Theoretical Approaches
The chapter presents social exchange theory and describes its value for the study of environmental sustainability in organizational settings when the focus is on the individual. The chapter also reviews various related research areas with the aim of ident
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Theoretical Approaches
Abstract The chapter presents social exchange theory and describes its value for the study of environmental sustainability in organizational settings when the focus is on the individual. The chapter also reviews various related research areas with the aim of identifying synergies and takes stock of the different theories that have been used in the environmental literature to establish differences and convergences. Keywords Social exchange theory · Related research areas · Theoretical approaches
5.1 Social Exchange: A New Theoretical Approach for Environmental Sustainability 5.1.1
Definition, Key Premises and Core Principles
5.1.1.1 Theoretical Foundations A decade ago, Steg and Vlek (2009) argued that “the conditions under which a particular theory is most successful in explaining environmental behaviour need more attention” (p. 315). Regardless of its foundations, a theory provides a means of understanding the subject at hand. Bell, Greene, Fisher, and Baum (2001) argued that the main purposes of a theory are to enable reliable predictions, to synthetize, to give coherence © The Author(s) 2020 P. Paillé, Greening the Workplace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58388-0_5
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and consistency, and to generalize a large number of observations relating to the same general phenomenon. In this respect, social exchange theory (SET) has recently emerged as a useful framework for understanding individuals’ motivations for behaving in an environmentally friendly way in the workplace (Norton, Parker, Zacher, & Ashkanasy, 2015; Yuriev, Boiral, Francoeur, and Paillé, 2018). SET offers all the guarantees listed above. According to Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005), social exchange theory “is among the most influential conceptual paradigms for understanding workplace behavior” (p. 874). They contend that SET is among the most promising research frameworks for understanding the internal dynamics of organizations. The aim of SET is to determine how social relationships begin, develop, and are maintained over time. Social exchanges have been theorized in a wide range of disciplines, and especially in anthropology, sociology, economics, psychology, management, and, more recently, environmental sustainability. All of these disciplines have examined exchange situations from specific theoretical perspectives by drawing on a range of different methodological approaches and epistemological positions, giving rise to a vast and diverse literature that remains difficult to summarize even now. In fact, it may be more accurate to speak of theories rather than theory. Given this, since there is no overarching framework for examining social exchanges based on a metatheory, choosing a definition amounts to giving precedence to one discipline over all others. Conscious of these difficulties, I have opted for the definition provided by Blau (1964), according to which social exchanges refer to “the voluntary actions of individuals that are motivated by the returns they are expected to bring and typically do
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