IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i21p11677-d673815.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Trickle-Down Effect of Responsible Leadership on Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Evidence from the Hotel Industry in China

Author

Listed:
  • Hong Tian

    (Business School, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China)

  • Danni Suo

    (Business School, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China)

Abstract

Based on the trickle-down effect model, social learning theory and trait activation theory, this study explores the mechanisms of multi-level responsible leadership on employees’ pro-environmental behaviors in the hotel industry in China. The results show that responsible leadership positively influences employees’ pro-environmental behaviors; mid-level responsible leadership significantly mediates the positive relationship between high-level responsible leadership and employees’ pro-environmental behaviors; and the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility positively moderates the relationship between responsible leadership and employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. The results of this study provide empirical support for further analysis of the “black box” of responsible leadership on employees’ pro-environmental behaviors, fill the gap of the trickle-down model in leadership, and provide new directions for sustainable value creation in hospitality industry organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Hong Tian & Danni Suo, 2021. "The Trickle-Down Effect of Responsible Leadership on Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Evidence from the Hotel Industry in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11677-:d:673815
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11677/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11677/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lincoln, Douglas J. & Pressley, Milton M. & Little, Taylor, 1982. "Ethical beliefs and personal values of top level executives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 475-487, December.
    2. Christian Voegtlin, 2011. "Development of a Scale Measuring Discursive Responsible Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 57-73, January.
    3. Nicola Pless & Thomas Maak, 2011. "Responsible Leadership: Pathways to the Future," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 3-13, January.
    4. Thomas Maak & Nicola M. Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 463-493, May.
    5. Thomas M Maak & Nicola M Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Post-Print hal-01480535, HAL.
    6. Ling, Qian & Lin, Meizhen & Wu, Xiaoyi, 2016. "The trickle-down effect of servant leadership on frontline employee service behaviors and performance: A multilevel study of Chinese hotels," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 341-368.
    7. Thomas Maak, 2007. "Responsible Leadership, Stakeholder Engagement, and the Emergence of Social Capital," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 329-343, September.
    8. Bilal Afsar & Sadia Cheema & Farheen Javed, 2018. "Activating employee's pro‐environmental behaviors: The role of CSR, organizational identification, and environmentally specific servant leadership," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 904-911, September.
    9. Hongdan Zhao & Qiongyao Zhou, 2019. "Exploring the Impact of Responsible Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment: A Leadership Identity Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, February.
    10. Ones, Deniz S. & Dilchert, Stephan, 2012. "Environmental Sustainability at Work: A Call to Action," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 444-466, December.
    11. Cheng, Ken & Wei, Feng & Lin, Yinghui, 2019. "The trickle-down effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of leader-follower value congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 34-43.
    12. Dawson, Leslie M., 1995. "Women and men, morality and ethics," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 61-68.
    13. Pere Mercadé Melé & Jesús Molina Gómez & Maria José Sousa, 2020. "Influence of Sustainability Practices and Green Image on the Re-Visit Intention of Small and Medium-Size Towns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-11, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rangpeng Liu & Zhuo Yue & Ali Ijaz & Abdalwali Lutfi & Jie Mao, 2023. "Sustainable Business Performance: Examining the Role of Green HRM Practices, Green Innovation and Responsible Leadership through the Lens of Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Hong Tian & Xinyu Liu, 2022. "Pro-Environmental Behavior Research: Theoretical Progress and Future Directions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-16, May.
    3. Zhenglin Zhang & Haiqing Shi & Taiwen Feng, 2022. "Why Good Employees Do Bad Things: The Link between Pro-Environmental Behavior and Workplace Deviance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-16, November.
    4. Nick Lin-Hi & Xiaohan Gao-Urhahn & Torsten Biemann & Irmela F. Koch-Bayram, 2023. "Internal CSR and blue-collar workers’ attitudes and behaviors in China: a combination of a cross-sectional study and a field experiment," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 1185-1213, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carla Freire & Joana Gonçalves, 2021. "The Relationship between Responsible Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Hospitality Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Sylvelin Foldøy & Trude Furunes & Åse Helene Bakkevig Dagsland & Annie Haver, 2021. "Responsibility beyond the Board Room? A Systematic Review of Responsible Leadership: Operationalizations, Antecedents and Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-41, September.
    3. Xinyue Zhang & Dian Li & Xintong Guo, 2022. "Antecedents of Responsible Leadership: Proactive and Passive Responsible Leadership Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-22, July.
    4. Bilal Afsar & Ahsen Maqsoom & Asad Shahjehan & Sajjad Ahmad Afridi & Adnan Nawaz & Hassan Fazliani, 2020. "Responsible leadership and employee's proenvironmental behavior: The role of organizational commitment, green shared vision, and internal environmental locus of control," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 297-312, January.
    5. Cheng, Ken & Wei, Feng & Lin, Yinghui, 2019. "The trickle-down effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of leader-follower value congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 34-43.
    6. Chu-Mei Liu & Chieh-Peng Lin, 2018. "Assessing the effects of responsible leadership and ethical conflict on behavioral intention," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 1003-1024, October.
    7. Said Id Bouichou & Lei Wang & Hafiz Muhammad Basit Feroz, 2022. "How corporate social responsibility perceptions affect employees’ positive behavior in the hospitality industry: moderating role of responsible leadership," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(2), pages 413-446, June.
    8. Tulika M. Varma, 2021. "Responsible Leadership and Reputation Management During a Crisis: The Cases of Delta and United Airlines," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 29-45, September.
    9. Hui Lu & Weiting Xu & Shaohan Cai & Fang Yang & Qingqing Chen, 2022. "Does top management team responsible leadership help employees go green? The role of green human resource management and environmental felt‐responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 843-859, July.
    10. Zhongju Liao & Manting Zhang, 2020. "The influence of responsible leadership on environmental innovation and environmental performance: The moderating role of managerial discretion," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2016-2027, September.
    11. Nicola M. Pless & Atri Sengupta & Melissa A. Wheeler & Thomas Maak, 2022. "Responsible Leadership and the Reflective CEO: Resolving Stakeholder Conflict by Imagining What Could be done," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 313-337, September.
    12. Naveed Ahmad Faraz & Fawad Ahmed & Zhengde Xiong, 2024. "How firms leverage corporate environmental strategy to nurture green behavior: Role of multi‐level environmentally responsible leadership," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 243-259, January.
    13. Ma Ying & Naveed Ahmad Faraz & Fawad Ahmed & Ali Raza, 2020. "How Does Servant Leadership Foster Employees’ Voluntary Green Behavior? A Sequential Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Raiswa Saha & Shashi & Roberto Cerchione & Rajwinder Singh & Richa Dahiya, 2020. "Effect of ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility on firm performance: A systematic review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 409-429, March.
    15. Thomas M Maak & Nicola M Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Post-Print hal-01480535, HAL.
    16. Anna-Maija Lämsä & Anne Keränen, 2020. "Responsible Leadership in the Manager–Employee Relationship," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 9(3), pages 422-432, December.
    17. Anna-Mari Simunaniemi & Mira Valkjärvi & Riikka Franzén & Sari Liikala & Jaana Tähtinen & Kati Suomi & Jaana Jeminen, 2023. "Microentrepreneurs as Socially Responsible Leaders," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 12(1), pages 14-30, April.
    18. Xueting Jiang & Bogdan Prokopovych & Garett DiStefano, 2022. "Leveraging A Lenient Category in Practicing Responsible Leadership: A Case Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(2), pages 413-425, November.
    19. María Helena Jaén & Ezequiel Reficco & Gabriel Berger, 2021. "Does Integrity Matter in BOP Ventures? The Role of Responsible Leadership in Inclusive Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 467-488, October.
    20. K. V. James & R. G. Priyadarshini, 2021. "Responsible Leadership: A New Paradigm for Organizational Sustainability," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 46(4), pages 452-470, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11677-:d:673815. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.