How and when does responsible leadership affect employees' pro-environmental behavior?

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Environmental Psychology
• Sustainable Business Practices

Background:

• The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model is a key framework for understanding employee well-being and performance.
• Responsible leadership is increasingly recognized for its influence on organizational outcomes.
• Employee pro-environmental behaviors (EPB) are crucial for corporate sustainability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact mechanism of responsible leadership on employees' pro-environmental behaviors (EPB).
• To examine the mediating roles of perceived organizational support toward the environment (POS-E) and green self-efficacy.
• To explore the moderating effect of employees' chronic regulatory focus on the leadership-EPB relationship.

Main Methods:

• A three-wave survey was conducted with 319 employees in Chinese companies.
• Statistical analyses were employed to test the proposed mediation and moderation hypotheses.
• The study integrated the resource accumulation perspective with the JD-R model.

Main Results:

• Responsible leadership demonstrated a significant positive effect on EPB.
• POS-E and green self-efficacy serially mediated the relationship between responsible leadership and EPB.
• Promotion focus strengthened, while prevention focus weakened, the positive impact of responsible leadership on EPB.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the JD-R model's applicability to EPB.
• Responsible leadership is a significant driver of employee environmental initiatives.
• Organizations can leverage these insights to enhance EPB and promote sustainable development.