"Please, Separate Waste at Work!” Integrating Environmentally Oriented Leadership, Green Organizational Climate, and the Theory of Planned Behavior

Research on workplace waste separation remains fragmented, often focusing either on socio-contextual variables from organizational literature or on socio-cognitive mechanisms from behavioral decision-making models. This study aimed to explore the determinants of workplace separation of plastic, glass, and aluminum by developing a novel, comprehensive model that integrates the theory of planned behavior (TPB) with two prominent constructs from organizational research: environmentally specific transformational leadership (ETFL) and green organizational climate (GOC). The hypothesized model conceptualized GOC as an antecedent of the proximal determinants of intention and ETFL as an antecedent of GOC. Moreover, ETFL was hypothesized to shape behavior through the sequential mediation of GOC and TPB’s constructs. A two-wave prospective design was employed using online surveys administered to a convenience sample of 711 Italian working adults. At T1, the participants completed self-reported measures of ETFL, GOC, and TPB’s variables. One month later, at T2, the participants reported their waste separation behavior over the previous month. The relational model, tested using structural equation modeling (SEM), explained 48.2% and 36.4% of variance in intention and behavior, respectively. All hypothesized direct effects were supported, except for the paths from injunctive norm to intention and from perceived behavioral control to behavior. Two sequential mediation pathways were identified: one linking ETFL to behavior via GOC, descriptive norm, and intention; the other via GOC, perceived behavioral control, and intention. The results underscore the central role of leaders in translating organizational environmental goals into employees’ daily actions, thereby offering practical implications for waste management in workplace settings.