Environmental CSR and environmental citizenship behavior: The role of employees’ environmental passion and empathy

Abstract

Considering the importance of employees' environmental behavior to the greening and sustainable development of organizations, this research explored how environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) transforms into employees' environmental citizenship behavior. Based on stimulus-organism-response (S–O-R) theory, this study establishes a theoretical model to explore the impact mechanism of environmental CSR on environmental citizenship behavior. The researchers collected 431 surveys from employees of manufacturing organizations to examine the research model. The results showed that environmental CSR can influence environmental citizenship behavior directly and indirectly (through environmental passion and empathy). CSR directed toward employees positively moderated the relationships between environmental passion and environmental citizenship behavior and the relationship between environmental empathy and environmental citizenship behavior. This research expands the micro-foundation of CSR and extends the research on the antecedents of employees' environmental behavior by revealing the social-psychological mechanism of environmental CSR's impact on environmental citizenship behavior and also provides specific suggestions for practice.