Management commitment to the ecological environment, green work engagement and their effects on hotel employees’ green work outcomes

Abstract

Purpose Using social exchange, signaling, job demands-resources and reformulation of attitude theories, the purpose of this paper is to propose and test a research model in which green work engagement (GWEN) mediates the impact of management commitment to the ecological environment (MCEE) on green creativity, task-related pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and proactive PEB. Design/methodology/approach Data for the paper were obtained from hotel customer-contact employees in Turkey and South Korea. The hypothesized associations were assessed via structural equation modeling. Findings The findings in Studies 1 and 2 supported the viability of the model. Specifically, GWEN partially mediated the effect of MCEE on task-related and proactive PEB, while it fully mediated the influence of MCEE on green creativity. Practical implications Management should invest and/or go on investing in environmental sustainability to send strong signals to employees that the organization really cares about the environment and is highly committed to the preservation and protection of the environment. With green training, empowerment and rewards, management can boost employees’ GWEN, which motivates them to engage in environmentally responsible behaviors. Originality/value The paper advances current knowledge by testing the relationship of MCEE, as appraised by employees, to their GWEN and green work outcomes. More importantly, the paper has explored the impact of GWEN in the intermediate relationship between MCEE and critical green work outcomes, such as green creativity, task-related PEB and proactive PEB. Further, the paper adds to the extant research by assessing the antecedents and outcomes of GWEN.

Fostering green service innovation perceptions through green entrepreneurial orientation: the roles of employee green creativity and customer involvement

“…Our study, nonetheless, diminished this risk by dint of the multi-wave measurements, the marker estimation and the tests of interactive effects. CMB should be further lessened in future research through an experimental design or cross-lagged design approach (Kasl and Jones, 2003). Experimental design approach can also derive the potential causality in the current research model, whose time-lagged approach failed to address.…”

“…knowledge, autonomy, support) for engaging in green creative behavior, culminating in green service innovation at the organizational level. Green creativity is defined as an individual’s formation of original solutions or ideas for environmental preservation and can be translated into practical green processes, products or services (Chen and Chang, 2013; Karatepe et al , 2022). Investigating employee green creativity as an individual mediation mechanism for the connection of green EO with green service innovation, this study resonates with Jabbour et al ’s (2015) view of human aspects in translating organizational strategy into green innovation.…”

Outcomes of environmental awareness

“…EC is defined as the “extent to which an individual is dedicated to the environment and is willing to engage in PEBs” (Mesmer-Magnus et al , 2012, p. 159). It has been validated that EC can boost individuals’ level of PEB (Afsar and Umrani, 2020; Karatepe et al , 2022), green behaviors (Davis et al , 2009) and WSE (Davis et al , 2011).…”

“…EC is defined as the "extent to which an individual is dedicated to the environment and is willing to engage in PEBs" (Mesmer-Magnus et al, 2012, p. 159). It has been validated that EC can boost individuals' level of PEB (Afsar and Umrani, 2020;Karatepe et al, 2022), green behaviors (Davis et al, 2009) and WSE (Davis et al, 2011). PEB is defined as "behavior that consciously seeks to minimize the negative impact of one's actions on the natural and built world" (Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002, p. 240).…”

Guest editorial: The past, present and future of hospitality research

“…In the next paper titled “Management commitment to the ecological environment, green work engagement and their effects on hotel employees’ green work outcomes,” Karatepe et al (2022) proposed and tested a research framework in which green work engagement mediated the influence of management commitment to the ecological environment on green creativity, task-related environmental behavior (PEB) and proactive PEB. Data was collected from hotel customer-contact employees in Turkey and South Korea.…”