Green Leadership and Pro-Environmental Workplace Behavior: The Moderating Role of Environmental Awareness

Abstract

While organizations are increasingly facing the challenge of transforming environmental policy into the actions of everyday employees, the leadership conditions (environmental) that enable the translation of intentions into actions are not fully understood. This study explored the correlation between green leadership (GL) and pro-environmental workplace behaviour (PEWB) of employees, and whether environmental awareness (EA) helps to strengthen the relationship between these variables. The theory of planned behavior and social exchange theory were used to guide the design of the study: a moderated cross sectional survey design, with data collected from 200 respondents from manufacturing, banking, education, hospitality, health and service industries, who reported that they had direct contact with their supervisor. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis, following mean-centering of predictor and moderator variables, was used to test the proposed model. For illustrative purposes, hypothetical data are used for the analytical procedure, and the results of these analyses are not actually collected in the field; they are only included to illustrate the reporting of the descriptive statistics, reliability, correlation, and regression tables as they might appear if real data were analyzed. The results of the illustrative pattern agreed with the hypothesized model: green leadership had a positive relationship with pro-environmental behavior on the job and the relationship was stronger for employees who had a higher environmental awareness. The paper ends with a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications, limitations and directions for further study. This study will be useful for those who are planning to examine how to develop green leadership and pro-environmental workplace behavior in the era of environmental awareness.