From Passive to Active: The Positive Spillover of Work-Required Green Behavior on Green Advocacy

Abstract

Drawing on self-perception theory, we hypothesize that taking up work-required green behavior can lead to the adoption of green advocacy in the future in a positive spillover. Further, we propose that pro-environmental self-identity mediates the influence of work-required green behavior on green advocacy and the strength of such effect is contingent upon employees’ moral identity. To test our hypothesized model, we collected three-wave data from 297 employees from a large manufacturing firm in China. Our results confirmed the positive relationship between work-required green behavior and green advocacy, and verified the mediating role of pro-environmental self-identity in this relationship. On the moderating role of moral identity, we found that the mediating effect of pro-environmental self-identity is stronger when moral identity is high rather than low. Our results answer calls to examine the spillover of passive green behavior to proactive green behavior at the employee level and advance workplace green behavior research by identifying a novel psychological path. By demonstrating the moderating role of moral identity, we extend knowledge about the mixed impact of past green behavior and moral identity to stimulate green behavior in the future.