Shaping employee green behavior: a multilevel approach with Pygmalion effect
Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics
ISSN: 1355-5855
Article publication date: 29 April 2021
Issue publication date: 4 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to theorize and examine a Pygmalion perspective in how leader and coworker expectations predict in-role and ex-role employee green behavior (EGB).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a time-lagged field study, data were collected from a sample of 71 leaders and 340 members to examine the hypothesized relationships with a multilevel model (group level and individual level).
Findings
The results showed that leader green behavior and self-efficacy for EGB (i.e. the Pygmalion process) mediate the relationship between leader expectations and EGB, while self-efficacy mediates the relationship between coworker expectations and EGB. In addition, this study found that the effect of coworker expectations and EGB via self-efficacy is stronger when leaders themselves demonstrate a higher level of green behavior.
Originality/value
This study also aims to provide a multilevel theory and investigates the interplay between multilevel variables in encouraging EGB. It also extends previous EGB literature through investigating a different process (i.e. the Pygmalion process) relating leader expectations for EGB to EGB. Moreover, this study develops implications of Pygmalion process on EGB from theoretical and practical perspectives.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Compliance with ethical standards: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or National Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
The work was funded by University of Macau (MYRG2020-00129-FBA), Philosophy and Social Science Program of Guangdong Province in China (GD19YGL20), and MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (20YJC630105).
Citation
Mo, Z., Liu, M.T. and Wu, P. (2022), "Shaping employee green behavior: a multilevel approach with Pygmalion effect", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 322-349. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-07-2020-0473
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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