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Assessing the effect of sustainability training on employee green behaviours and evaluating the potential moderating effect of organisational support on their green behaviours
Date
2025-09-30
Abstract
Human behaviour is recognised as one of the main drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss. Many Irish businesses are aiming to become more environmentally sustainable and changing their employee behaviours can be the driver for them to achieve this aim. Employee green behaviour (EGB) is a construct which includes behaviours that employees engage in which contributes to the environmental sustainability of an organisation. Green training (GT) has been identified as potentially the most effective method for changing EGB, yet little is known about its effect on EGB in an Irish context. Combined with GT, green perceived organisational support (GPOS), the degree to which employees feel their organisation values and supports EGB, may play an important and role in moderating the relationship between GT and EGB, but as yet, it has not been studied in an Irish context.
This study addresses these knowledge gaps and assesses the effect of GT on EGBs and the moderating effect of GPOS on the relationship between GT and EGBs. A quantitative survey was conducted on employees from over 8 different industries working in Ireland who had completed a sustainability training programme. It was found that GT had a statistically significant and positive effect on EGB, and GPOS had a statistically significant, positive and strengthening effect on the relationship between GT and EGB. Through the development of a novel survey combining previously tested measurement items, this study tested EGB and GPOS in their fullest form to date in an Irish context and opens up new areas for potential future research.
The findings from this study supports calls to increase the provision of GT to assist Irish businesses in reducing their environmental impact. It also demonstrates the importance of continued organisational supports post-training to strengthen the transfer of behaviours from a GT programme to the workplace.
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Publisher
University of Limerick
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Funding Information
Sustainable Development Goals
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Type
Thesis
Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/