Unwilling or unable? Encouraging the environmental leadership behaviors of public administrators in China

Environmental leadership behaviors have been examined as the result of institutional forces, though anecdotes suggest that individual leaders play a significant role. Little is known about this role in environmental policy implementation, however, and few empirical studies explore pro-environmental leadership behaviors in the public sector. This empirical analysis fills this gap by answering the following questions: Why do some administrative leaders do more than others in terms of environmental protection? What motivates them? How does motivation work in various organizational contexts? The results show that both instrumental and normative motives significantly affect administrators’ environmental leadership behavior, while instrumental motives for compliance with the law stand out as a critical factor in environmental leadership behavior. Moreover, the study suggests that contexts also influence environmental leadership motivations and actions. This research contributes to the literature on and practice of the subject by examining the increasingly important situational leadership aspect of public management, which has barely been studied, and unveils unique circumstances for decision-making.