Leadership and employee pro-environmental behaviours

Organisational leaders can motivate followers to engage in pro-environmental behaviours. Although employees’ pro-environmental behaviours are critical to the success of organisational environmental initiatives, there is little understanding of the leadership mechanisms that foster these behaviours. As pro-environmental behaviour is a voluntary behaviour, not every leadership style is likely to be equally effective. This chapter explains important leadership styles that can affect employee’s pro-environmental behaviours. Specifically, the effects of transformational, transactional, environmental, environmental transformational, green entrepreneurial and spiritual leadership on employees’ pro-environmental behaviours are presented. We will also discuss which leaders’ behaviours are critical to motivate an employee to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. This chapter contributes to the literature on, and practice of, the subject by examining various leadership styles, which has hardly been studied, and unveils unique circumstances for decision-making.