Workplace and Non‐workplace Pro‐environmental Behaviors: Empirical Evidence from Florida City Governments

• Published date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13003
• Author: Kaifeng Yang,Aisha Azhar
• Date: 01 May 2019

Workplace and Non-workplace Pro-environmental Behaviors: Empirical Evidence from Florida City Governments 399

Kaifeng Yang is a professor in the

School of Public Administration and Policy,

Renmin University of China and School of

Public Administration and Policy, Florida

State University. He has widely published on

public and performance management and

citizen participation.

E-mail: yangkaifeng@ruc.edu.cn

Aisha Azhar

University of Management and Technology, Lahore

Kaifeng Yang

Renmin University of China and Florida State University

Aisha Azhar is assistant professor in

the School of Governance and Society,

University of Management and Technology,

Lahore, Pakistan. She was a Fulbright

Scholar from Pakistan for her doctoral

studies at Florida State University.

Her research and teaching interests

include nonprofit management, public

management, disaster management,

public service motivation, and women’s

empowerment.

E-mail: aisha.azhar@umt.edu.pk

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 79, Iss. 3, pp. 399–410. © 2018 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13003.

Workplace and Non-workplace Pro-environmental Behaviors:

Empirical Evidence from Florida City Governments

Abstract: Public employees are expected to be good stewards of public resources and engage in pro-environmental

behaviors (PEBs). Using different categorizations of PEBs, this article examines whether public employees

perform these PEBs in workplace and non-workplace settings. The article further investigates how PEBs are

influenced by salient characteristics of public organizations—that is, public service motivation (PSM) and civic

participation categorized as civic engagement and cognitive engagement. Data were collected through a survey

of public employees in two city governments in Florida. A structural equation model was employed to test the

proposed model. Findings indicate that PSM has a positive influence on workplace PEBs and similar PEBs in

the non-workplace settings. Civic engagement has a positive influence on both workplace and non-workplace

PEBs. Barriers significantly moderate the effects of PSM and cognitive engagement on workplace and non-

workplace PEBs.

Evidence for Practice

• Public employees with high levels of public service motivation and civic engagement are more likely to

perform environmentally friendly behaviors in both workplace and non-workplace settings.

• Appreciating and rewarding PEBs and minimizing value-action gaps to performing PEBs are strategies public

organizations can adopt in order to enhance pro-environmental outcomes.

• It is important to recognize employees’ potential to perform PEBs and encourage employees to participate in

civic engagement activities in their communities.

Sustainability or “going green” is one of the

most serious issues policy makers and public

administrators are concerned with in the present

era. While the issue of the environment has been

discussed in public administration scholarship from

various perspectives, such as policy diffusion and

adoption, economic development and management

capacity, less attention has been paid to its behavioral

aspects. Other social science disciplines have

examined the pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs)

of individuals as consumers, households, or citizens

(Hines, Hungerford, and Tomera 1987; Kollmuss and

Agyeman 2002; Steg and Vlek 2009; Stern 2000) and

of employees in private organizations (Graves and Sarkis

2011; Ramus 2002; Ramus and Steger 2000). However,

very few studies have examined the PEBs of public

employees. To date, Stritch and Christensen (2014) have

examined the link between PEBs and organizational

commitment and public service motivation, and Tsai,

Stritch, and Christensen (2016) have discussed the eco-

civic engagement of public employees.

Building on existing research from public

administration and other social science disciplines,

we examine the PEBs of public servants not only

as employees but also as individuals. Drawing on

past research, we classify PEBs into three types;

examine the influence of characteristics that are more

prevalent in public organizations, including public

service motivation (PSM) and civic participation;

and evaluate the role of barriers that inhibit public

employees’ PEBs, in order to better understand

individual employee participation in discretionary

PEBs in workplace and non-workplace settings.

This study conceives of public employees as individuals

who, regardless of their institutional directives or daily

life obstructions, are assumed to undertake PEBs by

their own will in both workplace and non-workplace

settings. Building on the value base of PEBs, this study

examines the public employee’s normative role as a

guardian of public resources, for whom protecting

environment becomes a higher expectation.

Notably, PSM and civic participation are not “unique”

to public employees; business employees have those

qualities, too. However, PSM and civic participation

characterize public servants more than private

Research Article

Address correspondence to: Kaifeng

Yang, School of Public Administration

and Policy, Renmin University of China,

Haidian District, Beijing, China, 100872.

E-mail:yangkaifeng@ruc.edu.cn