Organizational citizenship behavior for the environment decoded: sustainable leaders, green organizational climate and person-organization fit

Abstract

PurposeThis study examines how sustainable leadership influences organizational citizenship behavior toward the environment, directly and through a green organizational climate. This study also investigates the moderating effect of person-organization fit on the relationship between green organizational climate and employees' organizational citizenship behavior for the environment.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 241 employees of manufacturing firms in China with one month's lag. Statistical analyses were conducted with the use of PLS-SEM.FindingsThis study confirmed that sustainable leadership significantly influenced organizational citizenship behavior for the environment, both directly and indirectly through a green organizational climate. It also revealed that the relationship between green organizational climate and employees' organizational citizenship behavior for the environment was contingent on the person-organization fit.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to analyze how sustainable leadership reinforces employees' organizational citizenship behavior for the environment by providing insight into the mediating role of green organizational climate and person-organization fit as a moderator. Moreover, through a combination of three theoretical perspectives (social learning theory, social exchange theory and the theory of person-organization fit), this study advances the academic knowledge on how organizational citizenship behavior for the environment develops, thus providing a more complex explanation of the relationship between the examined variables.

The nexus of project management approaches in sustainable development: innovative behaviors as a mechanism in the Polish financial industry

“…In the case of sustainable leadership, people are inspired and encouraged through a positive working environment that is based on trust and cooperation, as well as the alignment of their needs with the goals of the unit (Gjerde and Ladeg ard, 2019). The extant literature shows that sustainable leadership also promotes the development of team members' competencies, employee participation and empowerment, knowledge sharing, and team diversity (Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011;Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2023b).…”

“…Sustainable leadership uses practices typical of different positive leadership styles, such as empowering (they involve employees in decision-making), ethical (they promote ethical conduct), servant (they prioritize the needs of company stakeholders) and transformational leadership (they intellectually stimulate employees) (Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2023b). All of these styles positively impact employees' innovative behaviors (Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2023a;Rao Jada et al, 2019;Saxena and Prasad, 2020).…”

“…Aboramadan et al (2021) provided evidence that environmentally specific servant leadership influences such behaviors, whereas Zhang et al (2020) found that green transformational leadership impacts green creativity. Since sustainable leadership uses the practices of the above-mentioned leadership styles to achieve balance and harmony between organizational success and the well-being of society and the planet (Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2023b), it is expected that SPL will positively stimulate SIBs, which is reflected in the second hypothesis:…”

Fostering three types of green behavior through green HRM in the energy sector: the conditional role of environmental managerial support

“…By using a sample size calculator, the minimum sample size was determined to be 382 responses. The average response rate in social sciences research is 35.70% (Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2023a). The research agency contacted 829 employees working in the Polish energy sector and received a total of 419 completed survey forms, which constituted a larger sample for the study than required as a minimum.…”

“…(2020) revealed, a mixture of different theories to explain EGBs was only applied in a few studies. To increase the understanding of complex relationships between employees’ behaviors and their antecedents, a multi-theoretical perspective should be used (Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2023a). Therefore, this study also contributes to the understanding of the interplay between the analyzed theories.…”