Maintaining a meaningful and advancing career is a significant challenge in the hospitality industry due to customer-facing pressures, job instability and limited advancement opportunities. This study aims to examine how talent management practices (TMPs) enhance employee career sustainability, focusing on the mediating roles of career adaptability and psychological well-being and the moderating role of inclusive leadership.
A time-lagged survey design was used to collect data from hospitality employees (i.e. hotel staff) in China. A serial moderated mediation analysis was performed using Mplus to evaluate the proposed model.
The results support the proposed model, indicating that TMPs significantly enhance career sustainability both directly and indirectly through career adaptability and psychological well-being. Moreover, inclusive leadership strengthens the proposed relationship by creating a supportive and empowering work environment.
This research enhances the understanding of career sustainability by introducing a new antecedent (e.g. TMPs), a dual mediation model, and by identifying inclusive leadership as a boundary condition. It contributes to the hospitality literature by integrating career construction and social exchange theories within the framework of hospitality management.
