2.1. Company Environmental Ethics and Employees’ Green Motivation
Environmental ethics emphasise a person’s regular customs related to environmental issues and establishes an individual’s obligations to effectively respond to environmental impacts [
14]. Ethical compliance has six elements to gauge any standard. These elements are “ethics codes, ethics committees, ethics communication systems, ethics officers, ethics training programmes, and disciplinary processes” [
15,
16]. These ethical aspects are often undertaken and applied by corporations from the management level to the operational level to reduce harmful effects on the environment [
17,
18]. Environmental ethics teach human beings moral responsibilities to protect the environment. Therefore, it is a requirement to demark the periphery of activities to make efficient use of resources while keeping environmental impacts in mind [
19]. According to Dutta et al. [
20], companies have ample opportunities to comply with environmental impacts either by altering the means of producing the goods, changing how they source raw materials, or altering the design of the products so that they minimise their greenhouse gas emissions or reduce the harmful impacts of using the products.
The adoption of a green approach improves a company’s value in the corporate sector and helps to formalise an ethical framework to implement environmental ethics in the organisational setup [
21,
22,
23,
24]. Prior to these research works, some scholars argued that the adoption of green approaches in the production process enables an organisation to comply with environmental ethics and gain competitive market advantages in sustainability and profit maximisation [
25,
26] (Porter 1980, 1981). Further, these advantages become intangible assets for the organisation, which intensify companies’ possibilities to form green relationships with other stakeholders [
23,
24,
25,
26,
27]. Therefore, such assets provide an organisation with the capabilities to not only avoid the troubles and challenges that come with the equipped environmental measures but also improve their organisational image in the corporate world [
28].
Environmental ethics positively influence employees’ green environmental performances and subsequently contribute to the green human capital development in the organisational setup. This produces two positive consequences, namely, green innovation learning and green innovation performance [
28]. In line with this research, when employees possess the knowledge required for green performance, their behaviour related to green performance improves, and the organisation and its employees are influenced and motivated by the positive aspects of environmental ethics.
2.2. Corporate Social Responsibility, Institutional Environment and Employees’ Green Motivation
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is defined as a company’s strategically significant commitment to reduce its negative impacts on society and the community to maximize positive effects [
29]. CSR practices for environmental sustainability are growing and being placed on various corporate agendas. Babiak and Trendafilova [
30] argued that environmentally friendly business practices are a component of CSR. Over the years, environmental sustainability has been one of the greatest interests in terms of the market attitude towards CSR [
31] and most important concern for investors in the CSR efforts of a company [
32]. Therefore, the institutional theory is viewed as a necessary lens to explore CSR [
29].
The institutional environment consists of many internal and external factors that influence decisions regarding green adoption in the organisational setup. The institutional environment is made up of the legal framework, interests of the stakeholders, future economic possibilities, etc., and is supported by institutional theory [
33]. Cordano and Frieze [
34] found that employees’ and managers’ attitudes and subjective norms regarding the adoption of preventive measures against pollution and environmental impacts are significantly influenced by the institutional environment.
Institutional theory explains an organisation’s external environment, which demonstrates a wide range of social structures that include schemes, rules, norms and routines [
35]. The study of Zucker [
36] showed that the adoption of green approaches can be facilitated by legislation related to green approaches, continuous pressure from the stakeholders, future economic opportunities, and ethical obligations. Here, ‘institution’ refers to the formal and informal arrangement that establishes the organisational environment. For example, certain rules, laws and regulations are applied in the formal environmental. Culture, norms and ethics are also integrated into the organisational environment. Hence, any company that needs to make strategic decisions considers both the formal and informal environments in the organisational setup [
35,
37,
38]. In line with this, governments are major formal institutions with the authority to promulgate and enforce rules, regulations and necessary legislations. Furthermore, social interactions represent informal interactions that reflect norms, cultures and ethics [
39]. The formal and informal environments of an organisation influence the behavioural pattern for adopting green approaches in any organisation. Moreover, the normative and cognitive dimensions of an individual’s behaviour also influence green adoption in the organisational environment. For example, social norms, values, beliefs and expectations create social binds and force an organisation to welcome green approaches in the organisational environment [
40,
41]. Similarly, psychological perspectives mirror social constructions and incorporate particular beliefs or long-held axioms about a practice that act as the basis for the goals a certain establishment aims to accomplish [
35]. Therefore, the behavioural pattern of an individual or organisation based on both normative and cognitive perspectives reflects the institutional environment.
Shu et al. [
39] proposed three interventions of the institutional environment in the context of green product process innovation. First, firms must identify the relevant environmental issues that cause adverse impacts and further convince the stakeholders of the need to mitigate such impacts through any innovative approach, such as being green [
2,
42,
43]. Second, firms must observe the existing government policies, responses of consumers and overall public benefits, such as economic and health benefits [
44]. Last, firms should review the operational processes, manufacturing practices, supply chain procedures, and decision-making activities pertinent to product innovation, design and the product life cycle [
2,
45]. The enforcement of and compliance with environmental protection rules and regulations in any organisational setup influence employees’ motivational patterns, which further facilitates green behaviour in the organisation. In this regard, efforts should be made to develop environmentally friendly food products complying with environmental rules and regulations, which will influence employees to shape the company’s behaviour to produce biodegradable and recyclable products [
46].
2.3. Managerial Support and Employees’ Green Motivation
Much of the literature identifies the motivational drivers of an individual to engage in pro-environmental behaviour at the household level [
47,
48,
49], while studies on motivating employees at the workplace to engage in pro-environmental behaviour are hardly found. Many scholars have suggested that offering rewards (e.g., tax exemptions, profit sharing, or nonmonetary rewards such as recognition or praise) will motivate employees to engage in environmentally friendly behaviour [
50,
51,
52,
53,
54,
55]. Therefore, management should design reward systems to reinforce and encourage employees to engage in pro-environmental behaviour [
50,
56]. However, some scholars have found that the use of a culture of rewards, promotions or penalties to enhance the motivation of employees to engage in pro-environmental behaviour is an ineffective tool to ensure the promotion of greener behaviour [
57]. The study of Lamm et al. [
58] found that general organisational support significantly contributes to organisations’ behaviour towards green promotion. Prior to this study, some scholars suggested that the cultural development of promoting environmental values and pro-environmental behaviour is greatly influenced by the organisation’s management [
59,
60]. Robertson and Barling [
61] found that a leader’s pro-environmental behaviour significantly influences the employees in the organisation. These researchers also determined that the leader must possess transformational leadership qualities to transfer his or her pro-environmental behaviour to employees. A leader also feels that the environmental values must be shared with his or her fellow employees so that they can achieve pro-environmental behaviour together. The leader will also help employees understand environmental issues. The leader should establish a very candid relationship with his or her employees to implement pro-environmental behaviour in the organisation.
2.4. Employees’ Green Motivation and the Green Behaviour of the Company
For any organisational environment, employees are the drivers of all productive practices. For example, employees have active roles from the manufacturing to the marketing of a product. To date, much of the scholarly studies have addressed employees’ physical and psychological states, including their motivational states. The management of any organisation has to perform proficiently to deal with employees’ motivational factors. When employees become motivated to welcome green approaches in the organisational setup, that particular firm gains a competitive market advantage [
62]. Afterwards, Ho et al. [
63] found that when priority is given to innovative and creative management, the employees of the organisation will be more willing to adopt green approaches in the organisation. The understanding of a strong commitment by the employees about the organisation will motivate them to shape their behaviour according to the organisation’s goals, values, sustainability and greening initiatives [
64].
Further, employees’ motivation towards environmental behaviour in a company is influenced by factors such as their concerns about the environment, likelihood of organisational support for employees, initiatives and efforts to achieve environmental goals, a positive commitment to the organisation, perceived organisational support for employees’ environmental efforts, affective organisational commitment, organisational social responsibilities related to environmental behaviour, and the total amount of time they spend on the organisation [
65]. Concern for the environment among the management will facilitate the adoption of green approaches in the organisational setting and is an effective approach to enhance the performance of firms and secure a competitive advantage [
66]. Similarly, Dibrell et al. [
66] stated that concern for the environment among the top management has become a part of the culture in many organisations that broadens opportunities for the organisation since the top management monitors customers’ perceptions and competitors’ strategic initiatives related to green aspects. Robertson and Barling [
61] noted that transformational leadership and a conducive workplace trigger pro-environmental behaviour, which is due to employees’ harmonious environmental interests. The authors further found that leaders’ descriptive norms, leadership and pro-environmental behaviour play key roles in adopting green approaches in the organisation.
Furthermore, there are different types of motivational factors, which could be mainly divided into the two factors of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, that underlie the theory of consumption values. This theory is widely used by researchers, particularly to motivate consumers to buy or not buy a specific product [
67]. Zailani, et al. [
68] applied this theory to identify the key factors that influence consumers’ willingness to pay for biofuels. Wojewnik-Filipkowska et al. [
69] included various factors of consumption theory, namely, functional, conditional, emotional and social values, as motivators for their infrastructure project. However, there is a lack of studies that have applied the theory of consumption values to employees’ motivation for green behaviour.
The theory of planned behaviour developed by Aizen [
70] has been applied to determine how the attitudes of managers influence the environmental decision-making process. Some studies have shown that the environmental behaviour of employees is strongly influenced by their intention to gain green knowledge and their daily green behavioural practices in the organisation [
71,
72]. Chou [
73] used two-level linear hierarchical models that included factors at the individual and group levels that significantly reflect employees’ environmental beliefs and behaviour. The author found that green organisations had a direct moderating relationship with individual environmental norms since they directly stimulate employees’ behaviour related to the environment, whereas individual beliefs towards the environment indirectly influenced employees’ behaviour.