Promoting Pro-environmental Behavior in Organizations

Abstract

Managers and employees are increasingly aware of the impact of their organizations on the natural environment and there is growing pressure to reduce businesses’ environmental harm. To date, there has been limited research and guidance regarding how to engage employees and drive individual-level pro-environmental behavior change. This symposium presents innovative ideas for achieving behavior change within organizations and considers the design of interventions directed at promoting pro-environmental behavior. The four presentations will seek to stimulate discussion regarding how research and practice can be extended to engage individuals in pro-environmental behavior. Key themes that will be raised in the presentations include: the application of organizational change theory to promote pro-environmental behavior; designing interventions using employee engagement and employee choice models; utilizing self-concordance and appealing to non-environmental goals to engage everyone in pro-environmental behavior, and; the potential for Environmentally-Specific Transformational Leadership training as an intervention. The symposium will conclude with an interactive discussion between the presenters and audience with the aims of identifying future research agendas in this domain, ideas for developing new theories and tools, questioning if pro-environmental behavior change differs from other forms of change, and promoting an exchange of ideas between researchers and practitioners. The Challenge of Pro-environmental Behavior Change: An Interactive Discussion Presenter: Sally V. Russell; U. of Leeds Environmentally-specific Transformational Leadership as an Intervention to Support Workplace PEB Presenter: Jennifer Robertson; Western U. Pro-Environmental Behavior Change at Work: An Employee Choice Model Presenter: Janet E Palmer; Griffith U. Presenter: Sally V. Russell; U. of Leeds Presenter: Nick Barter; Griffith U. Presenter: Malcolm McIntosh; Griffith U. Self-Concordance Interventions: Getting Everyone To Engage In Pro-Environmental Behaviors Presenter: Kerrie Unsworth; U. of Western Australia Applying Organizational Change Theory to Promoting Pro-Environmental Behavior Presenter: Matthew C. Davis; Leeds U. Business School Presenter: Phillipa Coan; U. of Leeds