Responding to the recent advances in circular economy (CE) initiatives in the hospitality industry, this paper explores the factors influencing employee CE-participation. Hospitality employees’ CE perceptions and participation are rarely examined, although employee behavior plays a critical role in successful implementation of CE-initiatives. Based on the transactional theory of stress, employees’ cognitive appraisal and job crafting, organizational facilitating behavior (OFB), and employees’ CE-participation were tested. Data were collected from hotel employees who work or recently worked for properties that are engaged in CE-initiatives. Challenge appraisal and job crafting towards strengths had a significant influence on employee CE-participation. OFB served as a partial moderator in combination with job crafting as a mediator. Hospitality organizations should facilitate and challenge employees to enable their job crafting and ensure CE-participation. Theoretical contributions are presented and discussed.
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