Green Transformational Leadership and Workplace Pro-Environmental Behaviour in Hotels: The Mediating Role of Green Organizational Support
Keywords:
Green transformational leadership, Green organizational support, Workplace pro-environmental behavior, Hotel industry, Hospitality sustainabilityAbstract
One of the growing needs of the hotel industry in this respect is environmental sustainability, which nowadays is heavily reliant on pro-environmental behavior (WPEB) in the everyday workplace of employees, but most hotels fail to translate sustainability intentions into operational-level and regular action. Using the Organizational Support Theory and Social Identity Theory as the theoretical backgrounds, the proposed study focuses on determining whether Green Transformational Leadership (GTL) positively impacts the WPEB of hotels employees and whether a relationship between Green Organizational Support (GOS) and the Green Transformational Leadership (GTL) has any mediating effects in the context of Pakistan hotel industry. The survey design used was quantitative and cross sectional and the sample data were obtained among the employees of three-, four-, and five- star hotels in Pakistan. The measurement model based on PLS-SEM (SmartPLS) was found to be acceptable in both the reliability and validity. The results of the structural model suggested that GTL was a positive predictor of GOS and WPEB and GOS is a positive predictor of WPEB. In addition, GOS plays a major role of mediating the GTL-WPEB relationship which means that green leadership has a direct and indirect effect on employees by encouraging pro-environmental behaviour as it reinforces the perception of employees regarding organizational support of environmental initiatives. The results are useful to hotel managers as they highlight the importance of green supporting transformational leadership and any visible organizational support systems (e.g., green training, green resources, and green recognition) in institutionalizing WPEB and achieve better sustainability results in service-intensive environments.
References
Aboramadan, M., Crawford, J., Turkmenoglu, M. A., & Farao, C. (2022). Green inclusive leadership and employee green behaviors in the hotel industry: Does perceived green organizational support matter? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 107, 103330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2022.103330
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411
Ansari, H. U. H., & Khan, S. N. (2024). Linking green transformational leadership and employee pro-environmental behavior: The role of intention and work environment. Sustainable Futures, 8, 100336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2024.100336
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173
Biernacki, P., & Waldorf, D. (1981). Snowball sampling: Problems and techniques of chain referral sampling. Sociological Methods & Research, 10(2), 141–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/004912418101000205
Chen, Y.-S., & Chang, C.-H. (2013). The determinants of green product development performance: Green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, and green creativity. Journal of Business Ethics, 116(1), 107–119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1452-x
Dumont, J., Shen, J., & Deng, X. (2017). Effects of green HRM practices on employee workplace green behavior: The role of psychological green climate and employee green values. Human Resource Management, 56(4), 613–627. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21792
Farrukh, M., Ansari, N., Raza, A., Wu, Y., & Wang, H. (2022). Fostering employees’ pro-environmental behavior through green transformational leadership, green human resource management, and environmental knowledge. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 179, 121643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121643
Fielding, K. S., & Hornsey, M. J. (2016). A social identity analysis of climate change and environmental attitudes and behaviors: Insights and opportunities. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 121. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00121
Gunay, T. (2025). Linking green transformational leadership to employee green resilience: A sequential mediation model of environmental commitment, engagement, and green HR practices in green hotels. Sustainability, 17(14), 6315. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17146315
Hair, J. F., Jr., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2021). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (3rd ed.). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7
Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203
Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2016). Testing measurement invariance of composites using partial least squares. International Marketing Review, 33(3), 405–431. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMR-09-2014-0304
Karatepe, O. M., Hsieh, H., & Aboramadan, M. (2022). The effects of green human resource management and perceived organizational support for the environment on green and non-green hotel employee outcomes. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 103, 103202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2022.103202
Kerse, G. (2024). The effect of perceived green organizational support on employee green behavior: The moderating role of long-term orientation. Brazilian Journal of Operations & Production Management, 21(1), 1762. https://doi.org/10.14488/BJOPM.1762.2024
Kock, N. (2015). Common method bias in PLS-SEM: A full collinearity assessment approach. International Journal of e-Collaboration, 11(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEC.2015100101
Kurtessis, J. N., Eisenberger, R., Ford, M. T., Buffardi, L. C., Stewart, K. A., & Adis, C. S. (2017). Perceived organizational support: A meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1854–1884. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315575554
Lamm, E., Tosti-Kharas, J., & King, C. E. (2015). Empowering employee sustainability: Perceived organizational support toward the environment. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2093-z
Lenzen, M., Sun, Y.-Y., Faturay, F., Ting, Y.-P., Geschke, A., & Malik, A. (2018). The carbon footprint of global tourism. Nature Climate Change, 8(6), 522–528. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x
Makoondlall-Chadee, T., & Bokhoree, C. (2024). Environmental sustainability in hotels: A review of the relevance and contributions of assessment tools and techniques. Administrative Sciences, 14(12), 320. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14120320
Mi, L., Gan, X., Xu, T., Long, R., Qiao, L., & Zhu, H. (2019). A new perspective to promote organizational citizenship behaviour for the environment: The role of transformational leadership. Journal of Cleaner Production, 239, 118002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118002
Naderifar, M., Goli, H., & Ghaljaie, F. (2017). Snowball sampling: A purposeful method of sampling in qualitative research. Strides in Development of Medical Education, 14(3), e67670. https://doi.org/10.5812/sdme.67670
Paillé, P., & Mejía-Morelos, J.-H. (2019). Organisational support is not always enough to encourage employee environmental performance: The moderating role of exchange ideology. Journal of Cleaner Production, 220, 1061–1070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.192
Peterson, R. A. (1994). A meta-analysis of Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. Journal of Consumer Research, 21(2), 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1086/209405
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Ramayah, T., Cheah, J., Chuah, F., Ting, H., & Memon, M. A. (2018). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3.0. Pearson.
Rassiah, P., Nasir, N. M., Subramaniam, R. K., & Saleeth, H. M. (2024). Sustainable environmental management practices: Evidence from hotels in Malaysia. Global Sustainability, 7, e29. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024.28
Rhoades, L., & Eisenberger, R. (2002). Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698
Robertson, J. L., & Barling, J. (2013). Greening organizations through leaders’ influence on employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(2), 176–194. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1820
Robertson, J. L., & Carleton, E. (2018). Uncovering how and when environmental leadership affects employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 25(2), 197–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051817738940
Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., Smith, D., Reams, R., & Hair, J. F. (2014). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM): A useful tool for family business researchers. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 5(1), 105–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2014.01.002
Taber, K. S. (2018). The use of Cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. Research in Science Education, 48(6), 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2
Wesselink, R., Blok, V., & Ringersma, J. (2017). Pro-environmental behaviour in the workplace and the role of managers and organisation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 168, 1679–1687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.214
Wong, K. K.-K. (2013). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques using SmartPLS. Marketing Bulletin, 24(Technical Note 1), 1–32.
Zacher, H., Rudolph, C. W., & Katz, I. M. (2023). Employee green behavior as the core of environmentally sustainable organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10, 465–494. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-050421
Zhao, X., Lynch, J. G., Jr., & Chen, Q. (2010). Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and truths about mediation analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(2), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.1086/651257
