Antecedents of pro-environmental behaviours at work: The moderating influence of psychological contract breach☆
Introduction
Several theoretical frameworks have been used to explain pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) in the workplace. Such frameworks include the Value-belief-norm (VBN) theory (Andersson et al., 2005, Scherbaum et al., 2008), the cognitive theory of stress (Homburg & Stolberg, 2006) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Greaves, Zibarras, & Stride, 2013). Contrary to Scherbaum et al., 2008, Andersson et al., 2005 concluded that VBN theory cannot be generalised in work settings. Although Homburg and Stolberg (2006) reported that the awareness of environmental problems leads individuals to engage in PEB at work, they recognised that low measurement reliability might limit the generalisation of their findings. By using TPB to examine employees' behavioural intentions towards the environment in organisational settings, Greaves et al. (2013) recognised that one limitation of their investigation is explained by the cross-sectional design leading to the exclusion of actual behaviour for each scenario (switch the computer off, use video-conference instead of travelling to meetings and recycle as much waste as possible at work). These mitigated results might be explained by the specificity of work settings that need an appropriate framework for studying employee behaviours on the job. Social exchange theory (SET) is well-established in both the literature on human resources and organisational behaviour and has the potential to examine environmentally sustainable behaviours (Craddock, Huffman, & Henning, 2012).
The primary purpose of the present research was to test whether social exchange theory may offer a framework for studying individuals' pro-environmental behaviours on the job. Social exchange refers to “the voluntary actions of individuals that are motivated by the returns they are expected to bring and typically do in fact bring from others” (Blau, 1964, p. 91). From the employee standpoint (such as adopted in the present research), this means that they are prone to engage in pro-environmental behaviours if they perceive that their organisation at some level demonstrates its engagement for initiating, developing and maintaining favourable work conditions. In addition, the present research aims to also provide other contributions to the environmental literature. First, despite recent calls inviting environmental scholars to undertake research on PEBs in work settings (e.g., Klein and Huffman, 2013, Ones and Dilchert, 2012, Spence et al., 2009) and recent field studies (Cantor et al., 2012, Homburg and Stolberg, 2006, Paillé and Boiral, 2013), investigations providing results on how workers participate in environmental behaviours to help their organisation achieve sustainability remain rare (Steg & Vlek, 2009). The present study provides original data that help to fill this gap. Second, considerable effort has been focused on describing what discourages employees from engaging in pro-environmental behaviours (Zibarras & Ballinger, 2011). We propose to explore the plausible effect of psychological contract (PC). Recently, Anguinis and Glavas (2013) have suggested that corporate environmental sustainability has the potential to strengthen the PC between employee and employer. Typically, a PC is described as a set of unwritten agreements that shape the long-term relationships in the workplace (Conway & Briner, 2005). In the everyday life of the organisation it is often difficult to respect all prior promises (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994). When employees perceive or believe that a breach occurs (lack of fulfilment), they become less committed to the organisation and less satisfied with their job, which leads to reducing extra efforts at work (Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, & Bravo, 2007). In accordance with social exchange tenets, a perceived breach may impede employee engagement in PEBs. Whereas substantial effort has been invested in numerous areas (e.g., human resource management and organisational behaviour, among others), there are few studies examining the consequences of PC-breach which have explored the role of PC in the context of environmental sustainability. The present study attempts to clarify the extent the perception of a breach affects the individual's propensity to perform PEB.
Section snippets
Literature review and hypotheses
This paper proposes to test a research model (see Fig. 1) in which perceived organisational support, employee job attitudes (satisfaction and commitment) and perceived lack of prior promises are identified as important antecedent variables for performing PEBs.
In work settings, individuals may engage in numerous PEBs to help their organisation achieve environmental sustainability (Mesmer-Magnus, Viswevaran, & Wiernik, 2012). Based on the work from Homburg and Stolberg (2006), PEBs may be direct
Research context, sample and participants
A cross-sectional field study of 1500 alumni from a major Mexican university enrolled in a business program was conducted to examine the relationships between the variables. All of the participants were working at the time of the study. Participants in our sample worked in different activity sectors and at different firms. This information was verified for all cases. The rationale of this choice is based on the lack of research performed in Mexico (for an exception see Cantor et al., 2012). The
Checking common method variance (CMV), confirmatory factor analysis, assessment of reliability and discriminant validity
Given that in the present research all variables have been measured by using a single source, the first step was to check whether bias due to CMV might inflate the findings and cause misinterpretation. As a frequently used technique (e.g., Boiral and Paillé, 2012, Carson et al., 2003), Harman's single-factor test recommends factorial analysis of a study's item pool. Although there are no specific guidelines (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003), the assumption underlying the test is
Contributions of the study
The present research was performed to improve our understanding of what drives employees to engage in pro-environmental behaviours on the job. To reach this objective, original data were gathered to test an original research model in which perceived organisational support, perceived breach, employee job satisfaction and employee commitment to the organisation are examined as determinants of PEBs. This study makes three main contributions to the relevant literature.
First, social exchange theory
Conclusion
Stern (2000) claimed that friendly environmental behaviours in organisational settings are explained by different determinants than those who predict environmental behaviours in the private sphere. Using social exchange tenets, it is our hope that the present research contributes to explaining the individual motivation to perform pro-environmental behaviours on the job.
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The second author thanks the Asociación Mexicana de Cultura A.C. for its support.
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