Employees' environmental initiative participation: the role of values, ecological worldview and cost-benefit perceptions

Purpose Understanding antecedents to employees' participation in organizations' environmental initiatives (EIs) is essential to increasing their EI engagement and achieving organizations' pro-environmental goals. This study tested an extended theory of planned behavior model exploring whether employees' (1) values, (2) ecological worldview and (3) perceptions of the costs and benefits of an EI predict their attitudes to EI participation and intentions to participate more. Design/methodology/approach A survey was completed by 209 US employees who had taken part in an EI at their organization. Measures included cost and benefit perceptions of EIs, theory of planned behavior constructs, values and ecological worldview. Structural equation modeling, including confirmatory factor analysis, was used in the analysis. Findings The proposed measurement and structural equations model fit the data. Key findings show that employees' perceptions of EI benefits positively predicted attitudes to participation, while costs negatively predicted attitudes to participation. Costs also negatively predicted perceived behavioral control. Benefits had positive effects on subjective norms and indirect effects on intentions to increase participation. The effects of values and ecological worldview in the model were insignificant or weak. Values explained minimal additional variance. Originality/value This study addresses a gap in research on employees' values and perceptions of the costs and benefits of EI participation as antecedents to their attitudes to participating in an EI and intentions to participate more. The findings demonstrate the potential importance of employees' cost-benefit perceptions over values for organizations seeking to enhance employees' EI participation through green human resource management, such as internally marketing EI participation.