Employees' geographic social identity and group pro‐environmental behaviors: Cross‐cultural evidence from 45 countries

Abstract

Employees' group pro‐environmental behaviors (PEBs) represent employees' collective efforts to combat critical global environmental problems. Drawing on social identity theory, we examined how employees' group PEBs can be inspired by different forms of geographic social identity (i.e., world identity, national identity, and regional identity). We analyzed data from the most recent (seventh) wave of the World Value Survey (2017–2022), which covers 34,951 employees from 45 nations. We found that employees' world identity contributed more than their regional identity and national identity to their engagement in group PEBs, by inducing a green orientation that prioritized environmental protection over economic growth. In addition, we obtained cross‐country evidence that the effect of world identity on green orientation is more pronounced in individualist than in collectivist societies. Our findings help to resolve inconsistencies in prior research regarding the theoretical link between social identity and PEBs and provide actionable insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to facilitate group PEBs in organizations.

Cross-cultural business development strategies: A Review of USA and African

“…Additionally, supportive policies for cross-cultural training programs and initiatives can enhance the preparedness of businesses to navigate diverse markets. Policymakers can contribute to creating an ecosystem where businesses are incentivized to invest in cross-cultural competence, ensuring that the benefits of diversity are realized across industries and sectors (Dheer & Treviño, 2022, Martin, 2021, Zeng, et. al., 2023.…”

Does business commitment to sustainability increase job seekers' perceptions of organisational attractiveness? The role of organisational prestige and cultural masculinity

“…Individuals can also be identified with a geographical region, such as a country. In line with SIT, self‐categorisation processes (Turner & Tajfel, 1986) can make people feel that they are closely attached to their country (national identity), which can influence some of their behaviours regarding the organisational context (Zeng et al, 2022). Nationals of a country share language, beliefs, common norms, values, and even some ethnic characteristics.…”

“…These shared qualities cause individuals from different countries to have different rules for the evaluation (Capstick et al, 2022; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) and appraisal of some events (Mesquita & Frijda, 1992). Therefore, national cultures can induce differences between individuals' behaviours from different countries by affecting psychologically based factors and, in some cases, physically based factors (Middleton & Jones, 2000; Zeng et al, 2022).…”

“…When this role is examined (Behrend et al, 2009;Jones et al, 2014Jones et al, , 2016, studies have mainly focused on a single culture and have been conducted in developed countries in North America, such as Canada (Jones et al, 2014) or the United States (Behrend et al, 2009). As job seekers and employees' perceptions can be shaped by cultural beliefs (Mauger & Bryant-Lees, 2022;Saifulina et al, 2023;Zeng et al, 2022), further research is needed to analyse if job seekers from different cultures have similar or different responses to companies' information on business sustainability, including developed and emerging countries (Ushie et al, 2023).…”

Beyond external pressures: How work conditions harm employees' social and environmental responsibilities

“…Previous research highlighted the importance of employee engagement and strong support in making businesses more environmentally and socially friendly (Lülfs & Hahn, 2013; Pan et al, 2022). Employees can make suggestions for improving business environmental performance, participate in sustainability‐oriented initiatives, advocate for sustainable practices within the company, or even organize volunteer events to benefit the community (Pellegrini et al, 2018; Zeng et al, 2022). Overall, socially responsible behaviors can refer to sustainability‐oriented behaviors of workers within the workplace (i.e., energy saving, recycling, reducing waste, making suggestions to improve the organization's environmental performance, advocating for sustainable practices within the company, and caring for the environment) and societal behaviors mainly outside the workplace (i.e., volunteering, participating in community service, contributing to charities and donations, advocating for social justice, engaging in political activism, or donating blood) (De Roeck & Farooq, 2018; Temminck et al, 2015).…”