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Sustainability‐Oriented Leadership and Business Strategy: Examining the Roles of Procedural Environmental Justice and Job Embeddedness

Author

Listed:
  • Qaisar Iqbal
  • Katarzyna Piwowar‐Sulej
  • Reeti Agarwal
  • Muhammad Zafar Yaqub

Abstract

Organizations are progressively focusing on their sustained growth by designing and implementing environmentally friendly policies. However, their environmental performance depends on their employees' proenvironmental behavior and the firm's sustainability policies. Previous research has provided evidence that environmentally specific servant leadership, transformational leadership, ethical leadership, spiritual leadership, and charismatic (value‐based) leadership enhance employee organizational citizenship behavior toward the environment (OCBE). However, limited research examines the role of sustainability‐oriented leadership (SOL) in maturing employees' OCBE. This research examines the SOL–employee OCBE linkage mediated through mechanisms like perceived environmental justice and affective commitment to one's supervisor under varying permutations of employee job embeddedness (EJE). More specifically, this paper examines SOL's direct, indirect, and moderated effects on OCBE through perceived environmental justice and employee commitment toward the leader under disparate EJE levels. The empirical findings confirm a direct impact of SOL on employees' OCBE. It was also evident that SOL significantly and indirectly influences employees' OCBE through procedural environmental justice under disparate levels of job embeddedness. The paper advances academic and managerial understanding on OCBE proliferate in organization. Besides enriching literature, the study's findings provide valuable insights to organizations seeking to enhance OCBE through fostering SOL, PEJ, and EJE.

Suggested Citation

  • Qaisar Iqbal & Katarzyna Piwowar‐Sulej & Reeti Agarwal & Muhammad Zafar Yaqub, 2025. "Sustainability‐Oriented Leadership and Business Strategy: Examining the Roles of Procedural Environmental Justice and Job Embeddedness," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 2917-2933, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:3:p:2917-2933
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.4133
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    References listed on IDEAS

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