How green is my firm? Workers' attitudes and behaviors towards job in environmentally-related firms

Abstract

Abstract. The implementation of environmental standards can be facilitated by motivating workers with pro-social preferences. Therefore, we study if employees working for firms achieving registration for environmental-related standards are more likely to display positive attitudes toward their job, to be actively involved in their jobs and to donate effort. Using a French matched employer-employee database, we find that these "green employees" report a significantly higher perception of usefulness and equitable recognition at work. Besides, they are more likely to work uncompensated overtime hours. Finally, if the adoption of environmental standards is shown to have no direct influence on job involvement, we expose how it indirectly impacts job involvement through the mediation of employees' reported perception of usefulness and equitable recognition at work.

The Economics of Corporate Environmental Responsibility

“…Motivated employees might be likely to accept lower wages because they feel partly compensated through knowing that their work matches their personal values (Frank, 1996). Recent empirical work on French data reveal that firms which adopted environmental standards (ISO 14001) have their employees displaying higher feelings of usefulness in their job and describing themselves as fairly valued compared to other workers (Lanfranchi and Pekovic, 2014).…”

Do responsible employers attract responsible employees?

“…Three studies using data for French firms and employees find that, for firms that have adopted voluntary environmental standards, employees are more likely to work uncompensated overtime hours [4], labor productivity is higher [7], and difficulties with recruitment are smaller [8]. Nevertheless, when we look at these issues at an aggregated level, it is not easy to see through all the identification and interpretation problems that they present to the researcher.…”

“…employees at 7,700 French firms, finds that employees of firms that have adopted voluntary environmental standards report a significantly higher feeling of usefulness at work [4]. In its annual graduate survey, the international employer-branding firm Universum collects responses from roughly 180,000 students in 28 countries; in its 2006 survey, 22% of US respondents and 20% of European respondents identified corporate social responsibility as one of the few most important factors they would use in selecting their future ideal employers [3].…”

Green collar work: Conceptualizing and exploring an emerging field of work

“…In popular business literature, “new corporate environmentalism” (Jermier, Forbes, Benn, & Orsato, ) stresses the competitive value of going beyond “compliance.” Eco‐modernist greening seems to be a pragmatic move, even “a seductive script” (Fineman, : 23), albeit one that may be distrusted by managers, perhaps because they deny the moral status of environmentalist claims (Crane, ). Research by economists, intended to contribute to a “business case” for greening organizations, found that new environmental standards increased employees' effort levels and well‐being, especially because employees saw their jobs as more useful (Delmas & Pekovic, ; Lanfranchi & Pekovic, ) and affected whether potential employees saw firms as appealing (Grolleau, Mzoughi, & Pekovic, ). Showing environmental concern is a strategy used by firms who have caused environmental damage and who are thus facing a hostile community reaction (including from potential and actual workers; Heyes & Kapur, ).…”