Climate change is one of most prominent threats to society and our existing way of living. Organizations are recognizing their role in contributing to and addressing the climate crisis. Past research has demonstrated that workplaces factors (e.g., climate, leadership, team dynamics) can encourage and shape employee green behaviours. However, less is known about the influence of these factors on employee wellbeing related to climate concerns.
This study explores whether leader's environmentally sustainable behaviours can predict employee green wellbeing. Building on our prior research, we conceptualize the leader's green behaviours to include: engaging of employee green attitudes (fostering awareness and understanding of the importance of climate change issues); encouraging employee green behaviors (training, recognizing, reinforcing sustainable behaviours at work); and advocating for employee green participation (facilitating employee influence on organizational decisions, and voice to organizational decision-makers).
The current study is a quantitative, longitudinal survey project conducted in collaboration with a European job recruitment platform. Basing our hypotheses on Self Determination Theory, we will be examining if leader's environmentally sustainable behaviours can predict employee's sense green self-efficacy over time, and whether this relationship is mediated by employee's sense of needs satisfaction in the workplace. This study has implications for broadening our understanding of the impact that workplace leaders can have on environmental sustainability issues, from beyond influencing employee behaviours and performance to also supporting their psychological wellbeing.