Employee awe for nature leads to employee green behavior: The roles of individual cognition and social norms

This paper explores the role of awe for nature in influencing employee green behavior. Despite the established relationship between awe and pro-social behavior, the role of awe for nature as well as its influences on non-interpersonal prosocial behavior remain unclear. Drawing from feelings as information theory, we suggest that employees' awe for nature can induce both external-oriented (environmental awareness) and internal-oriented (a sense of the small self) cognitions, which, in turn, enhance their employee green behavior. Moreover, we propose that the influence of awe for nature is contingent on perceived environmental norms in the workplace. To test our hypotheses, a series of five studies was conducted, including a multi-wave field study and four experiments. The results largely supported these hypotheses. This study thus introduces awe for nature as a domain-specific emotion and extends awe's prosocial effects to non-interpersonal employee green behavior. The results suggest that organizations should use awe for nature as a vital tool to navigate the pro-environmental workplace.