Effects of personal environmental awareness and environmental concern on employees' voluntary pro-environmental behavior: a mediation analysis in emerging countries

Purpose Successful stimulation of employee engagement in pro-environmental behavior (PEB) at work can reduce organizational environmental footprint and boost its green performance. The aim of this paper is to investigate the individual factors that may promote such behavior at work, offering a complex model with mediating relationships not studied before. Design/methodology/approach In this paper data was collected through a survey of 331 bank employees from different banks in Kazakhstan and Ecuador. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships between the different constructs. Findings The results identified that environmental values and attitudes mediate the relationship between (1) personal environmental awareness and (2) environmental concern and employees' voluntary PEB at work. Harmonious environmental passion (HEP) mediates the relationship between environmental values and attitudes and employees' voluntary PEB at work. Practical implications This study presents important organizational policymaking implications with regard to organizational greening. The importance of environmental awareness is underlined, guiding managers to offer environmental education and training to the employees with the aim of improving environmental knowledge that may lead to employees' voluntary PEB at work. Also, managers should work on enhancing HEP. Originality/value Prior literature on this topic is still scarce. This research presents important contributions by discussing how individual antecedents may act as stimuli of employees' voluntary PEB at work in the context of the banking sector in two emerging countries that are often neglected by prior literature.