Organizational citizenship behavior for the environment decoded: sustainable leaders, green organizational climate and person-organization fit

PurposeThis study examines how sustainable leadership influences organizational citizenship behavior toward the environment, directly and through a green organizational climate. This study also investigates the moderating effect of person-organization fit on the relationship between green organizational climate and employees' organizational citizenship behavior for the environment.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 241 employees of manufacturing firms in China with one month's lag. Statistical analyses were conducted with the use of PLS-SEM.FindingsThis study confirmed that sustainable leadership significantly influenced organizational citizenship behavior for the environment, both directly and indirectly through a green organizational climate. It also revealed that the relationship between green organizational climate and employees' organizational citizenship behavior for the environment was contingent on the person-organization fit.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to analyze how sustainable leadership reinforces employees' organizational citizenship behavior for the environment by providing insight into the mediating role of green organizational climate and person-organization fit as a moderator. Moreover, through a combination of three theoretical perspectives (social learning theory, social exchange theory and the theory of person-organization fit), this study advances the academic knowledge on how organizational citizenship behavior for the environment develops, thus providing a more complex explanation of the relationship between the examined variables.