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Employer–Employee Congruence in Environmental Values: An Exploration of Effects on Job Satisfaction and Creativity

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In a finite world, the only way that humanity can sustain economic and social development is through innovation.

Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director, European Environment Agency

Abstract

This study examines how the match (vs. mismatch) between personal and firm-level values regarding environmental responsibility affects employee job satisfaction and creativity and contributes to three literature streams [i.e., social corporate responsibility, creativity, and person–environment (P–E) fit]. Building on the P–E fit literature, we propose and test environmental orientation fit versus nonfit effects on creativity, identifying job satisfaction as a mediating mechanism and regulatory pressure as a moderator. An empirical investigation indicates that the various environmental orientation fit conditions affect job satisfaction and creativity differently. More specifically, environmental orientation fit produces greater job satisfaction and creativity when the employee and organization both demonstrate high concern for the environment (i.e., a high–high environmental orientation fit condition) than when both display congruent low concern for the environmental (i.e., a low–low environmental orientation fit condition). Furthermore, for employees working in organizations that fit their personal environmental orientation, strong regulatory pressure to comply with environmental standards diminishes the positive fit effect on job satisfaction and creativity, while regulatory pressure does not affect the job satisfaction and creativity of employees whose personal environmental orientation is incongruent with that of the organization.

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Notes

  1. To ensure that the creativity scale worked as intended and captured employees’ perceptions of their own creativity, we conducted all analyses involving the creativity variable also with only one item representing a direct measure of the employee’s perceived creativity at work (i.e., “I believe that I am currently very creative at my work”). All analyses yielded essentially the same results with both the full creativity scale and the one-item creativity measure, confirming that the creativity scale captured the construct adequately.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Liautaud Graduate School of Business, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 South Morgan Street, 2214 University Hall, MC 243, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Jelena Spanjol

  2. School of Management, Operations and Marketing, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Leona Tam

  3. School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Western Sydney, Dept 3275, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia

    Vivian Tam

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  1. Jelena Spanjol
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  2. Leona Tam
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  3. Vivian Tam
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Correspondence to Jelena Spanjol.

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Spanjol, J., Tam, L. & Tam, V. Employer–Employee Congruence in Environmental Values: An Exploration of Effects on Job Satisfaction and Creativity. J Bus Ethics 130, 117–130 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2208-6

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