Pro-Environmental Employee Engagement: The Influence of Pro-Environmental Organizational, Job and Personal Resources

Simon L. Albrecht, Andy Bocks, Jack Dalton, Anthea Lorigan and Alec Smith
Additional contact information
Simon L. Albrecht: School of Psychology, Deakin University, Oakville 3125, Australia
Andy Bocks: School of Psychology, Deakin University, Oakville 3125, Australia
Jack Dalton: School of Psychology, Deakin University, Oakville 3125, Australia
Anthea Lorigan: School of Psychology, Deakin University, Oakville 3125, Australia
Alec Smith: School of Psychology, Deakin University, Oakville 3125, Australia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: As organizations continue to respond to the existential challenge that is climate change, the extent to which employees engage in environmental sustainability is critical to that response. This study introduces new measures of pro-environmental employee engagement, pro-environmental job resources and pro-environmental meaningful work. Based on engagement theory, a model is tested that shows how perceived corporate environmental responsibility, pro-environmental job resources (supervisor support, involvement, information) and pro-environmental meaningful work (a personal resource) influence pro-environmental employee engagement. Online self-report survey data were collected through convenience sampling from 285 full-time and part-time employees (aged 18–89 years) working across a range of occupations and organizations in Australia. Data were analyzed using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). In support of the proposed model, CFA and SEM results generally yielded a good fit to the data. Eight of nine proposed direct effects involving corporate environmental responsibility, pro-environmental job resources (modelled as a higher-order construct), pro-environmental meaningful work, and pro-environmental engagement, were significant. All proposed indirect effects within a re-specified model were significant. The final model explained 51% of the variance in pro-environmental job resources; 20% in pro-environmental meaningful work; and 71% in pro-environmental employee engagement. Overall, the results indicate that perceived organizational, job and personal resources play a motivational role in enhancing pro-environmental employee engagement. The study contributes a theory-based model and new measures of employee pro-environmental resources and engagement. The model can be applied to help organizations assess and develop interventions to address the critically important issue of environmental sustainability. Future research directions and study limitations are discussed.

Keywords: pro-environmental employee engagement; pro-environmental engagement model; environmental responsibility; pro-environmental job resources; environmentally sustainable meaningful work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/43/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/43/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:43-:d:707750

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().