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Empowering Employee Sustainability: Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment

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Abstract

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of sustainability behaviors by introducing the construct of perceived organizational support toward the environment (POS-E). We propose and empirically test an integrated model whereby we test the association of POS-E with employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors toward the environment (OCB-E) as well as to job attitudes. Results indicated that POS-E was positively related to OCB-E, job satisfaction, organizational identification, and psychological empowerment, and negatively related to turnover intentions. We also found that psychological empowerment partially mediated the relationship between POS-E and the dependent variables. We discuss the theoretical implications as well as practical implications for managers seeking to encourage sustainability in their organizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94132, USA

    Eric Lamm, Jennifer Tosti-Kharas & Cynthia E. King

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  1. Eric Lamm
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  2. Jennifer Tosti-Kharas
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  3. Cynthia E. King
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Correspondence to Eric Lamm.

Appendix

Appendix

Perceived Organizational Support toward the Environment (POS-E) Scale Items

The following statements ask about behaviors and attitudes at work. Please consider the place where you currently work. Indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements. All items were rated on a 7-point scale, (1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Somewhat Disagree, (4) Neither Agree nor Disagree, (5) Somewhat Agree, (6) Agree, and (7) Strongly Agree, or Not Applicable.

  1. 1.

    I feel that I am able to behave as sustainably as I want to at the organization where I currently work.

  2. 2.

    My organization does not care about whether I behave in a sustainable manner or not. (reverse-scored)

  3. 3.

    My organization provides an incentive for me to reduce the use of non-renewable resources.

  4. 4.

    I do not feel that I make a positive environmental impact through work at my organization. (reverse-scored)

  5. 5.

    My actions toward sustainability are appreciated by my organization.

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Lamm, E., Tosti-Kharas, J. & King, C.E. Empowering Employee Sustainability: Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment. J Bus Ethics 128, 207–220 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2093-z

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