Green HRM and Green Organizational Culture as Drivers of Employee Sustainable Behavior in Higher Education: The Moderating Role of Environmentally Specific Transformational Leadership
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51137/wrp.ijarbm.504Keywords:
Employee Sustainable Behavior, Green Organizational Culture, Environmentally Specific Transformational Leadership, Higher Education Institutions, Green Human Resource ManagementAbstract
Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a pivotal role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by embedding environmental consciousness into institutional systems and work practices. Faculty members in academia play a dual role by educating students and shaping future leaders. Drawing on Ability Motivation Opportunity (AMO) theory and Social Information Processing (SIP) theory, this study examines the relationship between green human resource management (GHRM) and green organizational culture (GOC) on employee sustainable behavior (ESB), and explores the moderating role of environmentally specific transformational leadership (ESTL) among faculty members in HEIs in Pakistan. A quantitative explanatory research design was adopted. Data was collected from faculty members across public and private universities in Punjab, Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings reveal that GHRM and GOC have significant positive effects on ESB. In addition, ESTL significantly strengthens the relationship between GHRM and ESB. The study suggests that HEI aiming to align with SDGs can enhance ESB by integrating sustainability initiatives through GHRM, GOC and incorporating ESTL into leadership capacity building. The study offers an integrated empirical framework illustrating how organizational systems and leadership jointly promotes ESB in academia in a developing country context.
References
Abbas, J., & Dogan, E. (2022). The impacts of organizational green culture and corporate social responsibility on employees’ responsible behaviour towards the society. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(40), 60024–60034.
Abiddin, N. Z. (2024). A deep dive into leadership styles in shaping the higher education institution's value and culture. Pakistan Journal of Life & Social Sciences, 22(2).
Aboramadan, M. (2022). The effect of green HRM on employee green behaviors in higher education: The mediating mechanism of green work engagement. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 30(1), 7–23.
Abo-Khalil, A. G. (2024). Integrating sustainability into higher education challenges and opportunities for universities worldwide. Heliyon, 10(9).
Adeel, M., Munir, M. A., Najmee, A., & Naseem, K. (2024). The impact of green HRM practices on environmental performance by examining mediating effect of green engagement and green behavior in Pakistan's education sector. International Journal of Information Management Sciences, 8(1), 76–90.
Ahmad, I., Ullah, K., & Khan, A. (2022). The impact of green HRM on green creativity: Mediating role of pro-environmental behaviors and moderating role of ethical leadership style. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(19), 3789–3821.
Akbar, A., Ahmad, S., Khalid, M., Aslam, M. F., & Bhatti, M. A. A. (2024). Analyzing the effect of green HRM on organizational performance. Bulletin of Business and Economics, 13(2), 864–869.
Al-Swidi, A. K., Gelaidan, H. M., & Saleh, R. M. (2021). The joint impact of green human resource management, leadership and organizational culture on employees’ green behaviour and organisational environmental performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 316, 128112.
Altassan, M. A. (2023). Understanding the role of green organization culture and innovation between green HRM practices and environmental performance of SMEs in Saudi Arabia. Pakistan Journal of Life & Social Sciences, 21(2).
Appelbaum, E. (2000). Manufacturing advantage: Why high-performance work systems pay off. Cornell University Press.
Arshad, F. N. (2023). Unlocking the power of green HRM: Exploring its impact on organizational citizenship behavior. Review of Economics and Development Studies, 9(3), 147.
Aslam, M., Zain, F., Qasim, M., Leghari, M. A., & Abbas, M. Z. (2024). Does organizational green culture impact competitive advantage and green performance with mediation of green innovation? Journal of Social Sciences Review, 4(4), 1–15.
Beauchamp, M. R., Barling, J., Li, Z., Morton, K. L., Keith, S. E., & Zumbo, B. D. (2010). Development and psychometric properties of the transformational teaching questionnaire. Journal of Health Psychology, 15(8), 1123–1134.
Block, S., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Sherbinin, A. D., & Wendling, Z. A. (2024). 2024 environmental performance index.
Blok, V., Wesselink, R., Studynka, O., & Kemp, R. (2015). Encouraging sustainability in the workplace: A survey on the pro-environmental behaviour of university employees. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 55–67.
Chen, Y. S., Lin, S. H., Lin, C. Y., Hung, S. T., Chang, C. W., & Huang, C. W. (2020). Improving green product development performance from green vision and organizational culture perspectives. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(1), 222-231.
Christou, E., & Piller, F. (2024). Organizational transformation: A management research perspective. In Transformation towards sustainability: A novel interdisciplinary framework (pp. 303–330).
Cohen, A. (1998). Strategies in learning and using a second language.
Deshpande, P., & Srivastava, A. (2024). Green transformational leadership for employee green behaviour: The moderating effect of emotional intelligence and green training. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 21(3), 59–74.
Dumont, J., Shen, J., & Deng, X. (2017). Effects of green HRM practices on employee workplace green behavior. Human Resource Management, 56(4), 613–627.
Elshaer, I., Azazz, A., Semlali, Y., Mansour, M., Elziny, M., & Fayyad, S. (2024). The nexus between green transformational leadership, employee behavior, and organizational support in the hospitality industry. Administrative Sciences, 14(6), 107.
Etomes, S. E., Endeley, M. N., Aluko, F. R., & Molua, E. L. (2025). Transformational leadership for sustainable productivity in higher education institutions of Cameroon. Higher Education, 90(2), 521–543.
Fawehinmi, O., Yusliza, M. Y., Wan Kasim, W. Z., Mohamad, Z., & Sofian Abdul Halim, M. A. (2020). Exploring the interplay of green human resource management, employee green behavior, and personal moral norms. SAGE Open, 10(4).
Filho, W. L., Eustachio, J. H. P. P., Avila, L. V., Dinis, M. A. P., Hernandez‐Diaz, P. M., Batista, K., & Abubakar, I. R. (2025). Enhancing the contribution of higher education institutions to sustainable development research. Sustainable Development, 33(2), 1745–1757.
Farooq, N., Hussain, B., & Waseem, M. (2024). Understanding the nexus of green HRM, green employees behavior and green culture in healthcare of KP, Pakistan. International Journal of Business and Management Sciences, 5(2), 121–132.
Global Footprint Network. (2025). Earth overshoot day 2024 press release.
Hair, J., & Alamer, A. (2022). Partial least squares structural equation modeling in second language and education research. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 1(3), 100027.
Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24.
Hair, J. F., Matthews, L. M., Matthews, R. L., & Sarstedt, M. (2017). PLS-SEM or CB-SEM. International Journal of Multivariate Data Analysis, 1(2), 107–123.
Hamdan, A., Hamdan, S., Alsyouf, I., Murad, N., Abdelrazeq, M., Al‐Ali, S., & Bettayeb, M. (2024). Enhancing sustainability performance of universities. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 41(1), 153–172.
Harris, L. C., & Crane, A. (2002). The greening of organizational culture. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15(3), 214–234.
Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43, 115–135.
Hinduja, P., Mohammad, R. F., Siddiqui, S., Noor, S., & Hussain, A. (2023). Sustainability in higher education institutions in Pakistan. Sustainability, 15(4), 3406.
Hulland, J., Baumgartner, H., & Smith, K. M. (2018). Marketing survey research best practices. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46(1), 92–108.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2023). Climate change 2023: Synthesis report.
Jarvis, C. B., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, P. M. (2003). A critical review of construct indicators. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(2), 199–218.
Katz, I. M., Rauvola, R. S., Rudolph, C. W., & Zacher, H. (2022). Employee green behavior: A meta-analysis. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 29(5), 1146–1157.
Khan, S. A. R., Yu, Z., & Farooq, K. (2023). Green capabilities, green purchasing, and triple bottom line performance. Business Strategy and the Environment, 32(4), 2022–2034.
Khan, Z. N., Iqbal, I., & Saba, S. (2025). The impact of green HRM to enhance pro-environmental behaviour. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 9(2), 306–321.
Lee, J. (2025). Sustainable paradise lost. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 27(8), 18675–18697.
Leal Filho, W., Frankenberger, F., Salvia, A. L., Azeiteiro, U., Alves, F., Castro, P., & Ávila, L. V. (2021). A framework for the implementation of the SDGs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 299, 126915.
Liu, X., & Yu, X. (2023). Green transformational leadership and employee organizational citizenship behavior for the environment in the manufacturing industry: A social information processing perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1097655.
Lukman, R., & Glavič, P. (2007). What are the key elements of a sustainable university? Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 9(2), 103–114.
Luo, J., Zaman, S. I., Jamil, S., & Khan, S. A. (2025). The future of healthcare. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 32(3), 805–837.
Marín García, J. A., & Martinez Tomas, J. (2016). Deconstructing AMO framework.
Mellahi, K., & Harris, L. C. (2016). Response rates in business and management research. British Journal of Management, 27(2), 426–437.
Mirahsani, N., Azizan, O., Shahriari, M., Rexhepi, G., & Najmi, A. (2024). Green culture toward employee green behavior. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 26(6), 16149–16172.
Mohammadi, Y., Monavvarifard, F., Salehi, L., Movahedi, R., Karimi, S., & Liobikienė, G. (2023). Explaining the sustainability of universities. Sustainability, 15(2), 1562.
Nhamo, G., Chapungu, L., & Dube, K. (2024). Universities and SDGs localisation. Cogent Education, 11(1).
Nurfitriyana, N., & Muafi, M. (2023). The effect of green organizational culture, green transformational leadership, and job satisfaction on organizational citizenship behavior: The role of mediating organizational commitment. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, 12(3), 1–12.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879.
Rayner, J., & Morgan, D. (2018). An empirical study of green workplace behaviours. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 56(1), 56–78.
Ristiardi, A., & Rino, R. (2025). The role of organizational culture as a mediating variable between transformational leadership and green innovative behavior. Asian Journal of Applied Business and Management, 4(2), 1–12.
Robertson, J. L., & Barling, J. (2013). Greening organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(2), 176–194.
Salancik, G. R., & Pfeffer, J. (1978). A social information processing approach. Administrative Science Quarterly, 224–253.
Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., & Hair, J. F. (2017). Treating unobserved heterogeneity in PLS-SEM.
SDSN. (2024). Sustainable development report 2024.
Shaheen, A., Khakwani, S., & Tabassum, R. (2024). Obstacles to sustainable development in HEIs of Pakistan. Journal of Asian Development Studies, 13(4), 194–201.
UNESCO. (2024). Education leaders meet at UNESCO to take stock of transformative actions in education.
United Nations. (2024). Sustainable development report 2024.
UN-Habitat. (2023). Urban environment and climate change. Retrieved from: https://unhabitat.org/
Vogel, C., Mathé, S., Geitzenauer, M., Ndah, H. T., Sieber, S., Bonatti, M., & Lana, M. (2020). Stakeholders’ perceptions on sustainability transition pathways. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 18(1), 55–69.
Yang, D., Crawford, J., Daugaard, D., & Jia, J. (2025). Environmentally sustainable leadership. Australian Journal of Management.
Yong, J. Y., Yusliza, M. Y., & Ahmad, N. H. (2022). Connecting green HRM to performance.
Yu, H., & Li, Z. (2025). Organizational green culture and employees’ green behavior. The Service Industries Journal, 45(11–12), 1018–1040.
Yuan, Y., Ren, S., Tang, G., Ji, H., Cooke, F. L., & Wang, Z. (2024). How green human resource management affects employee voluntary workplace green behaviour: An integrated model. Human Resource Management Journal, 34(1), 91-121.
Zacher, H., Rudolph, C. W., & Katz, I. M. (2023). Employee green behavior. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10(1), 465–494.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Misbah Habib, Ida Md Yasin, Raemah Abdullah Hashim (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.