IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i9p7605-d1140157.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrating OCBE Literature and Norm Activation Theory: A Moderated Mediation on Proenvironmental Behavior of Employees

Author

Listed:
  • Felix Ostertag

    (EM Strasbourg Business School, HuManiS Research Center (UR 7308), University of Strasbourg, 61 Avenue de la Forêt-Noire, 67085 Strasbourg, France)

Abstract

Research lacks a solid understanding of the relational patterns between intrapersonal and organizational determinants to promote proenvironmental behavior. In this study, I investigated the effects of employees’ intrapersonal and perceived organizational determinants on voluntary proenvironmental behavior of employees (VPBE) from an integrative moral perspective. While primarily building on insights from norm activation theory and research on organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE), I developed a framework and empirically analyzed how interactions between ascriptions of environmental responsibility, perceptions of proenvironmental work climates, and affective organizational commitment influence VPBE. The findings show that even employees (in this study: student workforce) with little sense of responsibility towards nature can be subtly encouraged to practice VPBE. I discuss the findings against the backdrop of integrated and introjected norms and provide managerial advice. The study contributes to a theoretical broadening of the norm activation theory in workplace contexts and advances our knowledge of conditional effects and normative mechanisms underlying VPBE.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Ostertag, 2023. "Integrating OCBE Literature and Norm Activation Theory: A Moderated Mediation on Proenvironmental Behavior of Employees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-27, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7605-:d:1140157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7605/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7605/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Lamm & Jennifer Tosti-Kharas & Cynthia King, 2015. "Empowering Employee Sustainability: Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 207-220, April.
    2. Sharma, Pramodita & Sharma, Sanjay, 2011. "Drivers of Proactive Environmental Strategy in Family Firms," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 309-334, April.
    3. Nicolas Raineri & Jorge Humberto Mejía-Morelos & Virginie Francoeur & Pascal Paillé, 2016. "Employee eco-initiatives and the workplace social exchange network," Post-Print hal-03796001, HAL.
    4. Kathy Babiak & Sylvia Trendafilova, 2011. "CSR and environmental responsibility: motives and pressures to adopt green management practices," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), pages 11-24, January.
    5. Lo, Siu Hing & van Breukelen, Gerard J.P. & Peters, Gjalt-Jorn Y. & Kok, Gerjo, 2013. "Proenvironmental travel behavior among office workers: A qualitative study of individual and organizational determinants," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 11-22.
    6. Olivier Boiral, 2009. "Greening the Corporation Through Organizational Citizenship Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 221-236, June.
    7. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    8. Newman, Alexander & Round, Heather & Bhattacharya, Sukanto & Roy, Achinto, 2017. "Ethical Climates in Organizations: A Review and Research Agenda," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(4), pages 475-512, October.
    9. Nicolas Raineri & Pascal Paillé, 2016. "Linking Corporate Policy and Supervisory Support with Environmental Citizenship Behaviors: The Role of Employee Environmental Beliefs and Commitment," Post-Print hal-03795971, HAL.
    10. Pascal Paillé & Jorge Humberto Mejía-Morelos & Anne Marché-Paillé & Chih Chieh Chen & Yang Chen, 2016. "Corporate Greening, Exchange Process Among Co-workers, and Ethics of Care: An Empirical Study on the Determinants of Pro-environmental Behaviors at Coworkers-Level," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 655-673, July.
    11. Zhang, Yixiang & Wang, Zhaohua & Zhou, Guanghui, 2013. "Antecedents of employee electricity saving behavior in organizations: An empirical study based on norm activation model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1120-1127.
    12. Paisey, Catriona & Paisey, Nicholas J., 2010. "Developing skills via work placements in accounting: Student and employer views," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 89-108.
    13. Joana Story & Filipa Castanheira & Silvia Hartig, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility and organizational attractiveness: implications for talent management," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(3), pages 484-505, August.
    14. Mohamad Abu Huzaifah bin Magbool & Azlan Amran & Mehran Nejati & Krishnaswamy Jayaraman, 2016. "Corporate sustainable business practices and talent attraction," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(4), pages 539-559, November.
    15. Nicolas Raineri & Pascal Paillé, 2016. "Erratum to: Linking Corporate Policy and Supervisory Support with Environmental Citizenship Behaviors: The Role of Employee Environmental Beliefs and Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 211-211, August.
    16. Linghui Kong & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Naveed Ahmad & Mariana Sehleanu & Zhihui Li & Malik Zia-Ud-Din & Daniel Badulescu, 2021. "CSR as a Potential Motivator to Shape Employees’ View towards Nature for a Sustainable Workplace Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-13, February.
    17. Nicolas Raineri & Pascal Paillé, 2016. "Linking Corporate Policy and Supervisory Support with Environmental Citizenship Behaviors: The Role of Employee Environmental Beliefs and Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 129-148, August.
    18. Bertoldo, Raquel & Castro, Paula, 2016. "The outer influence inside us: Exploring the relation between social and personal norms," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 45-53.
    19. Olivier Boiral & Pascal Paillé, 2012. "Organizational Citizenship Behaviour for the Environment: Measurement and Validation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(4), pages 431-445, September.
    20. Rayma Ireri Maldonado Astudillo & Yan Pallac Maldonado Astudillo & Juan Alfonso Méndez Zavala & Claudia Leticia Manzano Jiménez & María Xochitl Astudillo Miller, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Proenvironmental Behaviour in Employees: Evidence in Acapulco, Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, April.
    21. Glavas, Ante & Kelley, Ken, 2014. "The Effects of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Attitudes," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 165-202, April.
    22. Catherine A. Ramus & Annette B. C. Killmer, 2007. "Corporate greening through prosocial extrarole behaviours – a conceptual framework for employee motivation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(8), pages 554-570, December.
    23. Ante Glavas & Lindsey Godwin, 2013. "Is the Perception of ‘Goodness’ Good Enough? Exploring the Relationship Between Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Organizational Identification," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 15-27, April.
    24. Danae Manika & Victoria Wells & Diana Gregory-Smith & Michael Gentry, 2015. "The Impact of Individual Attitudinal and Organisational Variables on Workplace Environmentally Friendly Behaviours," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(4), pages 663-684, February.
    25. Manh Hung Le & Phuong Mai Nguyen, 2022. "Integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Norm Activation Model to Investigate Organic Food Purchase Intention: Evidence from Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, January.
    26. Fielding, Kelly S. & van Kasteren, Yasmin & Louis, Winnifred & McKenna, Bernard & Russell, Sally & Spinks, Anneliese, 2016. "Using individual householder survey responses to predict household environmental outcomes: The cases of recycling and water conservation," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 90-97.
    27. Joana Story & Filipa Castanheira & Silvia Hartig, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility and organizational attractiveness: implications for talent management," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 12(3), pages 483-504, August.
    28. Aravind, Deepa & Christmann, Petra, 2011. "Decoupling of Standard Implementation from Certification: Does Quality of ISO 14001 Implementation Affect Facilities’ Environmental Performance?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 73-102, January.
    29. Raineri, Nicolas & Mejía-Morelos, Jorge Humberto & Francoeur, Virginie & Paillé, Pascal, 2016. "Employee eco-initiatives and the workplace social exchange network," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 47-58.
    30. Norton, Thomas A. & Zacher, Hannes & Ashkanasy, Neal M., 2012. "On the Importance of Pro-Environmental Organizational Climate for Employee Green Behavior," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 497-500, December.
    31. Onwezen, Marleen C. & Antonides, Gerrit & Bartels, Jos, 2013. "The Norm Activation Model: An exploration of the functions of anticipated pride and guilt in pro-environmental behaviour," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 141-153.
    32. Richard A. Bettis & Michael A. Hitt, 1995. "The new competitive landscape," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(S1), pages 7-19.
    33. 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.
    34. Adam Edward Bell & Khire Rushikesh Ulhas, 2020. "Working to Reduce Food Waste: Investigating Determinants of Food Waste amongst Taiwanese Workers in Factory Cafeteria Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-23, November.
    35. Catriona Paisey & Nicholas J. Paisey, 2010. "Developing skills via work placements in accounting: Student and employer views," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 89-108, June.
    36. Elisha Temminck & Kathryn Mearns & Laura Fruhen, 2015. "Motivating Employees towards Sustainable Behaviour," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 402-412, September.
    37. Genovaitė Liobikienė & Mykolas Simas Poškus, 2019. "The Importance of Environmental Knowledge for Private and Public Sphere Pro-Environmental Behavior: Modifying the Value-Belief-Norm Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, June.
    38. Tencati, Antonio & Misani, Nicola & Castaldo, Sandro, 2020. "A Qualified Account of Supererogation: Toward a Better Conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 250-272, April.
    39. John G. Cullen, 2017. "Educating Business Students About Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review of Current Trends and Research Needs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 429-439, October.
    40. Pascal Paillé & Yang Chen & Olivier Boiral & Jiafei Jin, 2014. "The Impact of Human Resource Management on Environmental Performance: An Employee-Level Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 451-466, May.
    41. Mohamad Abu Huzaifah bin Magbool & Azlan Amran & Mehran Nejati & Krishnaswamy Jayaraman, 2016. "Corporate sustainable business practices and talent attraction," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(4), pages 539-559, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Pascal Paillé & Nicolas Raineri & Olivier Boiral, 2019. "Environmental Behavior On and Off the Job: A Configurational Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 253-268, August.
    2. Saskia Crucke & Marie Servaes & Tom Kluijtmans & Shana Mertens & Eveline Schollaert, 2022. "Linking environmentally‐specific transformational leadership and employees' green advocacy: The influence of leadership integrity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 406-420, March.
    3. Bilal Afsar & Waheed Ali Umrani, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility and pro‐environmental behavior at workplace: The role of moral reflectiveness, coworker advocacy, and environmental commitment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 109-125, January.
    4. Chiara Pellegrini & Francesco Rizzi & Marco Frey, 2018. "The role of sustainable human resource practices in influencing employee behavior for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1221-1232, December.
    5. Hewawasam Puwakpitiyage Rasika Priyankara & Fan Luo & Amer Saeed & Saviour Ayertey Nubuor & Mahabaduge Prasad Fernando Jayasuriya, 2018. "How Does Leader’s Support for Environment Promote Organizational Citizenship Behaviour for Environment? A Multi-Theory Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Lingyun Mi & Ting Xu & Xiaoli Gan & Hong Chen & Lijie Qiao & Hanlin Zhu, 2019. "How to Motivate Employees’ Environmental Citizenship Behavior through Perceived Interpersonal Circle Power? A New Perspective from Chinese Circle Culture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Palmié, Maximilian & Rüegger, Stephanie & Holzer, Matthias & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2023. "The “golden” voice of “green” employees: The effect of private environmental orientation on suggestions for improvement in firms’ economic value creation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    8. Faiq Aziz* & Nomahaza Mahadi & Jihad Mohammad, 2018. "Employee Pro-Environmental Behaviour: A Systematic Review and Suggestions for Future Research," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 272-280:2.
    9. Pham Nhat Tan & Phan Quyen Phu Thi & Tučková Zuzana & Vo Nga & Nguyen Lien H.L., 2018. "Enhancing the organizational citizenship behavior for the environment: the roles of green training and organizational culture," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 13(4), pages 1174-1189, December.
    10. Syed Haider Ali Shah & Basheer M. Al-Ghazali & Sabeen Bhatti & Nida Aman & Mochammed Fahlevi & Mohammed Aljuaid & Fakhrul Hasan, 2023. "The Impact of Perceived CSR on Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behaviors: The Mediating Effects of Environmental Consciousness and Environmental Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-25, February.
    11. Dawid Szostek, 2021. "Employee Behaviors toward Using and Saving Energy at Work. The Impact of Personality Traits," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-24, June.
    12. Ibrahim A. Elshaer & Alaa M. S. Azazz & Sameh Fayyad, 2022. "Underdog Environmental Expectations and Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Hotel Industry: Mediation of Desire to Prove Others Wrong and Individual Green Values as a Moderator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-13, August.
    13. Faiq Aziz & Nomahaza Mahadi & Rahayu Tasnim & Adriana Mohd Rizal & Shathees Baskaran & Suzilawati Kamarudin & Farzana Quoquab & Jihad Mohammad, 2018. "Linking Emotional Intelligence with Employee ProEnvironmental Behavior," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 8(2), pages 502-522, February.
    14. Tsung-Lin Wu & Hsiang-Te Liu, 2023. "Causal Model Analysis of the Effects of Civil Servants’ Perceived Formalism, Green Conscientiousness, and Moral Reflectiveness on Green Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Piotr Zientara & Anna Zamojska & Grzegorz Maciejewski & Anna Maria Nikodemska-Wołowik, 2019. "Environmentalism and Polish Coal Mining: A Multilevel Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-15, May.
    16. Mansoora Ahmed & Sun Zehou & Syed Ali Raza & Muhammad Asif Qureshi & Sara Qamar Yousufi, 2020. "Impact of CSR and environmental triggers on employee green behavior: The mediating effect of employee well‐being," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2225-2239, September.
    17. 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.
    18. Paillé, Pascal & Francoeur, Virginie, 2022. "Enabling employees to perform the required green tasks through support and empowerment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 420-429.
    19. Huseyin Keles & Ozgur Yayla & Abdullah Tarinc & Ali Keles, 2023. "The Effect of Environmental Management Practices and Knowledge in Strengthening Responsible Behavior: The Moderator Role of Environmental Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Niccolò Maria Todaro & Francesco Testa & Natalia Marzia Gusmerotti, 2022. "Drivers of employees' proactiveness for sustainability embeddedness: Examining situation‐related antecedents of information exchange," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1919-1937, July.

    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:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7605-:d:1140157. 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.