IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i24p11188-d1548345.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Green Workplace Behaviors: Can Employees Make the Difference?

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Carbone

    (Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy)

  • Tommaso Feraco

    (Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy)

  • Ivan Innocenti

    (Environment—HSEQ, Eni S.p.A., 00144 Rome, Italy)

  • Monica Musicanti

    (Environment—HSEQ, Eni S.p.A., 00144 Rome, Italy)

  • Paola Volpe

    (Environment—HSEQ, Eni S.p.A., 00144 Rome, Italy)

  • Chiara Meneghetti

    (Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy)

Abstract

Promoting environmental sustainability is becoming a priority for organizations. There is thus increasing interest in understanding to what extent green workplace behaviors are linked, alongside contextual determinants, to employees’ characteristics. This study investigated the relationship between green workplace behaviors, various employee characteristics, and organizational determinants. A sample of 513 employees from the energy sector was administered a survey assessing green workplace behaviors and the management of events (e.g., weak signals) which could anticipate the occurrence of incidents with harmful environmental impacts. Employees’ job-related (proneness toward behaving pro-environmentally at work) and broader individual characteristics (personality and human-nature connectedness), as well as their perceived organizational support (e.g., green climate and leadership), were also examined. The results from the structural equation models showed that green workplace behaviors were associated with employees’ proneness toward behaving pro-environmentally at work and perceived organizational support. Indirect effects from organizational support, personality, and human-nature connectedness on green workplace behaviors, mediated by employees’ proneness toward behaving pro-environmentally at work, also emerged. These findings highlight that employees’ characteristics also favor their adoption of green workplace behaviors, with important implications for developing interventions promoting environmental sustainability in organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Carbone & Tommaso Feraco & Ivan Innocenti & Monica Musicanti & Paola Volpe & Chiara Meneghetti, 2024. "Green Workplace Behaviors: Can Employees Make the Difference?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:24:p:11188-:d:1548345
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/24/11188/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/24/11188/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer L. Robertson, 2018. "The Nature, Measurement and Nomological Network of Environmentally Specific Transformational Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 961-975, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saskia Crucke & Marie Servaes & Tom Kluijtmans & Shana Mertens & Eveline Schollaert, 2022. "Linking environmentally‐specific transformational leadership and employees' green advocacy: The influence of leadership integrity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 406-420, March.
    2. Yuechao Du & Minghao Yan, 2022. "Green Transformational Leadership and Employees’ Taking Charge Behavior: The Mediating Role of Personal Initiative and the Moderating Role of Green Organizational Identity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-16, March.
    3. Shuairan Sang & Aiguo Yan & Mahmood Ahmad, 2024. "CEO Experience and Enterprise Environment, Social and Governance Performance: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, May.
    4. Jian Zhu & Weihang Tang & Bin Zhang & Hui Wang, 2022. "Influence of Environmentally Specific Transformational Leadership on Employees’ Green Innovation Behavior—A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Stanley Y. B. Huang & Chih-Wen Ting & Yu-Ming Fei, 2021. "A Multilevel Model of Environmentally Specific Social Identity in Predicting Environmental Strategies: Evidence from Technology Manufacturing Businesses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-13, April.
    6. Yuhuan Xia & Yubo Liu & Changlin Han & Yang Gao & Yuanyuan Lan, 2022. "How Does Environmentally Specific Servant Leadership Fuel Employees’ Low-Carbon Behavior? The Role of Environmental Self-Accountability and Power Distance Orientation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-17, March.
    7. Saleh Althnayan & Areej Alarifi & Saleh Bajaba & Abdullah Alsabban, 2022. "Linking Environmental Transformational Leadership, Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Organizational Sustainability Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.
    8. Zlatko Nedelko & Vojko Potocan, 2021. "Sustainability of Organizations: The Contribution of Personal Values to Democratic Leadership Behavior Focused on the Sustainability of Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.
    9. Chien-Hsiang Huang & Tai-Wei Chang & Chih-Wen Ting & Stanley Y. B. Huang, 2024. "How Does Organizational Leadership Promote Pro-Environmental Behavior? A Moderated Mediation Model of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-12, June.
    10. Huang, Ruilei & Wei, Jiuchang, 2023. "Does CEOs’ green experience affect environmental corporate social responsibility? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 205-231.
    11. Hongsi Zhang & Haixia Huang, 2024. "Low-Carbon Transformational Leadership: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Its Impact on Innovation Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-34, December.
    12. Li Xu & Suleiman Jamal Mohammad & Nishad Nawaz & Sarminah Samad & Naveed Ahmad & Ubaldo Comite, 2022. "The Role of CSR for De-Carbonization of Hospitality Sector through Employees: A Leadership Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, April.
    13. Qian Zhang & Yun Liu, 2019. "Employees’ Environmental Protection and Charitable Donation and Ethical Leadership: An Empirical Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-19, June.
    14. Queyu Ren & Wen Li & Christos Mavros, 2024. "Transformational Leadership and Sustainable Practices: How Leadership Style Shapes Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-13, July.
    15. Patrícia Martins & Generosa Nascimento & Ana Moreira, 2023. "Leadership and Turnover Intentions in a Public Hospital: The Mediating Effect of Organisational Commitment and Moderating Effect by Activity Department," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    16. Ibrahim A. Elshaer & Alaa M. S. Azazz & Sameh Fayyad, 2022. "Underdog Environmental Expectations and Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Hotel Industry: Mediation of Desire to Prove Others Wrong and Individual Green Values as a Moderator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-13, August.
    17. Laura Omarova & Sung-Jun Jo, 2022. "Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Impact of Environmental Transformational Leadership and GHRM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Yuwei Deng & Jacob Cherian & Naveed Ahmad & Miklas Scholz & Sarminah Samad, 2022. "Conceptualizing the Role of Target-Specific Environmental Transformational Leadership between Corporate Social Responsibility and Pro-Environmental Behaviors of Hospital Employees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    19. Shetu Ranjan Biswas & Md. Aftab Uddin & Swadip Bhattacharjee & Mouri Dey & Tarek Rana, 2022. "Ecocentric leadership and voluntary environmental behavior for promoting sustainability strategy: The role of psychological green climate," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1705-1718, May.
    20. Stanley Y. B. Huang & Kuei-Hsien Chen & Yue-Shi Lee, 2021. "How to Promote Medium-Sized Farms to Adopt Environmental Strategy to Achieve Sustainable Production during the COVID-19 Pandemic?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-8, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:24:p:11188-:d:1548345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.