Building employees’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment

Abstract

Purpose Mechanisms behind employees’ pro-environmental behaviors have increasingly been attracting scholarly attention. The purpose of this study is to examine how environmentally specific servant leadership contributes to employees’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (employee OCBE). Design/methodology/approach In this research, employees from resort hotels in Central Vietnam were selected as participants. The data analysis was conducted through structural equation modeling and bootstrapping test. Findings Environmentally specific servant leadership exhibited the positive association with employee OCBE through employee environmental engagement as a mediator. Two moderation mechanisms – organizational support for green behaviors and person-group fit – were also found to serve as enhancers for the effect of environmentally specific servant leadership on employee OCBE. Practical implications The research results provide hospitality organizations with a premise for the focus of servant leadership and organizational support around pro-environmental values. It is also vital for practitioners to build the fit between employees and the organization’s pro-environmental values so as to further promote their positive reaction to environmentally specific servant leadership and engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. Originality/value The present study marks the confluence between environmentally specific servant leadership and employee OCBE research streams and provides a moderated mediation mechanism to shed light on such a relationship.

How Does Servant Leadership Foster Employees’ Voluntary Green Behavior? A Sequential Mediation Model

“…Findings revealed that the direct impact of servant leadership on EVGB was not supported. This result is inconsistent with the literature, where the direct or indirect effect of servant leadership was investigated on employees' organizational citizenship behavior for the environment [40][41][42], a construct similar to EVGB. The reason behind this finding is that both psychological empowerment and autonomous motivation for the environment fully mediates the influence of servant leadership on EVGB.…”

“…The existing scholarship has established the positive influence of servant leadership on employees' psychological empowerment [61], intrinsic motivation [48], and employees' extra-role behaviors [42]. In the preceding sections of this article, it has been further accentuated that psychological empowerment and autonomous motivation for the environment would be the mechanisms through which servant leadership exerts its influence in predicting EVGB.…”

“…In the same vein, Afsar et al [41] investigated ESL as a moderator in the relationship of perceived CSR and pro-environmental behavior and found a significant interaction effect. Recently, servant leadership (environmentally specific), through the mediating effect of environmental engagement, displayed a positive influence on employees' OCBE [42]. EVGB represents the ethical conviction of an employee and his/her commitment to reconcile the relationship between human society and nature while enhancing sustainability, aligning it with the central tenets of the philosophy of servant leadership, where serving others comprises nurturing employees as future servant leaders [32].…”

“…Therefore, this research is an attempt to advance the knowledge stream of servant leadership by investigating its direct relationship with EVGB. When it comes to protecting the environment, servant leaders are considered to care for the environment over their own or the organization's financial gain and promote pro-environmental values among the stakeholders, including employees [40,42].…”

How Work Satisfaction and Organization Climate Influence Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

“…Employee Organizational Citizenship Behavior supports the organization's performance (Luu, 2019). The Organizational Citizenship Behaviour value improves the performance of the employee and organization, and it is a terminology to identify employee behavior.…”