Employees' geographic social identity and group pro‐environmental behaviors: Cross‐cultural evidence from 45 countries

Abstract

AbstractEmployees' group pro‐environmental behaviors (PEBs) represent employees' collective efforts to combat critical global environmental problems. Drawing on social identity theory, we examined how employees' group PEBs can be inspired by different forms of geographic social identity (i.e., world identity, national identity, and regional identity). We analyzed data from the most recent (seventh) wave of the World Value Survey (2017–2022), which covers 34,951 employees from 45 nations. We found that employees' world identity contributed more than their regional identity and national identity to their engagement in group PEBs, by inducing a green orientation that prioritized environmental protection over economic growth. In addition, we obtained cross‐country evidence that the effect of world identity on green orientation is more pronounced in individualist than in collectivist societies. Our findings help to resolve inconsistencies in prior research regarding the theoretical link between social identity and PEBs and provide actionable insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to facilitate group PEBs in organizations.