Research on the relationship between environmental servant leadership, employee environmental proactivity, employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior

Background Under the background of increasingly prominent climate and environmental problems, as well as the goals of emission peak and carbon neutrality, integrating the concept of environmental protection into leadership work is becoming a hot topic for theoretical researchers and management practitioners. Objective This study aims to explore the relationship between environmental servant leadership, employee environmental proactivity, employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior. Methods Based on social cognition theory, conservation of resources theory and self-determination theory, environmental servant leadership was used as an independent variable, with employee environmental proactivity as a mediating variable and employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior as dependent variables. An integrated theoretical framework was constructed. SPSS23 and AMOS23 were used for statistical analysis, and structural equation models were constructed to empirically test 363 leader–employee pairing data from mechanical, IT and pharmaceutical organizations. Results The statistical results show the following: environmental servant leadership has a significant positive influence on employee environmental proactivity (β = 0.381, p < 0.01); employee environmental proactivity positively influences employee environmental creativity (β = 0.267, p < 0.01) and organizational environmental citizenship behavior (β = 0.345, p < 0.01); environmental servant leadership directly influences employee environmental creativity (β = 0.249, p < 0.01) and organizational environmental citizenship behavior (β = 0.353, p < 0.01). Employee environmental proactivity partly mediates the influence of environmental servant leadership on employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior. Conclusion This indicates that environmental servant leadership not only directly influences employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior but also indirectly influences the two dependent variables through employee environmental proactivity. Therefore, organizations must adopt environmental servant leadership and stimulate employee environmental proactivity to enhance employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior.