When and How does in‐role pro‐environmental behavior spill over to extra‐role behavior: Two experimental studies in the retail and education industries

Abstract

By integrating theories of goal proximity and crowding‐out, this research investigates how and when employees' performance of in‐role pro‐environmental behaviors will spill over to future engagement in extra‐role pro‐environmental behaviors. Using two experiments with employees from the retail (N = 338) and education (N = 448) industries, we found a conditional positive spillover effect, mediated by pro‐environmental goal commitment. More specifically, when employees with low intrinsic pro‐environmental motivation received feedback that they had progressed in their in‐role pro‐environmental performance, their extra‐role pro‐environmental behavior intentions increased due to an increased commitment to the pro‐environmental goal. However, when employees had high intrinsic pro‐environmental motivation, this spillover effect was negative (Study 1) or non‐significant (Study 2). To summarize, the positive spillover effect only occurs when employees are not highly intrinsically motivated. Our findings uncover a missing piece in organizational environmental management literature and carry important implications for employee‐oriented initiatives.