Fostering Green Behavior in the Workplace: The Role of Ethical Climate, Motivation States, and Environmental Knowledge

Usman Sarwar, Waqas Baig, Samar Rahi and Sonia Sattar ()
Additional contact information
Usman Sarwar: Hailey College of Banking & Finance, University of the Punjab, Lahore P.O. Box 54590, Pakistan
Waqas Baig: Hailey College of Banking & Finance, University of the Punjab, Lahore P.O. Box 54590, Pakistan
Samar Rahi: Hailey College of Banking & Finance, University of the Punjab, Lahore P.O. Box 54590, Pakistan
Sonia Sattar: School of Economics & Management, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100811, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: The premise of this research is to investigate the influence of an ethical climate on the environmentally responsible behavior of employees within the accommodation sector in Pakistan. We further seek to understand this connection through the intermediation of motivation states and contingency of ethical knowledge. For this purpose, we gathered data from a sample of 290 managers serving at middle and top levels in the accommodation sector of Pakistan, employing an adapted version of the quantitative research instrument. We used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesis. We found that (1) ethical climate cultivates green behaviors and (2) motivational states partially mediate the association between ethical climate and green behavior. Additionally, (3) the influence of ethical climate on motivational states is found to be stronger in the presence of environmental knowledge. These findings apply to the accommodation sector, where hotel managers can cultivate green behavior by fostering an ethical climate and enhancing motivational states and environmental knowledge. We added empirical justification to social capital theory by enhancing the understanding of ethical climate-driven pro-environmental behavior through intermediation and intensifier.

Keywords: ethical climate; environmental knowledge; motivational states; employee green behavior; hostel industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4083/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4083/ (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:17:y:2025:i:9:p:4083-:d:1647542

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 ().