Exploring the association between environmentally specific transformational leadership and employee green behavior: Mediating role of green organizational climate

Environmentally specific transformational leadership (ETFL) is a form of target-specific leadership related to corporate environmental responsibility. Two cross-sectional studies were conducted to adapt the ETFL scale to the Italian context and examine its criterion validity within a relational model linking environmental leadership to selected self-reported workplace green behaviors, through the mediation of green organizational climate. Study 1 (n = 380) explored the factorial structure and psychometric properties of Robertson’s (2018) scale via confirmatory factor analysis, supporting the robustness of a bifactor model, with a dominant general factor accounting for most of the items’ variance. Study 2 (n = 422) tested the hypothesized model using path analysis on four easily achievable daily green behaviors. The findings revealed that ETFL is directly associated with employees’ energy-saving practices and waste-separation activities. An indirect effect via green organizational climate was found only for recycling activities. Based on these results, it can be posited that when behavioral performance needs support from organizational policy (e.g., the availability of litter bins), leadership influence on behavior is conveyed by employees’ perceptions of their company as environmentally responsible. In contrast, in situations where organizational procedures play a less crucial role, leaders can serve as role models, directly encouraging subordinates to accomplish eco-friendly actions.