Organizational citizenship behavior for the environment: An analysis in universities

Melo, Aline Alvares; Abdalla, Khalil Gibran Zeraik; Tortato, Ubiratã

doi:10.1590/1678-6971/eRAMR2640167

Human and Social Management • RAM, Rev. Adm. Mackenzie 27 (04) • 2026 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-6971/eRAMR2640167 linkcopy

Organizational citizenship behavior for the environment: An analysis in universities

Comportamento de cidadania organizacional para o meio ambiente: Uma análise em universidades

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Objective: To understand the influence of organizational commitment on the relationship between personal norms and employees’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment, from the perspective of Norm Activation Theory.

Originality/value: The relationship between organizational commitment and pro-environmental organizational behavior (OCBE) still requires further analytical depth, since the existing literature does not present a consensus regarding the degree or form of influence of this construct on such behaviors. At the same time, it is observed that Norm Activation Theory (NAT), despite being widely used in research on sustainable practices, has been little explored specifically in the context of OCBEs.

Design/methodology/approach: Scales measuring personal norms, organizational commitment, and OCBE were administered to employees (faculty and administrative staff) from three Brazilian universities, resulting in a sample of 318 respondents. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method was used to analyse the data.

Results: The data showed that organizational commitment did not mediate the relationship between personal norms and OCBE. However, the relationship between personal norms and OCBE was confirmed, suggesting that, regardless of context, individual values and beliefs are important predictors of environmental engagement, and that intervention strategies based on employees’ organizational commitment may not be effective for this type of behavior.

Contribution/implication: Although the hypothesis predicting an association between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior toward the environment (OCBE) was not corroborated by the results, the research presents relevant contributions in both the theoretical and practical fields about the constructs investigated. Among these findings, the confirmation of a positive relationship between personal norms and OCBE stands out.

Keywords:
sustainable behavior; organizational commitment; antecedents; norm activation theory; organizational sustainability

Paper	Hypotheses	Results
Read this article, but don’t print it: Organizational Citizenship Behavior Toward the Environment (Lamm et al., 2013)	Organizational commitment will measure the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and OCBE	CONFIRMED
Pro-environmental behavior at work: Construct validity and Determinants (Paillé & Boiral, 2013)	Commitment with the organization is positively related to OCBE	CONFIRMED
Linking environmental management practices and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment: a social exchange perspective (Paillé et al., 2013)	Commitment with the organization and OCBE are positively related	NOT CONFIRMED
Motivating Employees towards Sustainable Behavior (Temminck et al., 2015)	1) Affective organizational commitment will relate positively with OCBE 2) Affective organizational commitment will mediate the relationship between environmental concern and OCBE 3) Affective organizational commitment will mediate the relationship between POS of employees‘ environmental efforts and OCBE	1) CONFIRMED 2) CONFIRMED 3) CONFIRMED
Predicting environmental citizenship behavior in the workplace: A new perspective of environmental affective event (Mi et al., 2021)	1) An organizational environment supportive of green initiatives is positively and significantly related to green innovative behavior and to organizational citizenship behavior for the environment. Work engagement mediates the relationship proposed in Hypothesis 1.	1) CONFIRMED CONFIRMED
Integrating OCBE Literature and Norm Activation Theory: A Moderated Mediation on Proenvironmental Behavior of Employees (Ostertag, 2023)	Affective organizational commitment will relate positively with OCBE	CONFIRMED
The influence of organizational commitment on employee green behavior: mediating role of work-related social media use (Bodhi et al., 2024)	Positive and significant effects of organizational commitment on psychological well-being, social well-being, work-related social media use, and employee green behavior.	CONFIRMED

	Personal norms	Factor load
PN1	I feel a personal obligation to do whatever I can to prevent climate change.	-
PN2	I feel morally obliged to save energy and water, regardless of what others do.	0,812
PN3	If I were to buy a new appliance, I would feel morally obliged to buy an energy efficient one.	0,820
PN4	I feel morally obliged to use green energy instead of fossil-fuel based energy.	0,746
PN5	I feel personally obliged to save as much energy as possible.	-
PN6	I would be a better person if I saved resources like energy and water.	0,786
PN7	People like me should do everything they can to reduce waste.	0,753
PN8	I feel guilty when I waste water.	0,794
PN9	I feel obliged to bear the environment and nature in mind in my daily behavior.	-
	Organizational commitment Affective commitment
AF1	I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organization.	0,645
AF2	I really feel as if this organization’s problems are my own.	0,410
AF3	I do not feel a strong sense of “belonging” to my organization.	0,735
AF4	I do not feel “emotionally attached” to this organization.	0,680
AF5	I do not feel like “part of the family” at my organization.	0,735
AF6	This organization has a great deal of personal meaning to me.	0,749
	Continuity commitment
CC1	Right now, staying with my organization is a matter of necessity as much as desire.	0,504
CC2	It would be very hard for me to leave my organization right now, even if I wanted to.	0,592
CC3	Too much of my life would be disrupted if I decided I wanted to leave my organization now.	0,678
CC4	I feel that I have too few options to consider leaving this organization.	0,700
CC5	If I had not already put so much of myself into this organization, I might consider working elsewhere.	0,454
CC6	One of the few negative consequences of leaving this organization would be the scarcity of available alternatives.	0,483
	Normative commitment
NC1	I do not feel any obligation to remain with my current employer.	0,580
NC2	Even if it were to my advantage, I do not feel it would be right to leave my organization now.	0,638
NC3	I would feel guilty if I left my organization now.	0,658
NC4	This organization deserves my loyalty.	0,718
NC5	I would not leave my organization right now because I have a sense of obligation to the people in it.	0,735
NC6	I owe a great deal to my organization.	0,691
	OCBE Eco-initiatives
EI1	In my work, I weigh the consequences of my actions before doing something that could affect the environment	0,817
EI2	I voluntarily carry out environmental actions and initiatives in my daily work activities	0,882
EI3	I make suggestions to my colleagues about ways to protect the environment more effectively, even when it is not my direct responsibility	0,942
	Eco-civic engagement
EC1	I actively participate in environmental events organized in and/or by my company	0,737
EC2	I stay informed of my company’s environmental initiatives	0,792
EC3	I undertake environmental actions that contribute positively to the image of my organization	0,756
EC4	I volunteer for projects, endeavours or events that address environmental issues in my organization	0,853
	Eco-helping
EH1	I spontaneously give my time to help my colleagues take the environment into account in everything they do at work	0,737
EH2	I encourage my colleagues to adopt more environmentally conscious behavior	0,792
EH3	I encourage my colleagues to express their ideas and opinions on environmental issues	0,756

Sex
Male	56,6
Female	43,4
Age
≤ 30	25,2
31-40	38,1
41-50	19,5
51-60	11,3
60	6,0
Marital status
Single	35,8
Married	55,3
Divorced	7,5
Widowed	0,3
Other	0,9
Job title
Administrative personnel	54,7
Professor	45,3
Tenure
≤ 5	44,0
6-10	29,9
11-20	14,5
21-30	8,2
> 30	3,5

Markers quality	Loading	EAV	Composite reliability
Personal Norms
PN5	0,746	0,48	0,74
PN7	0,598
PN9	0,735
Affective commitment
AF3	0,692	0,50	0,75
AF4	0,650
AF5	0,767
Continuity commitment
CC4	0,798	0,73	0,85
CC6	0,910	0,73	0,85
Normative commitment
NC2	0,676	0,58	0,80
NC3	0,880
NC5	0,717
Eco-initiatives
EI2	0,709	0,58	0,73
EI3	0,812	0,58	0,73
Eco-civic engagement
EC1	0,697	0,52	0,81
EC2	0,773
EC3	0,763
EC4	0,632
Self-help
EH1	0,764	0,64	0,84
EH2	0,840
EH3	0,787

	After all rounds
CMIN/DF	2,407
NFI	0,879
RFI	0,837
IFI	0,926
TLI	0,898
CFI	0,924
RMSEA	0,067

Relationship (model)			Hypotheses	Β	Sig.
Personal norms	→	Organizational commitment	H1	-0,131	0,114
Organizational commitment	→	OCBE	H2	-0,994	0,087
Personal norms	→	OCBE	H3	0,878	^***

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