Authentic leadership towards sustainability in higher education – an integrated green model

Abstract

PurposeSustainability in higher education has drawn the attention of various scholars. However, to date, very few studies have examined the human side of green employee behaviour towards sustainability. Thus, to address this gap, this study aims to analyse the effect of green authentic leadership towards sustainability in higher education, with the intervening impact of green internal branding and green training.Design/methodology/approachThe study examined the data collected from faculty and their immediate heads from private higher education institutions. Tests for reliability, validity and internal consistency of measures followed by exploratory factor analysis were conducted for each measure. The hypotheses were tested through hierarchical regression analysis while confirmatory factor analysis was done to test the fit of the model.FindingsThe results supported the fit of the proposed model and showed positive and significant effect of green authentic leadership on the sustainability in higher education. Further, green internal branding had a mediating effect between green authentic leadership and sustainability and green training showed a significant moderating role between green authentic leadership and sustainability relationship.Originality/valueThe study contributes to ongoing research in the field of green employee behaviour, green HRM practices and sustainability in higher education. Further, the study provides practical implications to enable higher education institution to work towards sustenance effectively.

Achieving Human Resource Management Sustainability in Universities

“…It is believed that employees’ enduring commitment and inclination to the values of organizational brand are necessary while seeking the shift toward sustainability. According to Srivastava et al [ 56 ], this transformation is challenging, complicated, durable, and burdensome. Although the main objective of universities might be to educate and perform administrative functions, teaching and research are less likely to highlight sustainability.…”

The Emergence of Value-Based Leadership Behavior at the Frontline of Management: A Role Theory Perspective and Future Research Agenda

“…HRM is found to improve employee well-being and helping behaviors under ethical leadership when the perception of its practices is high ( Kalshoven and Boon, 2012 ). Research on green HRM has also shown that such practice can interact with VBL behaviors and affect the organization’s environmental performance ( Ren et al, 2020 ) and sustainability ( Srivastava et al, 2020 ) and improve citizenship behaviors for the environment at both team and individual levels ( Luu, 2019 ).…”

Guest editorial

“…GHRM has been explored both in manufacturing (Bag and Gupta, 2019; Ndubisi, 2019) and service provision contexts (Fawehinmi et al , 2020), including, for example, health care services (Mousa and Othman, 2020), higher education provision (Srivastava, 2019; Yusoff et al , 2019) and hospitality/tourism management (Siyambalapitiya et al , 2018; Pham et al , 2019a, b, c; Kim et al , 2019). GHRM is influenced by a number of organizational factors and context and can be found in different levels of maturity in organizations (Nejati, 2019; Yuriev, 2019; Moktadir et al , 2019).…”

“…The article “Assessing the green behaviour of academics: The role of green human resource management and environmental knowledge” (Fawehinmi et al , 2020) addresses the role of GHRM in promoting green behaviour of academics, through assessment of green performance of scholars in an academic environment. In the same line of research, the manuscript “Authentic leadership towards sustainability in higher education- an integrated green model” (Srivastava, 2019) adds to the literature of GHRM that top management leadership plays a fundamental role in the process of greening the workforce. However, GHRM proved to be a relevant topic for other industrial sectors as well, such as the automotive sector, according to the article “Analysing green human resource management indicators of automotive service sector” (Luthra et al , 2019)…”

“…Finally, the insertion of “green” concerns into the traditional HRM field can be considered one of the trending topics in the future of human resources (Jackson et al , 2011). The global reach of GHRM has been developed through the growing number of research projects on the topic conducted in both mature and emerging markets, including representatives of the BRICS countries (Ahmad et al , 2019; Srivastava, 2019; Ndubisi, 2019; Moktadir et al , 2019; Haddock-Millar et al , 2016).…”