Corporate social responsibility and pro‐environmental behavior at workplace: The role of moral reflectiveness, coworker advocacy, and environmental commitment

• Published in: Corporate social-responsibility and environmental management 2020-01, Vol.27 (1), p.109-125
• Main Authors: Afsar, Bilal, Umrani, Waheed Ali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advocacy; Behavior; corporate social responsibility; coworker advocacy; Employees; Environmental behavior; environmental commitment; green behavior; green commitment; Model testing; moral identity; moral reflectiveness; Multivariate statistical analysis; pro‐environmental behavior; Social responsibility; sustainable behavior
• ISSN: 1535-3958; 1535-3966
• DOI: 10.1002/csr.1777

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining significance in the business world. However, scholars have not sufficiently examined the factors that influence the small, everyday sustainability behaviors that individual employees might choose to perform. It is evident that organizations are continuously contributing toward environmental dilapidation. This may be reduced by focusing employees' involvement in pro‐environmental behaviors. Therefore, this study examined the effect of perceived CSR on employee's pro‐environmental behaviors. In addition, responding to the call for more empirical research regarding the underlying mechanisms that transmit the effect of perceived CSR on microlevel outcomes, this study tested the mediating effects of moral reflectiveness, coworker pro‐environmental advocacy, and environmental commitment on CSR‐pro‐environmental behavior link. The hypothesized relationships of the research model were tested using the structural equation modeling technique. Data were collected from 560 employees through a survey. Results showed that perceived CSR directly impacted moral reflectiveness, coworker pro‐environmental advocacy, and environmental commitment. Moral reflectiveness and coworker pro‐environmental advocacy significantly and positively influenced environmental commitment. Moral reflectiveness, coworker pro‐environmental advocacy, and environmental commitment partially mediated the relationship between perceived CSR and employee pro‐environmental behavior. This study aims to fill the gap of the underlying mechanism that how perceived CSR affects employee pro‐environmental behavior.