Fostering Green Behavior in the Workplace: The Role of Ethical Climate, Motivation States, and Environmental Knowledge

Abstract

The premise of this research is to investigate the influence of an ethical climate on the environmentally responsible behavior of employees within the accommodation sector in Pakistan. We further seek to understand this connection through the intermediation of motivation states and contingency of ethical knowledge. For this purpose, we gathered data from a sample of 290 managers serving at middle and top levels in the accommodation sector of Pakistan, employing an adapted version of the quantitative research instrument. We used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesis. We found that (1) ethical climate cultivates green behaviors and (2) motivational states partially mediate the association between ethical climate and green behavior. Additionally, (3) the influence of ethical climate on motivational states is found to be stronger in the presence of environmental knowledge. These findings apply to the accommodation sector, where hotel managers can cultivate green behavior by fostering an ethical climate and enhancing motivational states and environmental knowledge. We added empirical justification to social capital theory by enhancing the understanding of ethical climate-driven pro-environmental behavior through intermediation and intensifier.