Evaluating The Antecedents Of Academics’ Employee Green Behaviour In Malaysia: The Role Of Green Human Resource Management

Abstract

The increasing degradation of the environment due to human activities at work has heightened the interests in ways to enhance environmental sustainability in the workplace. For this purpose, studies have highlighted the need to implement green human resource management (green HRM) to influence employee green behaviour (EGB). Using the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) theory and the extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this cross-sectional study examined the impacts of green human resource management (green HRM), behavioural intention, and perceived behavioural control (PBC) on the EGB of academics at Malaysian public research universities. Data were collected from 425 academics through a survey questionnaire developed based on prior studies. First, attitude, PBC, personal moral norms, environmental knowledge, and environmental concern were examined as regard their relationships with intention. Next, the mediation role of intention between the antecedents and EGB were examined. Further, the mediation role of PBC between green HRM and EGB were also assessed. The relationships were analysed using Smart PLS 3. The findings indicated that attitude, personal moral norms, and environmental concern of academics impact their intention to practice EGB, which consequently lead to the actual conduct of the EGB. Further, the findings showed that academics' PBC significantly impacts their conduct of EGB but not their behavioural intention. The key finding of this study showed that the academics' perceived green HRM significantly impacts their PBC, which leads to the ability to perform the EGB. This finding has provided a theoretical implication in terms of the ability, motivation and opportunity theory. The scope of this study was limited to public research universities in Malaysia. Future studies may explore other variables that can expedite the relationship between green HRM and EGB. A practical implication of the study includes policy making that places the emphasis on enhancing the favourable attitude, personal moral norms, environmental knowledge, and environmental concern to ensure that academics practice the EGB. Further, there is a need to focus on enhancing the green HRM practices at the universities, which will be centred on the environmental management systems, as well as improving the EGB of academics through the enhancement of their PBC.