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Employee–Organization Pro-environmental Values Fit and Pro-environmental Behavior: The Role of Supervisors’ Personal Values

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Abstract

This study examines the relationship among the employees–organization pro-environmental values fit (E–O PEVs fit), supervisors’ PEVs and employees’ pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). Informed by the PEB, organizational values and employee–organization fit literature, we propose and test hypotheses that under egoistic, altruistic and biosphere-value orientations, E–O PEVs fit versus non-fit have significant effects on employees’ private-sphere PEB and public-sphere PEB, identifying supervisors’ PEVs as a moderator. An empirical investigation indicates that the effect of E–O PEVs fit on employees’ private-sphere PEB and public-sphere PEB varies as the value orientation differs. More specifically, under the context of altruistic and biosphere-value orientations, if the organizational PEVs do not match the employees’ PEVs, especially when the former exceeds the latter, employees’ PEB will rise as the organizational PEVs increase. As for egoistic value orientation, when organizational PEVs exceed employees’ PEVs, not only will public-sphere PEB stop decreasing and tend to stabilize, but also private-sphere PEB will rise to a slight degree. Furthermore, compared with altruistic and biospheric values dimensions, supervisors who promote egoistic PEVs will have a more significant effect on the relationship between global E–O PEVs fit and employees’ PEB. Finally, we suggest that the goals of an organization and its supervisors need to be combined within the actual situation of Chinese corporations to truly implement corporate green practices by balancing the profit goal and the environmental goal.

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Abbreviations

PEB:

Pro-environmental behavior

PEVs:

Pro-environmental values

Eego-PEVs:

Egoistic-oriented employees’ pro-environmental values

Ealt-PEVs:

Altruistic-oriented employees’ pro-environmental values

Ebio-PEVs:

Biospheric-oriented employees’ pro-environmental values

Oego-PEVs:

Egoistic-oriented organizational pro-environmental values

Oalt-PEVs:

Altruistic-oriented organizational pro-environmental values

Obio-PEVs:

Biospheric-oriented organizational pro-environmental values

Sego-PEVs:

Egoistic-oriented supervisors’ pro-environmental values

Salt-PEVs:

Altruistic-oriented supervisors’ pro-environmental values

Sbio-PEVs:

Biospheric-oriented supervisors’ pro-environmental values

E–O PEVs fit:

Employees–organization pro-environmental values fit

Eego–Oego PEVs:

Egoistic-oriented employees–organization pro-environmental values

Ealt–Oalt PEVs:

Altruistic-oriented employees–organization pro-environmental values

Ebio–Obio PEVs:

Biospheric-oriented employees–organization pro-environmental values

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (Grant Nos. 71473247, 71473248, 71673271, 71273258, 71603255), the Major project of National Social Science Funding of China (Grant No. 16ZDA056), Jiangsu Philosophy and Social Sciences Excellent Innovation Cultivation Team (2017), the 333 Project of Training High-level Talents of Jiangsu Province (2016), the Teaching Education Reformed Practice of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. JGZZ16_078), the Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province Project (Grant No. 14JD026), “13th Five Year” brand discipline specialty building project of China University of Mining and Technology (2017), “13th Five Year” Brand Discipline Construction Funding Project of China University of Mining and Technology (2017), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2017WB16), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2017XKZD12), the China Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Project (Grant No. 14YJC630092), the Education Humanities and Social Science Project of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. 14ZHC002) and the program of innovation team supported by China University of Mining and Technology (Grant No. 2015ZY003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Nanhu Campus, South Sanhuan Road, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Hui Lu, Xia Liu, Hong Chen & Ruyin Long

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  1. Hui Lu
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  2. Xia Liu
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  3. Hong Chen
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  4. Ruyin Long
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Correspondence to Hong Chen.

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Lu, H., Liu, X., Chen, H. et al. Employee–Organization Pro-environmental Values Fit and Pro-environmental Behavior: The Role of Supervisors’ Personal Values. Sci Eng Ethics 25, 519–557 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-0007-z

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