Modeling the workplace pro-environmental behavior through green human resource management and organizational culture: Evidence from an emerging economy

This quantitative study investigates the relationships of green human resource management (GHRM) practices (e.g., green training and involvement, green recruitment, green performance management and compensation, and green transformational leadership) on green organizational culture and pro-environmental behavior, and the moderating role of green social capital and green values. This study adopts a cross-sectional design and collects quantitative data from 232 respondents working in top-to middle-level managerial positions in medium and large enterprises using a questionnaire survey after obtaining a list of companies from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Multan in Pakistan, applying the snowball sampling technique. A combined approach including partial least squares structural equation modeling and necessary condition analysis is employed to unravel the underlying mechanism between GHRM practices, green organizational culture, and pro-environmental behavior using Smart PLS version 4. The findings reveal that green transformational leadership (β = 0.267, p < 0.01), green performance management and compensation (β = 0.412, p < 0.01), green training and involvement (β = 0.226, p < 0.01) have a significant positive connection with green organizational culture. Moreover, green social capital (β = 0.206, p < 0.01), green values (β = 0.460, p < 0.01), and green organizational culture (β = 0.143, p < 0.05) have a significant influence on workplace pro-environmental behavior. The study did not discover any moderating influence of green values and GS on the relationship between green organizational culture and pro-environmental behavior. Nevertheless, it did identify a mediating effect of green organizational culture in the connections between green recruitment, green training & involvement, green performance management & compensation, green transformational leadership, and pro-environmental behavior. The original contribution of this study includes offering in-depth insights into the relationship between GHRM practices and pro-environmental behavior through an integrated framework combining the GHRM framework, ability motivation opportunity (AMO) theory, and norm activation model to the extant literature. With its empirical investigation, this constitutes a pioneering study in the field of GHRM that offers numerous practical implications with the robust result obtained using sufficiency logic tests applying necessary condition analysis. Organizations should recruit employees with green values and give them training, and performance and compensation benefits to ensure green transformational leadership and enhance pro-environmental behavior in the organization.