Exploring challenges and solutions in performing employee ecological behaviour for a sustainable workplace

Abstract

Organisations are a fundamental part of challenges and solutions to climate change issues. Therefore, the micro and macro factors influencing employee ecological behaviour (EEB) are a rising interest among researchers. The contemporary concept of EEB has been embraced by many organi-sations and attracted scholars’ attention worldwide. Nevertheless, studies that explored challenges and solutions for performing EEB at the workplace are scarce. This study explored challenges and solutions in performing EEB at the workplace and focused on qualitative research methodology. The researchers interviewed 24 academicians from five leading green research Malaysian universi-ties. Valuable qualitative data and numerous challenges such as high costs of practising, lack of infrastructure, top management support, environmental attitude, green mindfulness, enforcement, and monitoring were identified as challenges in applying EEB from the interviews. Stringent rules and regulations, monitoring, training programmes, and monetary incentives might be efficient solutions to apply ecological behaviour at workplaces, specifically universities. In conclusion, this study has discovered the challenges and solutions in implementing EEB for a sustainable workplace by interviewing academicians from different departments of selected Malaysian higher educational institutes. Also, poor infrastructure, high cost, and the lack of top management support, environmental attitude, green mindfulness, enforcement, and monitoring were identified as the primary challenges in performing EEB. Additionally, the research also discovered significant suggestions to resolve the challenges when implementing EEB at the workplace, such as strict rules and regula-tions, training programmes, incentives, monitoring, and communicating change and campaigns. Therefore, the stakeholders related to the industry should be concerned with the challenges identified when applying EEB at the workplace to apply the solutions generated from the study.