ethically correct, but may not produce short-term economic benefits for the company. Obviously, all of this can contribute to improving the relationship between tourism companies and Figure 1. Results of path analysis. Significance level: *** p< 0.001; ** p< 0.01; * p< 0.05. Table 4. Results of path analysis. Effect Estimate Std. Error z-Value p-Value Percentile Bootstrap 95% Confidence Interval Remarks anomie -> displacement 0.494 *** 0.058 0.000 0.000 [0.363; 0.593] Sig Supported anomie -> no involvement 0.130 * 0.064 2.007 0.045 [−0.003; 1.825] NoSig No Supported displacement -> no involvement 0.633 *** 0.066 9.866 0.000 [0.525; 0.783] Sig Supported Significance level: *** p< 0.001; ** p< 0.01; * p< 0.05; ns not significant; Sig: Significant; NoSig: not significant. Table 5. Mediation analysis. Effect Estimate Std. Error z-Value p-Value Percentile Bootstrap 95% Confidence Interval c 0.130 * 0.064 2.007 0.045 [−0.003; 1.825] NoSig ab 0.313 *** 0.053 5.777 0.000 [0.213; 0.424] Sig total 0.443 *** 0.061 7.087 0.000 [0.317; 0.562] Sig Significance level: *** p< 0.001; ** p< 0.01; * p< 0.05; ns not significant; Sig: Significant; NoSig: not significant. 4. Discussion The main purpose of this study was to contribute to the knowledge about the factors that can make tourist companies’ future managers consider it inappropriate for these types of firms to be involved in actions to mitigate poverty in their area. Thus, we investigated the influence of a specific negative mood state, anomia, on this involvement. In addition, we analyzed the mediator role of a form of moral disengagement, displacement of responsibility, between anomie and non-involvement in actions to mitigate poverty. The results obtained show that, whereas there was support for hypothesis 2, which argued that displacement of responsibility acted as a mediator variable between anomia and not considering involvement important, support was not found for hypothesis 1, which said that there was a positive relationship between anomia and not considering it appropriate for companies to become involved in reducing poverty. It should be noted that the direct effect was not significant; however, the total was significant. All of these can be considered important theoretical contributions of the study, advancing the knowledge in a relatively unexplored line of research. Furthermore, the practical implications of the study are clear. Thus, the most important one directly involves the companies in the sector, as their human resources departments will have a series of useful variables if they want their organizations to be more socially responsible. They will have evidence that individuals who are in a state of anomia are going to be less willing to have their firms perform actions related to solving the important problem of poverty. Moreover, it is also valuable for