Motivating energy conservation in the workplace: An evaluation of the use of group-level feedback and peer education

Heritage tourism, CSR and the role of employee environmental behaviour

“…Nevertheless, many organisations find this difficult to achieve (Lindgreen & Swaen, 2010) which might be due to the specific role of employees in comparison to the general population (Carrico & Riemer, 2011). Numerous differences exist regarding the motivation for employees' environmental behaviour (Andersson, Shivarajan & Blau, 2005) which were outlined in early studies of employee environmental behaviour which compare directly with individual's household environmental behaviour.…”

“…Numerous differences exist regarding the motivation for employees' environmental behaviour (Andersson, Shivarajan & Blau, 2005) which were outlined in early studies of employee environmental behaviour which compare directly with individual's household environmental behaviour. In general, employees do not have the same financial interest in the workplace as they do at home, are not typically concerned with their energy usage and have little context for how much energy they use because devices are often shared by multiple employees (Siero, Bakker, Dekker & van den Burg, 1996;Carrico & Riemer, 2011). However, Carrico and Riemer (2011) argue that 10 employees are a captive audience and thus can be targeted through low-costs means, such as e-mails and e-newsletters, and these barriers should not be difficult to overcome.…”

“…Individual factors which have been studied include attitudes and beliefs (Jones, 2010;Chun, Shin, Choi & Kim, 2013;Manika, Wells, Gregory-Smith & Gentry, 2014), norms (Scherbaum, Popovich & Finlinson, 2008;Carrico & Riemer, 2011), self-efficacy (Smith & O'Sullivan, 2012), habit (Siero et al, 1996), motivation (Lee, De Young & Marans, 1995;Tudor, Barr & Gilg, 2008), knowledge (Siero et al, 1984) and socio-demographics (Wehrmeyer & McNeil, 2000). The most comprehensive study of employee environmental behaviour within the tourism literature focused on individual (individual environmental beliefs, personal environmental norms, self-reported environmental behaviour) and organisational variables (green organisational climate) as well as demographics to explain employee behaviour (Chou, 2014).…”

“…When group feedback is coupled with social comparison, it appears to have a larger effect when comparisons are made with other organisational subgroups rather than general others (Lo et al, 2012). Feedback has also been linked with peer education to encourage employees to reduce energy use (Carrico & Riemer, 2011).…”

“…The few studies that have included a study of an intervention are: an intervention of recycling behaviour (Ludwig, Gray, & Rowell, 1998), a feedback intervention (Carrico & Riemer, 2011) and an intervention with office paper recycling (Brothers, Krantz, & McClannahan, 1994 McClannahan's (1994) intervention increased paper recycling to 85%. Gregory- Smith et al (in press) found that self-reported behaviour was lower after an intervention and suggested that this may be because, after the intervention, the employees became more critical of their behaviour.…”