Fostering Green Behavior through Inclusive Leadership: Unpacking the Roles of Engagement and Affect

Abstract

Green behavior is crucial for firm success, sustained competitive advantage, and environmental protection. While existing research has explored diverse antecedents to employee green behavior, the role of leadership inclusiveness as a key precursor to employee green performance remains underexplored. There is also a dearth of research on how employee moods and emotions shape the pathway from inclusive leadership to green behavior through work engagement. Drawing on the Social Exchange Theory, we used data from 210 subordinate-manager dyads collected in two waves to investigate how leadership inclusiveness affects employee engagement, which subsequently prompts green performance among subordinates. We also examined how affect (PA and NA) buffered the mediated paths between inclusive leadership – work engagement, and between work engagement – employee green performance. Results confirmed that inclusive leadership precedes work engagement, which results in green performance among subordinates that showed good support for hypotheses. Partial support was found for buffering effects of PA and NA as moderators of the hypothesized mediated paths. These are novel findings, as they highlights that the leader’s inclusivity initiatives are critical for creating an engaged workforce, which ultimately fosters green culture at work. Our study also accentuates the impact of affects (emotions) in relationships between inclusive leadership, work engagement, and employee green performance. We provide theoretical and managerial implications, strengths, limitations, and future research suggestions.  

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Funding

The research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Data Fabrication/Falsification Statement

The author(s) declare that no data have been fabricated, falsified, or manipulated in this study.

Participant Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants before data collection, and they were fully informed about the purpose of the study.

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