Activating employee pro-environmental behavior in the workplace: the effects of environmental self-identity and behavioral integrity

Wenhao Song (), Jie Deng (), Fangfang Zhang (), Xuerong Peng () and Xiangdong Jin ()
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Wenhao Song: School of Economics and Management of Shanghai Maritime University
Jie Deng: School of Economics and Management of Shanghai Maritime University
Fangfang Zhang: School of Economics and Management of Shanghai Maritime University
Xuerong Peng: Zhejiang Gongshang University
Xiangdong Jin: School of Economics and Business Administration, Central China Normal University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2024, vol. 26, issue 8, No 101, 27 pages

Abstract: Abstract Scholars have gradually turned their attention to ethical leadership within the developing discussion of leaders’ influence on employee pro-environmental behavior. However, few have regarded ethical leadership as an antecedent of employee pro-environmental behavior. Based on social and role identity theories, we investigated the mechanism by which ethical leadership affects employee pro-environmental behavior through employee environmental self-identity. We also explored the moderating role of behavioral integrity in the process of employee environmental self-identity being rendered into pro-environmental behavior. We gathered data from 284 subordinate–supervisor dyads across China’s various regions and industries and utilized a regression analysis and bootstrapping test to evaluate our hypotheses, all of which were supported by the results. We found that employee environmental self-identity played a partial mediating role in the relationship between ethical leadership and employee pro-environmental behavior. When employees perceived that their leaders had a high (low) level of behavioral integrity, employee environmental self-identity was more (less) effectively transformed into pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, the indirect effect of ethical leadership on employee pro-environmental behavior is higher (lower) through environmental self-identity at the same time. In response to calls to advance research on pro-environmental behavior and ethical leadership, our research reveals potential antecedents to employee pro-environmental behavior.

Keywords: Employee pro-environmental behavior; Ethical leadership; Environmental self-identity; Behavioral integrity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03549-7

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