Employee Environmental Behaviors
This chapter provides a review of current knowledge on pro-environmental behaviors in organizations. A classification based on the following 4 characteristics will be proposed: the type of behavior, the degree of inclusion in work tasks, the required inte
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Employee Environmental Behaviors
Abstract This chapter provides a review of current knowledge on proenvironmental behaviors in organizations. A classification based on the following 4 characteristics will be proposed: the type of behavior, the degree of inclusion in work tasks, the required intensity, and the type of position held. The main methods used in the study of employee environmental behavior are also discussed. Keywords Definition · Classification · Operationalization · Methods
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Definition, Classification and Concept 3.1.1
Main Conceptual Definitions
In one of the first critical literature reviews to be published on the drivers of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in organizations, Lo, Peters, and Kok (2012) emphasized the wide variety of concepts used in research on how employees behave responsibly toward the environment. My own overview of the literature indicates that, since this first review, the study of specific behaviors has not only grown dramatically but has also led to a proliferation of terms used to classify specific behaviors in distinct categories. While some scholars have opted to use the term “organizational citizenship behavior for the environment” (Paillé, Boiral, & Chen, © The Author(s) 2020 P. Paillé, Greening the Workplace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58388-0_3
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2013), others prefer to speak of “PEBs,” (Zibarras & Coan, 2015) “corporate greening behavior,” (Ramus & Killmer, 2007) “employee green behavior,” (Norton, Parker, Zacher, & Ashkanazy, 2015) or “environmental workplace behaviors” (Ciocirlan, 2017). The range of competing concepts and definitions found in the literature is simply a reflection of the depth and richness of this field of study, despite its relative infancy. The sheer variety of concepts used in this area raises several questions: does the terminology currently in use reflect semantic choices aimed at locating and defining the different disciplinary fields of management and environmental psychology in relation to one another? Do the terms used refer to different constructs designed to account for a specific environmental reality? Given the wide range of concepts involved in the study of environmental issues in organizational settings, an interesting challenge is to determine the extent to which they overlap or differ. I propose to draw a connection between them by using the definitions provided by the promoters of the concepts as a point of reference. Figure 3.1 provides a visual representation of the matter. Ramus and Killmer (2007) argued that “corporate greening behaviours are best conceived of as prosocial organizational behaviours” (p. 556). They also argued that most employees tend not to view such behaviors as required tasks. The idea broadens the discussion to a wider question about the extent to which environmental issues are included in work tasks, the aim being to explicitly determine whether a given environmental behavior should be viewed in in-role or extra-role terms. This view is shared by Mesmer-Magnus, Viswesvaran,
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