Environmentally Specific Servant Leadership and Employees' Pro-Environmental Behavior: Mediating Role of Green Self Efficacy

Muhammad Farhan Mughal; Shuang Li Cai; Naveed Ahmad Faraz; Fawad Ahmed

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S328776

Environmentally Specific Servant Leadership and Employees' Pro-Environmental Behavior: Mediating Role of Green Self Efficacy

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2022 Feb 14:15:305-316. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S328776. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Muhammad Farhan Mughal¹, Shuang Li Cai¹, Naveed Ahmad Faraz², Fawad Ahmed³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Business Management, Tianj in University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
² School of Management, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
³ Entrepreneur College (Taicang), Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Introduction: Employees' pro-environmental behavior is crucial for accomplishing organizations' green initiatives. There is a dearth of empirical research that explored the underlying mechanism of environmentally specific servant leadership (ESL) influencing employees' pro-environmental behavior (EPB). The theoretical lens of self-efficacy theory is employed to explore the influence of ESL in predicting EPB. Employees' green self-efficacy was introduced as the mediator through which ESL influences EPB.

Methodology: Time-lagged data from 381 dyads of employee-supervisor from Pakistan's energy sector were collected during the months of June and July 2021 through systematic random sampling. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was employed to analyze data and assess hypothesized relationships.

Results: The results show that all hypotheses are supported. Findings indicate that environmentally specific servant leadership has a significant direct impact on employees' pro-environmental behavior and employees' green self-efficacy partially mediates the positive influence of ESL on EPB.

Discussion: The study's managerial and theoretical implications are presented along with future research directions.

Keywords: employees’ pro-environmental behavior; energy sector; environmentally specific servant leadership; green self-efficacy; self-efficacy theory.