Abstract
Environmental sustainability represents a key issue for both society and organizations, yet little research has examined methods of encouraging employees’ pro-environmental behaviors at work. Drawing on theories concerning message framing and psychological distance, this paper explores whether interventions based on the power of words can encourage employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. To do so, a study was conducted that manipulated two factors, a positive or negative intervention paired with concrete or abstract advice. Although one might expect that positive interventions would result in better outcomes, this was not always the case. The findings suggest that poorer outcomes can occur when abstract advice is provided. However, better outcomes can result for positive interventions when concrete advice is used. This suggests that organizations should be careful to match any positive interventions with concrete suggestions to employees in order to encourage their pro-environmental behaviors.
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