The Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action (SIMPEA) at Work: Predicting Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment

Global environmental crises require a swift green transformation of organizations, and increased employee green behavior (EGB) is a crucial avenue. EGB refers to a collective (the work organization), however it is so far largely unclear how social identity factors contribute to EGB. Based on the social identity model of pro-environmental action (SIMPEA), we propose that organizational identification, organizational environmental efficacy beliefs, and perceived organizational environmental norms motivate individuals to engage in organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE), above and beyond personal environmental attitudes. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a two-wave survey study (N = 1,484) with a 4-month time lag. Organizational identification, organizational environmental efficacy beliefs, and perceived organizational environmental norms at T1 were each positively correlated with co-worker directed and organization-directed OCBE at T2, although only the first two variables showed unique effects on OCBE facets. Additionally, as expected, the positive association between organizational environmental efficacy beliefs and coworker-directed OCBE was only present in those employees who were at least moderately identified with their organization. Overall, findings suggest that socially identified employees’ perception that their work organization is efficaciously pursuing the green transformation drives their individual contribution (EGB).