Promoting in-role and extra-role green behavior through ethical leadership: mediating role of green HRM and moderating role of individual green values

Abstract

PurposeHuman misbehaviors are responsible for climate change as they waste resources and pollute water and air that dilapidate the environment. Considering the fact and contributing to the United Nations sustainable development goals of 2019, organizations started focusing their green HRM practices to develop employees' green attitudes and behaviors. This study is an attempt in this direction. It examines the impact of ethical leadership on individuals' green in-role and extra-role behaviors with the mediating role of green HRM practices and the moderating role of individual green values.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data from 645 MBA executive students working in various manufacturing industries with at least one year of experience. The data were collected using a questionnaire-based survey in two-time lags.FindingsHypothesized relationships are tested through structural equation modeling. Findings reflected a significant impact of ethical leadership on green HRM practices, in-role, and extra-role green behaviors. Besides, green HRM practices mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and both types of green behaviors. Furthermore, it was observed that the individual green values strengthened the association between green HRM practices and both types of green behaviors.Research limitations/implicationsA cross-sectional design with time lags was used to avoid common method bias. The findings of the study contribute to supply-value-fit theory and validate the scale of individual green value.Practical implicationsThis study guides management that employees only perceive their organizational practices as green when they find their leaders are ethical. Further, considering individual green values in the recruitment process can help organizations accomplishing their green goals.Originality/valueThis study is novel in examining the mediating role of green HRM practices between ethical leadership and green behaviors. Further, the analysis not only validates the scale of individual green values but also noted its moderating role between green HRM and green behaviors.

Exploring Challenges and Solutions in Performing Employee Ecological Behaviour for a Sustainable Workplace

“…Similarly, the implementation of EEB will not be successful unless clear rules and regulations guide employees' actions. The findings are consistent with Lasrado and Zakaria's [76] and Islam et al [91].…”

Promoting green behavior through ethical leadership: a model of green human resource management and environmental knowledge

“…Fourth, our research offers a synergistic perspective of the influence of both ethical leadership and GHRM on employees' green behavior (Leroy et al , 2018). As the literature on GHRM is still very limited (Dumont et al , 2017; Guerci, et al , 2016; Islam et al , 2020b; Shen et al , 2016), our research identified ethical leadership as its key antecedent and green behavior as its key outcome. Fifth, our research showed that GHRM mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employee green behavior, and thus expands knowledge on the mechanisms associated with this leadership style.…”

The Role of CSR and Ethical Leadership to Shape Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior in the Era of Industry 4.0. A Case of the Banking Sector

“…The first theoretical contribution of this analysis is the fact that it enriches the existing CSR literature from the perspective of employees, whereas the majority of the previous studies on the present topic have addressed CSR to attain other objectives instead of focusing on employees [45,46,[138][139][140]. Moreover, employees' perception of CSR in the service industry has not been well explored in the available literature, therefore the current analysis is also an important addition to the literature from this perspective, in that that it considers the service sector-most of the previous studies in this connection were carried out in the manufacturing sector [28,138,141]. Similarly, the inclusion of ethical leadership as a mediator in the proposed relationship from the perspective of the banking sector also provides a unique insight into the existing literature on CSR and organizational management.…”

“…Scholars have also established that ethical leadership (EL) positively impacts employees' behavior [27][28][29]. However, it is somehow not known how ethical leaders may influence their followers' CSR-specific behaviors or, for example, employees' pro-environmental behavior (EB).…”