Research On Antecedents And Consequences Of Employee Green Behavior From The Perspective Of Motivation

In the past three decades,economic development and commercial activities have increasingly intensified their impact on the natural environment.Environmental incidents have occurred frequently,and environmental protection has become a topic of general concern for the whole society and even countries around the world.As China’s economy has entered the stage of high-quality development from the stage of rapid growth,green development has become a common choice under the new development concept.As the main force of economic development and environmental protection,enterprises began to adopt positive environmental management policies to seek the coordination and unification of economic benefits and environmental protection benefits.More and more enterprises regard sustainable development as the strategic goal of organizational development,and gradually pay attention to the key role of green behavior of employees in the organization in improving organizational environmental performance and social environmental well-being.The academic discussion on how to construct a green organization by managing employee behavior is also increasingly fierce.The employee green behavior has become an important research topic in the field of organization management.Research on how stimulates employees’ green behavior in the organizational context to promote organizational sustainability has gradually increased.At present,there have been a large number of studies to analyze the antecedents and influence mechanisms of employee green behaviors,and some studies have begun to explore the impact of employee green behaviors on organizational sustainability and general results.However,on the whole,the relevant research in the field of employee green behavior is still scattered,and some key research directions have not received enough attention from management scholars.For example,the investigation on the key factor,that is motivation factor,of employee green behavior is not deep enough.Are there different motivations that can motivate employee behavior?What is the relationship between different motivations and employee green behavior and what its impact mechanism?There is still a lack of clear answers to the above questions now.In addition,with the popularity of environmentalism,employee green behavior has also become the focus of organizational stakeholders.The current research on the impact of employee green behaviors on stakeholders outside the organization(such as customers)is relatively lacking,which hinders the comprehensive understanding of the results of employee green behaviors to a certain extent.Based on this,this paper develops a classification model and a scale of employee green behavior motivation from the perspective of motivation by using multidimensional scaling analysis method.Firstly,through interviewing 112 subjects,the initial items of employee green behavior motivation were detected.Subsequently,using the results of 178 subjects’similarity ratings,we identified the similarities and differences between different motivations,and identified the potential dimensions of employee green behavior motivation,that is:other-oriented normative motivation,other-oriented instrumental motivation,self-oriented instrumental motivation,and self-oriented normative motivation.Secondly,based on the initial items of employee green behavior motivation,a scale of employee green behavior motivation including 14 items was developed.The results of exploratory factor analysis(EFA,200 samples),confirmatory factor analysis(CFA,200 samples)and a series of reliability and validity tests showed that the scale has good reliability and validity,and can be used as a measuring tool for employee green behavior motivation.Based on the contingency theory of motivation,this paper constructs a "double-edged sword" model of other-oriented green behavior motivation.Through collecting 446 questionnaires at three time points,it demonstrated the dual impact of other-oriented employee green motivation on green stress and green energy,and revealed the deep mechanism that the other-oriented motivation affects employee green behavior.At the same time,this paper demonstrated that self-oriented motivation can enhance the positive role of other oriented motivation and weaken its negative impact.Specifically,when employees’self-oriented green behavior motivation is high,the positive impact of other-oriented green behavior motivation on employees’ green pressure is significantly weakened,while its positive impact on employees’ green energy is significantly enhanced.Further,this paper showed the moderating effect of self-oriented green behavior motivation on the indirect effect of other-oriented green behavior motivation on employee green behavior through green pressure and green energy.When employees’ self-oriented green behavior motivation is high,the indirect effect of other-oriented green behavior motivation on employees’ green behavior through green pressure is significantly weakened,while the indirect effect through green energy is significantly enhanced.The results of this study provide new insights into the complex process in which different motivations affect employee green behavior.Finally,focusing on the effect of employee green behavior,this paper found the impact of employee green behavior on customers,an outside group of the organization.It includes customers’ attribution of employee green behavior into the research model,and explores the impact of employee green behavior on customer’s satisfaction and recommendation intention,and the potential moderating role of customers’ normative and instrumental attribution.Through three experimental studies(500 samples in total),this paper revealed the positive impact of employee green behavior on customer’s satisfaction and recommendation intention,and also showed the mediating role of customer’s positive inference on employees and brands,as well as the moderating role of customer’s attribution.Specifically,when customers’normative attribution of employee green behavior is high,the positive impact of employee green behavior on customers’ satisfaction and recommendation intention is significantly enhanced;when customers’ instrumental attribution of employee green behavior is high,the positive impact of employee green behavior on customers’ satisfaction and recommendation intention is significantly weakened.The results of this study enrich the understanding of the outcomes,mechanism and boundary conditions of employee green behavior,and provide new research ideas and possible research directions for future research.