When and How does in-role pro-environmental behavior spill over to extra-role behavior: Two experimental studies in the retail and education industries

Abstract

By integrating theories of goal proximity and crowding-out, this research investigates how and when employees' performance of in-role pro-environmental behaviors will spill over to future engagement in extra-role pro-environmental behaviors. Using two experiments with employees from the retail (N = 338) and education (N = 448) industries, we found a conditional positive spillover effect, mediated by pro-environmental goal commitment. More specifically, when employees with low intrinsic pro-environmental motivation received feedback that they had progressed in their in-role pro-environmental performance, their extra-role pro-environmental behavior intentions increased due to an increased commitment to the pro-environmental goal. However, when employees had high intrinsic pro-environmental motivation, this spillover effect was negative (Study 1) or non-significant (Study 2). To summarize, the positive spillover effect only occurs when employees are not highly intrinsically motivated. Our findings uncover a missing piece in organizational environmental management literature and carry important implications for employee-oriented initiatives.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Guo, W. Unsworth, K. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0826-7565 Bretter, C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8158-1032 Davis, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1577-7544
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2024 ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Guo, W., Unsworth, K., Bretter, C., & Davis, M. (2024). When and How does in-role pro-environmental behavior spill over to extra-role behavior: Two experimental studies in the retail and education industries. Business Strategy and the Environment, 1–18, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3782. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Keywords:	goal commitment; performance feedback; pro-environmental behavior; spillover effect
Dates:	Accepted: 7 April 2024 Published (online): 28 April 2024 Published: September 2024
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Management Division (LUBS) (Leeds) > Management Division Organizational Behaviour (LUBS) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Sustainable Transport Policy (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	16 Apr 2024 11:03
Last Modified:	08 Apr 2025 12:06
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Wiley
Identification Number:	10.1002/bse.3782
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:211507

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When and How does in-role pro-environmental behavior spill over to extra-role behavior: Two experimental studies in the retail and education industries

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