Integrating green strategy and green human resource practices to trigger individual and organizational green performance the role of environmentally

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Journal of Sustainable Tourism

ISSN: 0966-9582 (Print) 1747-7646 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/rsus20

Integrating green strategy and green human

resource practices to trigger individual and

organizational green performance: the role of

environmentally-specific servant leadership

Trong Tuan Luu

To cite this article: Trong Tuan Luu (2020) Integrating green strategy and green human

resource practices to trigger individual and organizational green performance: the role ofenvironmentally-specific servant leadership, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 28:8, 1193-1222,DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2020.1729165

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1729165

Published online: 21 Feb 2020

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Integrating green strategy and green human resource

practices to trigger individual and organizational green

performance: the role of environmentally-specific

servant leadership

Trong Tuan Luu

Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

ABSTRACT

Integrating strategic, top-down management and employee-oriented,

bottom-up approaches, this inquiry proposes a research model in which

green management initiatives (i.e., the fusion of green strategy and

green human resource practices) influence organizational green

per-formance and in turn organizational perper-formance This research model

was comparatively tested in South Korean and Vietnamese tourism

ser-vice contexts The research results revealed that in both samples,

envir-onmentally-specific servant leadership mediated the top-down

relationship between green management initiatives and employees’

organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE), and

employee OCBE mediated the bottom-up relationship between

environ-mentally-specific servant leadership and organizational green

perform-ance Nonetheless, while the mediating role of organizational green

performance for the link between employee OCBE and organizational

performance was corroborated in the Korean sample, this mediation

mechanism was not found in the Vietnamese sample Implications for

green management literature and practice are presented

ARTICLE HISTORY

Received 7 October 2019 Accepted 9 February 2020

KEYWORDS

Employees ’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment; environmen- tally-specific servant leadership; green human resource practices; green strategy; organizational green

performance; Vietnam

Introduction

One of the ways through which organizations demonstrate their corporate social responsibility(CSR) toward the community is green performance (Kasemsap,2018) However, many organiza-tions have not demonstrated genuine or sincere social responsibility via green policies but CSR-washed or greenwashed (i.e., deceived) their stakeholders (Coombs & Holladay, 2012; Donia,Ronen, Sirsly, & Bonaccio, 2019) In the tourism and hospitality industry, many organizationalcampaigns for environmental protection turned out to be symbolic since these initiatives werehighly visible (hence allowing organizations to appear committed to the cause) but had a largecost-saving advantage, whereas less visible and less cost-saving green activities such as recyclingwere rarely in place (Siegle,2009) Nonetheless, according to Pope and Waeraas (2016), success-ful CSR-washing and greenwashing are not rampant as the dominant perception among a vocalcontingent of academics, and profitability is very unlikely to follow from such insincere practices.Organizations’ genuine green performance has been reportedly linked to organizational

CONTACT Trong Tuan Luu luutrongtuan@gmail.comttluu@swin.edu.au Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.

ß 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

2020, VOL 28, NO 8, 1193 –1222

https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1729165

performance (Obeidat, Al Bakri, & Elbanna, 2018), competitive advantage (Dangelico &Pontrandolfo,2015), and sustainable growth (Kushwaha & Sharma, 2016).

Regardless of the salience of organizations’ green performance and its link to organizationalperformance (Obeidat et al.,2018), empirical studies have tapped mainly into organization-levelantecedents of organizational green performance (Obeidat et al.,2018) and relatively overlookedantecedents at the individual level (Kim, Kim, Choi, & Phetvaroon, 2019; Pham, Thanh, Tu
ckova, &Thuy,2019) Neglecting the magnitude of individuals in examining an organization’s green per-formance is problematic since it diminishes their roles as key assets of an organization (Safavi &Bouzari,2019) and as proactive agents of organizational green performance (Zhang, Luo, Zhang,

& Zhao, 2019) Prior research has not sufficiently unravelled how an organization’s green formance originates from mechanisms at the organizational level, especially the integration ofgreen strategy and green HR practices, through the impact of such mechanisms on individuals(Kim, Kim, et al., 2019)

per-Though both green strategy and green human resource (HR) practices are focal to the agement of the human factors of organizational green performance in general business as well

man-as in the tourism industry (Chen, Tang, Jin, Li, & Paille, 2015; Kim, Kim, et al., 2019; Singjai,Winata, & Kummer, 2018), the predictive role of their integration for organizational green per-formance has been comparatively neglected in prior empirical work especially in the tourism ser-vice sector Investigations into this integration are crucial due to Ostroff and Bowen (2016)emphasis on the consistency in signals from HR practices and other aspects in the organization’sstrategic posture, as well as Oke, Walumbwa, and Myers (2012) evidence regarding the inter-action and integration of strategies and HR policies for organizational innovation performance.Our research seeks to cover the above gaps by answering the following research question: Howdoes the integration of green strategy and green HR practices (termed“green management ini-tiatives” from this point on) influence organizational green performance and in turn organiza-tional performance through a microlevel process of supervisors’ leadership and employees’behavior? This study focuses on environmentally-specific servant leadership and employees’organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) Environmentally-specific servantleadership, through the lens of Liden, Wayne, Liao, and Meuser (2014) perspective of servantleadership, alludes to leading with a motivation to engage and serve followers in their pursuit ofpro-environmental goals and contributions (Luu,2018) By OCBE, we refer to discretionary behav-iors not expected of employees in formal job descriptions that contribute to render their organ-ization and/or society more environmentally-friendly and sustainable (Lamm, Tosti-Kharas, &Williams,2013, p 165)

From the main research question aforementioned, the current study addresses two aims: 1)investigating the macro-level relationships between the integration of green strategy and green

HR practices and organizational green performance and in turn organizational performance; and2) examining the micro-level process of environmentally-specific servant leadership andemployee OCBE for such relationships Our research model is drawn upon Coleman’s (1990)framework for macro-micro-macro-level interactions and strategic human resource management(HRM) perspective (Jiang, Takeuchi, & Lepak, 2013) According to Coleman’s (1990) framework,organizational capabilities and performance are rooted in the actions and interactions of individ-uals and organizational context to which they are exposed (Barney & Felin, 2013; Foss, 2011).Strategic HRM perspective further advocates that HR practices contribute to organizational per-formance through building human capital (Jiang et al., 2013) To cast light on the micro-levelprocess of environmentally-specific servant leadership and employee OCBE, the current studywill apply multiple theories used in the green management literature including social informationprocessing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer,1978), social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989), socialcognitive perspective (Bandura, 1999), the value-belief–norm theory (VBN) (Oreg & Katz-Gerro,

2006; Stern, Dietz, Abel, Guagnano, & Kalof, 1999), and the organismic motivational theory ofRyan and Deci (2000) self-determination theory

Based on a comparative analysis in the tourism industry in two non-Western contexts with acertain extent of environmentalism divergence: Vietnam and South Korea, this study contributes

to the existing literature in various ways First, the current study extends organizational greenperformance research in the tourism discipline by conceptually identifying and empirically inves-tigating an integration mechanism (i.e.,“green management initiatives”) as an organization-levelprecursor of organizational green performance and in turn organizational performance Second,this study indicates that this predictive relationship is mediated through a microlevel process ofenvironmentally-specific servant leadership and employee OCBE Our research hence providesfurther empirical endorsement for Coleman’s (1990) macro-micro-macro-level framework withrespect to a specific organizational performance (i.e., organizational green performance) So far,this framework has been empirically validated in works on organizational innovation (Distel,

2019; Do, Budhwar, & Patel, 2018; Oke et al., 2012) Third, our research contributes to servantleadership research by identifying environmentally-specific servant leadership as a crucial build-ing block for translating green management initiatives into employee OCBE This study thusoffers new insights into how environmentally-specific servant leadership is associated with organ-izational green performance and how it can be shaped by organizational antecedents

As the last contribution, this study provides contextual insights through its comparative lysis of the effects of green management initiatives on organizational outcomes through amicro-level process in two non-Western contexts, namely South Korea and Vietnam South Koreaand Vietnam are deemed to be attractive tourist destinations but with almost similar cultural val-ues but different degrees of environmental sustainability (Ho,2015; Kim & Shin,2017) (to be fur-ther discussed in the literature review section) Therefore, examining a research model of greenmanagement initiatives in South Korea and Vietnam can offer a nuanced perspective on whetherWestern theorizing holds valid in non-Western cultures, as well as whether any differences infindings occur in two culturally similar Asian contexts with some environmentalist distinction

ana-Literature review

South Korea and Vietnam: cultural values and environmentalism

This study compares the model in two Asian countries—South Korea and Vietnam Griffith, Hu,and Ryans (2000), based on the Hofstede’s (1991) cultural dimensions, suggested two extremecultural types for research: Type I (individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, and low long-termorientation) and Type II (collectivism, high uncertainty avoidance, and high long-term orienta-tion) South Korea and Vietnam relatively belong to type II group vis-a-vis Western developedcountries mainly pertaining to type I group South Korea and Vietnam were focused on in thisresearch since they share many Asian cultural values but represent differences in terms of envir-onmental policy and practices In light of Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov (2010) metric, SouthKorea scores higher (85) in terms of uncertainty avoidance than Vietnam does (30) Barringuncertainty avoidance index, other cultural dimension indexes of South Korea and Vietnam arevirtually analogous including collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and indulgence (Hill,

2016; Khosrowjerdi, Sundqvist, & Bystr€om, 2019) Even in terms of long-term orientation, whileSouth Korea scores the highest (100), Vietnam scores lower (57), but still pertains to the group

of long-term orientation (Hill, 2016; Khosrowjerdi et al., 2019) However, studies have indicatedthat ethical perception and behavior (e.g., pro-environmental attitude and behavior) may differacross nations albeit the participants pertain to the similar cultural values (e.g., Asian collectiv-ism) (Chatterjee & Pearson,2003; Chung, Eichenseher, & Taniguchi,2008)

South Korea and Vietnam have different histories with respect to environmentalism and onmental policy Environmentalism in Vietnam is a comparatively recent phenomenon Since thelaunch of open-door policy in 1986, Vietnam has experienced rapid industrialization and eco-nomic growth, which has engendered austere pollution issues Nonetheless, the government

envir-dismissed their magnitude until 1993 when the government promulgated the law on mental protection (Le, Hollenhorst, Harris, McLaughlin, & Shook, 2006) The implementation ofenvironmental regulations in Vietnam has been of little success over the past 20 years with refer-ence to business compliance (Ho,2015) Empirical evidence has raised question about the role ofinspection activities in enhancing business compliance (Ho,2015).

On the contrary, the South Korean government commenced to actively engage in mental policy issues after the democratization in 1987, along with the global spread of environ-mentalism Since the 1990s, environmentalism has achieved increasing attention from theKorean public (Kern, 2010) South Korea has received consistently high scores onthe Environmental Performance Index (EPI) over the past 15 years, and was highly ranked on the

environ-2018 EPI (60th for South Korea versus 132nd for the Vietnam, out of 180 countries) (Kim &Shin,2017)

These differences in the history of environmentalism and environmental policy indicate thatdifferences in the underlying mechanisms of individuals’ pro-environmental behaviors may existbetween Koreans and Vietnamese The comparative analysis of the current research model mayprovide insights about the discrepancies in environmental performance that may exist betweendifferent nations that are in the same region (Asia) and share cultural values

Role of environmentally-specific servant leadership

Integration of green strategy and green HR practices

From Zhang, Shen, and Wu (2011) view, green strategy can be conceptualized as the degree towhich green activities are a priority in an organization as mirrored in plans or actions that theorganization undertakes to foster green performance Irrespective of being a crucial instrumentthrough which organizations attain green performance, green strategy can serve merely as anecessary condition, but not sufficiently ensure organizations’ green performance without inter-action with relevant management practices, especially HR practices However, in order to buildthe pool of unique workforce for a specific goal such as green goal, organizations should adoptspecific and fine-grained HR practices (Shin & Konrad, 2017) such as green HR practices ratherthan generic HR practices Green HRM practices comprise selection, training, and involvementdesigned to build green or pro-environmental values as well as knowledge and skills related topro-environmental activities (Renwick, Redman, & Maguire, 2013; Tang, Chen, Jiang, Paille, & Jia,

2018) In the tourism and hospitality industry, the relationship has been found between greenstrategy and organizational green performance (Singjai et al.,2018) Green HR practices, if effect-ively implemented, can catalyze green performance at the organizational and individual levels(Pham et al.,2019)

Since HR practices are pivotal to an organization’s strategy (Laursen & Foss,2003), the success

of a green strategy is by and large contingent on green HR practices it implements Throughselection and training, green HR practices can build followers who not just have knowledge andskills to undertake green activities and devise eco-initiatives but also have green values andmotivation to engage and influence others to engage in green tasks Furthermore, through train-ing, involvement, and recognition, green HR practices can shape a pro-environmental climate,which is supportive toward green strategy implementation Expressed differently, green strategyimplementation can be complemented by green HR practices that the organization adopts.Green strategy and green HR practices must be integrated to generate mutual complementar-ity so as to cultivate a pro-environmental environment The integration of these two constructs

in our research is in line with Oke et al (2012) complementarity view that better outcomes can

be yield by the complementarity of different practices This integration is also in tune withOstroff and Bowen (2016) perspective in regards to the consistency in signals from HR practicesand other aspects in the organization’s strategic posture

Environmentally-specific servant leadership

Servant leadership is viewed as leading people with a motivation to serve their needs and ests in their process of task implementation and career development (Liden et al., 2014) Theyact as a role model with empathy, altruistic values and the commitment to the goals of theirgroup (Whittington, 2017) Servant leaders prioritize the interests of stakeholders and demon-strate moral responsibility to organizational sustainability (Ehrhart, 2004; Greenleaf, 1970; Liden

inter-et al.,2014; Whittington,2017)

There has emerged the shift from the focus in which servant leadership behaviors areconceptualized to influence outcomes across diverse contexts, to a focus in which the sameset of servant behaviors focuses on reaching a specific target (e.g., Afsar, Cheema, & Javed,

2018, Luu, 2018) Robertson and Barling (2017) suggest extending the focus of servant ership to the environmental target and assessing the role of such an environmental form ofservant leadership in shaping targeted environmental outcomes Scholars recently have con-ceptualized environmentally-specific servant leadership by extending the focus of target spe-cific servant leadership further to embrace environmental sustainability, and definedenvironmentally-specific servant leaders as leaders who serve as a role model of green val-ues, and serve and help others, such as employees, contribute to the sustainability of theorganization and a larger community (Luu, 2018) As such, environmentally-specific servantleadership is a manifestation of servant leadership in which the content of the leadershipbehaviors is all focused on fostering green behaviors among followers Grounded in VanDierendonck (2011) servant leadership attribute framework, environmentally-specific servantleaders demonstrate authenticity and interpersonal acceptance, direct and develop employees

lead-to be pro-environmental citizens, and display stewardship lead-toward their pro-environmentalcontributions (Luu, 2018)

Employee OCBE

Employees’ green behavior is a specific form of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)(Zientara & Zamojska, 2018) Expanding the definition of OCB, Boiral and Paile (2012) deemorganizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) to be voluntary and not explicitlyrecognized by the formal reward system and contribute to more effective environmental man-agement by the organization (p 431) Employee OCBE comprises eco-civic engagement (volun-tarily engaging in the organization’s environmental activities), eco-helping (voluntarily helpingcolleagues address environmental issues), and eco-initiatives (discretionary contributions in form

of novel environmental solutions) (Boiral & Paille,2012)

However, due to unpredictable customer demands (Youn, Kim, & Song, 2017), long workhours, and heavy workload (Karatepe, Karadas, Azar, & Naderiadib, 2013), frontline employeesespecially in tourism and hospitality organizations may face conflicting time demands betweenin-role and extra-role behaviors, and thus find it difficult or costly to go the extra mile in theirwork (Bolino, Klotz, Turnley, & Harvey, 2013) They may feel pressured when they engage inmore discretionary citizenship behaviors such as OCBE that go beyond their in-role obligations(Bolino et al., 2013), since such extra-role behaviors are often informally encouraged andrewarded, as well as augment their workload (Youn et al.,2017) Hence, to trigger OCBE amongfollowers, organizations and leaders should communicate strong signals on serving employees intheir pursuit of green goals by equipping them with relevant green-related knowledge and skills,and helping them alleviate intrapersonal conflicts Such strong signals can be created throughthe integration of green strategy and green HR practices as well as through servant leaders whocan communicate signals from green strategy, expose employees to green HR practices, and cul-tivate favourable conditions for employees’ engagement in OCBE

Role of environmentally-specific servant leadership

The mutual complementarity of green strategy and green HR practices can provide employeeswith resources (i.e., green values and green-related knowledge and skills) with which they candevelop capability and motivation to contribute to green goals of the organization Nonetheless,the relationship between HR practices and performance tends to be distal and is mediated by amore proximal HR outcome that HR practices aims to foster (Jiang et al.,2013) Such a proximal

HR outcome can function as a channel to carry the remote resources from HR practices closer toemployees Leadership, which may develop under the influence of HR practices (Do et al.,2018;Han, Liao, Taylor, & Kim, 2018), can serve as such a channel as well as contribute to enhanceemployees’ repertoire of resources through role modelling of values and behaviors and providingsupport

An organization’s strategic choice and structure may influence leadership behavior pattern(Clarke & Higgs, 2016; Stordeur, Vandenberghe, & D’hoore, 2000) For instance, directive leader-ship is more prevalent when an organization strategically targets the improvement of its financialperformance (Clarke & Higgs,2016) Transformational leadership has been found to thrive whenstrategic HRM focuses on organizational change (Han et al.,2018) Do et al (2018) reported thatservant leadership tends to develop under innovation-led strategy and HR practices and serves

as a mediation mechanism linking such management initiatives (i.e., innovation-led strategy and

HR practices) and employee innovative behavior Due to the alignment between tally-specific servant leadership and green management initiatives in terms of serving others’and a wider community’s development and sustainability (Liden et al., 2014), environmentally-specific servant leadership is likely to emerge under the influence of green managementinitiatives

environmen-The development of environmentally-specific servant leadership under the interaction ofgreen strategy and green HR practices (i.e., green management initiatives) can be explainedthrough social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer,1978) In light of social informa-tion processing perspective, the social environment in which individuals operate shapes theirattitudes and since the milieu provides “a direct construction of meaning through guides tosocially acceptable beliefs, attitudes, and needs, and acceptable reasons for action” (Salancik &Pfeffer, 1978, p 227) Individuals make sense of their work environments by interpreting cuesthat surround them Sense-making legitimizes a behavior and rationalizes behavioral develop-ment (Wu, Wu, & Yuan, 2019) Therefore, making sense of a green work environment by inter-preting cues from green strategy and green HR practices, leaders themselves may adoptenvironmentally-specific servant leadership behavior to facilitate the transmission of such cues totheir followers We consequently postulate that:

H1 Green management initiatives (i.e., the complementarity of green strategy and green HR practices) are positively related to employees ’ perceptions of environmentally-specific servant leadership.

Environmentally-specific servant leaders communicate green messages from green strategy oftheir organization and transmit their pride in their socially responsible organization to their fol-lowers When followers perceive their organization being socially and environmentally respon-sible, their self-esteem, self-distinctiveness, and self-continuity increase (Farooq, Rupp, & Farooq,

2017) Followers then deem their organization attractive, find a fit between themselves and theirorganization (person-organization fit), and identify strongly with it (Tian & Robertson, 2019;Zientara & Zamojska,2018) In light of social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael,1989), an individu-

al’s identification with and attachment to an entity drives their propensity to dedicate and fice for that relationship Hence, the identification with their organization throughenvironmentally-specific servant leaders’ communication may lead employees to devote to theorganization’s green strategy by engaging in OCBE

sacri-Further, servant leaders lead people by first seeking to understand their existing resources(knowledge, skills, values, motivation) and serving them in an appropriate way (Eva, Robin,

Sendjaya, van Dierendonck, & Liden,2018; Liden et al.,2014) Through a profound understanding

of their existing resources, environmentally-specific servant leaders can expose them to ate green training opportunities so that they can acquire green-related knowledge and skills aswell as develop green values Environmentally-specific servant leaders further serve as a rolemodel for employees to observe how to act pro-environmentally for the green strategy Servantleaders also represent the organization as cultivating a supportive environment for followers toperform (Zhang, Kwong Kwan, Everett, & Jian, 2012) Environmentally-specific servant leaderstranslate green management practices into green goals and norms, thereby cultivating a greenfacilitative environment Expressed differently, working with environmentally-specific servantleaders, followers are exposed to green training, modelling of green values, and a green work-place environment, and thus likely to internalize green values In light of the value-belief–normtheory (VBN) (Oreg & Katz-Gerro,2006), an individual who holds certain values and believes thatthose values are jeopardized experiences a duty (personal norm) to act in defence of those val-ues (Stern et al.,1999) Thus, internalizing green values, employees feel responsible for acting tosustain these green values by engaging in OCBE

appropri-Social cognitive perspective further portrays the interactive relationships between mental factors, self-concepts, and behavior as a triadic reciprocity (Bandura, 2008) Working in agreen supportive environment that environmentally-specific servant leaders nurture, employeesmay further internalize green values into their self-concept The interaction between the greennorms and the self-concept may shape OCBE among employees Besides, through socio-cognitivelens on a triadic reciprocity, individuals are not only reactive to external influences but also pro-active and able to self-regulate (Bandura, 1999) Therefore, working in a green environmentunder environmentally-specific servant leadership, employees not only respond to the greennorms but likewise proactively engage in OCBE to conserve these norms Further, through socialinformation processing lens (Salancik & Pfeffer,1978), by interpreting cues from a work environ-ment of green norms, sense making may emerge and legitimize green behaviors, thereby acti-vating employee engagement in OCBE

environ-In light of the organismic motivational theory of Ryan and Deci (2000) self-determination, tain social and environmental forces, such as leadership, can help shape an individual’s autono-mous motivation Through facilitating employees’ internalization of green values, leaders canfoster autonomous motivation for the environment among employees (Han, Wang, & Yan,2019).Through self-determination lens, having highly autonomous motivation, employees are inclined

cer-to engage in OCB on account of an augmenting desire cer-to be causal agents within their own lives

in an attempt to act congruently with their integrated views of the self (Deci & Vansteenkiste,

2004) As employees’ belief is more environmentally friendly while working with tally-specific servant leaders, their autonomous motivation will steer them to act in a way that isharmonious with that belief (Kim, McGinley, Choi, & Agmapisarn, 2019) such as in the form ofOCBE (Raineri & Paille,2016)

environmen-Furthermore, in a green workplace environment that environmentally-specific servant leaderscultivate, followers perceive that they are supported and safe to propose and implement eco-ini-tiatives With further green-related resources (i.e., green-related knowledge and values) accrued

in such a supportive environment, employees are motivated to invest their resources in greenactivities and in the generation of eco-initiatives beyond the minimum expectations (Luu,2019a),

as well as become“servant leaders” who influence and assist colleagues to behave mentally In other words, environmentally-specific servant leaders can translate green manage-ment initiatives into a green workplace environment that facilitates employee OCBE Takentogether, we posit the following:

pro-environ-H2 Employees ’ perceptions of environmentally-specific servant leadership are positively related to employee OCBE.

H3 Employees ’ perceptions of environmentally-specific servant leadership mediate the relationship between green management initiatives (i.e., the complementarity of green strategy and green HR practices) and employee OCBE.

Role of employee OCBE

Servant leadership is associated with organizational performance through serving followers’ ests and bonding them around organizational goals and interests (Linuesa-Langreo, Ruiz-Palomino, & Elche-Hortelano, 2018) Environmentally-specific servant leaders bond followersaround the green goal of the organization By modelling and providing support, they shapeemployees into“servant leaders” with OCBE, who in turn influence colleagues to serve the greengoal OCB can be collectively aggregated in virtue of a contagion process (Shin, 2012) OCBEamong employees can thus aggregate and culminate in organizational green performance.Moreover, since individual creativity functions as a starting point in innovation processes (Bidault

inter-& Castello,2009), employees’ eco-initiatives are a contributing factor to organizational green formance Empirical evidence has been found for the relationship between employee greenbehavior at a unit level and green performance of the organization (Alt & Spitzeck,2016)

per-In conjunction with the previous reasoning on the nexus between environmentally-specificservant leadership and employee OCBE, we anticipate employee OCBE to position itself as pre-dictor for organizational green performance and as a channel that mediates the nexus betweenenvironmentally-specific servant leadership and organizational green performance:

H4 Employee OCBE is positively related to organizational green performance.

H5 Employee OCBE mediates the relationship between employees ’ perceptions of environmentally-specific servant leadership and organizational green performance.

Role of organizational green performance

Green performance is viewed as the actual outcome of efforts in conserving the environment(De Burgos-Jimenez, Vazquez-Brust, Plaza-Ubeda, & Dijkshoorn, 2013, p 984) Organizationalgreen performance reflects a long-term perspective, continuous efficiency improvement, andcontinuous innovation (De Burgos-Jimenez et al., 2013; Dixon-Fowler, Slater, Johnson, Ellstrand, &Romi,2013; Porter & Van der Linde,1995)

Mixed results have emerged in prior research regarding the relationship between tional green performance and financial performance (Henri & Journeault, 2010) On the onehand, some research has reported the negative link between organizational green performanceand financial outcomes (Palmer, Oates, & Portney, 1995; Wagner, Van Phu, Azomahou, &Wehrmeyer,2002) The premises for this negative link are that adding constraints on the organ-ization with regard to addressing environmental standards may not lead to enhanced profit(Obeidat et al., 2018) and that employees with conflicting time demands may not respond toenvironmental agenda and customers may be driven by price of services rather than corporateenvironmentalism (Sandhu, Ozanne, Smallman, & Cullen,2010)

organiza-Other studies, on the other hand, have supported the positive consequences of organizationalgreen performance on both financial and non-financial performances (e.g., De Burgos-Jimenez

et al., 2013; Feng & Wang,2016; Lee, Cin, & Lee,2016) Environmental responsibility may enhancecorporate financial performance, measured by return on equity and return on assets (Lee et al.,

2016) albeit the effect of environmental performance on financial outcomes was higher in relativelydirty and non-proactive industries than in comparatively clean and proactive contexts (Lucas &Noordewier, 2016) Financial gains can be enhanced through revenue enhancement and costreduction (De Burgos-Jimenez et al., 2013; Nishitani, Jannah, & Kaneko, 2017) Revenue can be

enhanced through improvements in product quality, better access to markets, and increased porate reputation and image, whereas cost reduction can be attained through mitigating a waste

cor-of resources and environmental incidents (De Burgos-Jimenez et al., 2013) Organizational greenperformance may also contribute to financial gains through enhancing customer satisfaction andcustomer loyalty (Feng & Wang,2016) Singjai et al (2018) found that environmental performanceleads to cost competitiveness and competitive advantage through differentiation

Numerous empirical studies have further found evidence for the positive nexus betweenorganizational green performance and overall organizational performance (e.g., De Burgos-Jimenez et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2016; Obeidat et al., 2018; Singjai et al., 2018) For instance, DeBurgos-Jimenez et al (2013) empirically found a positive link between environmental perform-ance and organizational performance Obeidat et al (2018) reported the positive nexus betweenenvironmental performance and both financial and non-financial performances

This study follows the stream of research which argues for the positive nexus between izational green performance and organizational performance based on two grounds First, argu-ments for the positive relationship between organizational green performance andorganizational performance are stronger and are supported by many empirical works (Obeidat

organ-et al., 2018) as discussed above Second, the current study considers both financial and financial aspects of organizational performance rather than focusing merely on financial perform-ance measures In juxtaposition with the prior discussion on the link between employee OCBEand organizational green performance, we can position employee OCBE as an antecedent fororganizational performance mediated by organizational green performance:

non-H6 Organizational green performance is positively related to organizational performance.

H7 Organizational green performance mediates the relationship between employee OCBE and organizational performance.

Figure 1summarizes the hypothesized relationships in this study

Research methods

Sampling

This research targeted the population of tour companies in South Korea and Vietnam Snowballsampling approach was utilized to approach tour companies and their participants especially inthe South Korean context, since this approach is helpful in case of lack of adequate contact listsand sampling frames for the investigation into the population (Hendricks & Blanken, 1992) par-ticularly in the hospitality and tourism industry (Dhar,2016) The requirements for the selection

of tour companies comprise an established environmental policy and the minimum of 100Figure 1 Research model.

employees (Dhar,2015; Dumont, Shen, & Deng, 2017) The chief executives of five tour nies in Vietnam connected the researchers to other Vietnam-based tour companies that met theselection requirements, which then connected the researchers to tour companies in South Korea.

compa-62 tour companies in Vietnam and 53 tour companies in South Korea agreed to partake inour surveys We invited company managers, HR managers, and supervisors to participate in emailquestionnaire surveys We further asked supervisors to help spread the link to employee ques-tionnaire version to their subordinates To match responses from supervisors and their subordi-nates, each employee participant was requested to choose a five-digit number to enter theirresponse and give it to his or her supervisor

We performed a two-wave data collection process The likelihood to address ensuing tions using previously provided responses or contextually provided retrieval cues could be miti-gated through the temporal separation between the collection of the data for independent,mediating, and dependent variables (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Podsakoff, 2012) Moreover, twosurvey waves at least are required for mediation path testing (Cole & Maxwell,2003) In the firstsurvey wave (T1), company managers and/or HR managers were invited to provide data forgreen management initiatives, and employees were requested to provide data for environmen-tally-specific servant leadership In the second survey wave (T2), which occurred three monthsfollowing T1, employee OCBE was rated by their direct supervisors, and the data on organiza-tional green performance and organizational performance were collected from company manag-ers Through this multiple-respondent approach, common method variance (CMV) bias can bealleviated (Zhong, Wayne, & Liden, 2016) since data for environmentally-specific servant leader-ship and employee OCBE were not collected from the same participants (i.e., employees).Eliminating non-response and missing data resulted in the final Vietnamese sample of 483employees, 136 supervisors, and 101 firm managers and/or HR managers from 52 tour compa-nies (response rate: 83.9%) From these respondents from the Vietnamese sample, we obtained

ques-101 responses pertaining to organization-level variables and 483 responses pertaining to ual-level variables The final Korean sample consisted of 416 employees, 121 supervisors, and 87firm managers and/or HR managers from 46 tour companies (response rate: 86.8%) From theserespondents from the Korean sample, we obtained 87 responses pertaining to organization-levelvariables and 416 responses pertaining to individual-level variables Out of the Vietnameseemployees (61.5% female), their average age was 28.64 years (SD ¼ 5.91), and their averageorganizational tenure was 6.21 years (SD ¼ 3.83) Among the Korean employees (57.2% female),their average age was 31.52 years (SD ¼ 6.39), and their average organizational tenure was7.97 years (SD¼ 4.08) Participants’ demographic attributes are displayed inTable 1

individ-Non-response bias was assessed by comparing early respondents (i.e., those participating inT1 survey) with late respondents (i.e., those participating in T2 survey) in terms of demographiccharacteristics of the sample (Armstrong & Overton,1977) T-tests denoted non-significant differ-ences between the two groups of respondents in terms of managers’ and employees’ age, gen-der, education, and organizational tenure in both samples Non-response bias is hence not agrave concern in the current research

Measures

Unless otherwise stipulated, a five-point Likert scale (1¼ ‘strongly disagree’, 5 ¼ ‘strongly agree’)was utilized to solicit participants’ responses Built through translation and back translation proc-esses (Schaffer & Riordan, 2003), the Korean version of the original English measure scales wasemployed for the Korean sample and the Vietnamese version was employed for the Vietnamesesample Measurement items in the English version of the questionnaire are displayed inTable 2.The index of green management initiatives was assessed through the integration of greenstrategy implementation and green HR practices Green strategy implementation was measured

through a seven-item scale from Banerjee, Iyer, and Kashyap (2003) and green HR practices weremeasured through a six-item scale from Dumont et al (2017) The fit of a second-order factor ofgreen management initiatives index from its two component dimensions was confirmatory-ana-lyzed A 12-item scale that Luu (2018) adapted from Liden, Wayne, Zhao, and Henderson (2008)was utilized to assess environmentally-specific servant leadership Employee OCBE was estimatedvia Boiral and Paille (2012) ten-item scale Organizational green performance was measuredthrough a four-item scale, which was the adaptation of Paille, Chen, Boiral, and Jin (2014) instru-ment from a manufacturing to a service context Obeidat et al (2018) eight-item scale wasemployed to assess organizational performance.

Control variables Employees’ age, gender, educational level, and tenure within their tion served as control variables by virtue of the link of employee behavioral responses to thesedemographic attributes (Fu & Deshpande,2014)

organiza-Common method bias

To mitigate the potential contaminating impact of common method variance (CMV) bias, thisstudy followed statistical treatments Following the common method factor approach (Chang,van Witteloostuijn, & Eden, 2010), the variance explained by the common factor was 29, underthe 50 cutoff value suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981) We further followed Lindell andWhitney (2001) marker variable approach, in which a marker variable (i.e., attitude toward socialmedia usage) that was theoretically unrelated to other variables was included into the survey Allsignificant zero-order correlations remained significant after the marker variable was partialledout These results indicate a low threat of CMV bias in the findings

Results

Measurement models

Following Byrne (2008), the cross-cultural equivalence was first assessed for the five-latent factormeasurement model Fit indices used to estimate the model-data fit include Tucker–Lewis

Table 1 Participants ’ demographic attributes.

Vietnamese sample Korean sample Employees (N ¼ 483) Managers (N ¼ 101) Employees (N ¼ 416) Managers (N ¼ 87) Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Age

Female 297 61.49 38 37.62 238 57.21 56 64.36 Male 181 37.47 63 62.37 169 40.62 31 35.63 Prefer not to say 5 1.03 0 0.00 9 2.16 0 0.00 Educational level

High school degree or lower 121 25.05 5 4.95 147 35.33 3 3.44 Bachelor ’s degree or equivalent 317 65.63 82 81.18 238 57.21 68 78.16 Master ’s degree or higher 45 9.31 14 13.86 31 7.45 16 18.39 Organizational tenure

Table 2 Measurement items and loadings.

Constructs and measurement items Standardized loadings t values Green management initiatives (Green strategy 1 Green HR practices) (a

In our company, quality includes reducing the environmental impact of

products and processes.

.81 11.25

At our company, we make every effort to link environmental objectives with

our other corporate goals.

.84 11.93 Our company is engaged in developing products and processes that

minimize environmental impact.

.79 9.66 Environmental protection is the driving force behind our

environmental impact.

.80 10.49 Green HR practices

My company sets green goals for its employees .83 11.46

My company provides employees with green training to promote

green values.

.85 12.64

My company provides employees with green training to develop employees ’

knowledge and skills required for green management.

My supervisor cares about my eco-initiatives .84a

My supervisor emphasizes the importance of contributing to the

environmental improvement.

.86 12.38

My supervisor is involved in environmental activities .83 11.72

I am encouraged by my supervisor to volunteer in environmental activities .79 10.06

My supervisor has a thorough understanding of our company and its

environmental goals.

.81 11.24

My supervisor encourages me to contribute eco-initiatives .78 9.61

My supervisor gives me the freedom to handle environmental problems in

the way that I feel is best.

.82 11.47

My supervisor does what she/he can do to realize my eco-initiatives .80 10.22

My supervisor holds high environmental standards .84 11.56

My supervisor always displays green behaviors .83 11.41

My supervisor would not compromise environmental principles in order to

This employee actively participates in environmental events organized in

and/or by our company.

.80aThis employee stays informed of our company ’s environmental initiatives .85 12.16 This employee undertakes environmental actions that contribute positively

to the image of our company.

.82 11.59 This employee volunteers for projects, endeavours or events that address

environmental issues in our company.

.79 9.81 Eco-helping

This employee spontaneously gives his/her time to help his/her colleagues

take the environment into account in everything they do at work.

.81 11.42 This employee encourages his/her colleagues to adopt more

environmentally conscious behaviour.

.86 12.73 This employee encourages his/her colleagues to express their ideas and

opinions on environmental issues.

.84 12.46 Eco-initiatives

(continued)

coefficient (TLI), incremental fit index (IFI), comparative-fit index (CFI), standardized root meansquare residual (SRMR), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) In light of Graves,Sarkis, and Zhu (2013) view, Type I and Type II errors were balanced by abiding by 08 as anupper threshold for SRMR and RMSEA and 95 as a lower threshold for TLI, IFI, and CFI.

Our study tested and compared configural and metric equivalence models through DCFI,rather thanDv2 (Byrne,2008; Vandenberg, 2002) Results unveiled adequate fits in the configuralequivalence model (v2 ¼ 1,685.88; df ¼ 892; TLI ¼ 95; IFI ¼ 96; CFI ¼ 95; SRMR ¼ 056; RMSEA

¼ 040 (90% CI [.036, 045])) and the metric equivalence model (v2 ¼ 1,569.48; df ¼ 902; TLI ¼.96; IFI¼ 96; CFI ¼ 95; SRMR ¼ 051; RMSEA ¼ 038 (90% CI [.031, 043])) No significant differ-ence emerged between the configural and metric equivalence models by virtue ofDCFI (¼ 009),being below 01

Internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity

Internal consistency was established through Cronbach’s a and composite reliability (CR) (Fornell

& Lacker, 1981) AsTable 3 presents, in both Korean and Vietnamese samples, Cronbach’s a andcomposite reliability coefficients exceeded the cutoff threshold of 70 (Bagozzi & Yi,1988).Convergent validity was established through average variance extracted (AVE) indices AVEindices surpassed the 50 benchmark level (Fornell & Larcker, 1981) for the constructs in bothKorean and Vietnamese samples (see Table 3) Within-method convergent validity was furthertested by estimating the significance and magnitude of item loadings (Yu, Patterson, & deRuyter,2015) Within-method convergent validity was determined since, after the removal of thelow-loaded items (loadings under 30), items loaded significantly on their respective constructs(minimum t-value ¼ 9.38 > 1.96) and achieved standardized loadings exceeding the 50 cutoffbenchmark (Siponen, Mahmood, & Pahnila,2014)

The hypothesized five-factor model demonstrated a satisfactory model-data fit (v2 ¼ 597.38;

df¼ 289; TLI ¼ 95; IFI ¼ 95; CFI ¼ 95; SRMR ¼ 057; RMSEA ¼ 043 (90% CI [.037, 049])) and abetter fit than that in any alternative models formed by the collapse of antecedent variables (see

Table 2 Continued.

Constructs and measurement items Standardized loadings t values

In his/her work, this employee weighs the consequences of his/her actions

before doing something that could affect the environment.

.78 9.52 This employee voluntarily carries out environmental actions and initiatives in

his/her daily work activities.

.29 b 4.07 This employee makes suggestions to his/her colleagues about ways to

protect the environment more effectively, even when it is not his/her

direct responsibility.

.83 11.65

Organizational green performance ( a 5 83; CR 5 86; AVE 5 71)

Our company reduced waste and emission from operations .87 a

Our company reduced the environmental impact of its services .85 12.54 Our company reduced environmental impact by establishing partnerships .82 10.82 Our company reduced the risk of environmental accidents, spills,

and releases.

.27b 3.38 Organizational performance ( a 5 79; CR 5 79; AVE 5 67)

Company image and reputation in public 83 a

Degree of service quality 84 12.53 Degree of efficiency of customer expectancy 80 10.38 Degree of customer satisfaction 82 11.74 Average sales volume growth 79 9.82 Average profit over the past three years 77 9.57 Average market share growth 26 b 3.26 Average return on investment 81 11.29

a Fixed item

b

Excluded item

Table 4) This lent evidence for the construct distinctiveness or discriminant validity Discriminantvalidity was further endorsed through the correlations of the factors that fell under 90 (Kline,

2011) and average variance extracted of each factor that exceeded the squared value of its relations to other factors (Fornell & Larcker,1981)

cor-Further, an alternative reversed model was fitted to the data In the reversed model, tional green performance functions as an independent variable, leading to employee OCBE andthen environmentally-specific servant leadership, which precedes green management initiatives.The fit statistics of this model was worse than the fit of the hypothesized model: v2/df ¼852.39/297¼ 2.87, TLI ¼ 87, IFI ¼ 85, CFI ¼ 86, SRMR ¼ 108, RMSEA ¼ 113 (90% CI [.106,.124]), Dv2

organiza-(8)¼ 255.01, p < 01, Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) ¼ 3.6) The model with thelowest AIC value tends to be the most favored (Bentler,2004) Our hypothesized model thus pro-vided a more fitting representation of the data (AIC¼ 1.7) than did the reversed model

Hypothesis testing

Separate path analyses were conducted for the Korean and Vietnamese samples Given the level nature of individual data nested within organizations, multilevel structural equation model-ing (MSEM; Muthen & Asparouhov, 2008) was run using MPlus 7.2 MSEM was reported toperform better than other multilevel modeling techniques (e.g., random coefficient modeling inhierarchical linear model) in obtaining unbiased estimates of standard errors for the estimatedmodel parameters in a multi-level mediation framework (Preacher, Zyphur, & Zhang,2010; Sun,Zhang, Qi, & Chen, 2012) To this end, this approach decomposes the variance of level 1(employee level) variables into within-level and between-level elements and models simultan-eously and independently the within-level and between-level elements at each level Thisapproach minimizes conflation of the level 1 and level 2 (group level) relationships and allowsfor a more precise estimation of indirect effects The current study follows a 2-1-1 mediationmodel, a 1-1-2 mediation model, and a 1-2-2 mediation model

multi-Direct relationships

Hypothesis H1 proposed that green management initiatives would be positively related to onmentally-specific servant leadership As Table 5 and Figure 2 demonstrates, the positive andsignificant association was found for green management initiatives and environmentally-specificservant leadership for both Korean sample (B¼ 26, p < 01) and Vietnamese sample (B ¼ 33, p

envir-< 01), which lent credence to hypothesis H1 Recently applied in comparative investigationsinto managerial impacts in different cultures (e.g., Rode, Huang, & Flynn, 2016), Cohen’s (1983)procedure was utilized in our study to estimate the differences between the regression coeffi-cients linked with Korean and Vietnamese samples The difference between the coefficients forthe nexus between green management initiatives and environmentally-specific servant leader-ship was significant (z¼ 1.57, p < 05) (seeTable 5)

Hypothesis H2 posited that environmentally-specific servant leadership would be positivelyrelated to employee OCBE Environmentally-specific servant leadership exhibited the positivelysignificant relationship with employee OCBE behavior for both Korean sample (B¼ 31, p < 01)and Vietnamese sample (B ¼ 42, p < 001), which provided evidence for hypothesis H2 Thedivergence between the coefficients for the link between environmentally-specific servant leader-ship and employee OCBE was significant (z¼ 3.16, p < 01) (seeTable 5)

Hypothesis H4 assumed that employee OCBE would be positively associated with tional green performance Employee OCBE demonstrated the significantly positive associationwith organizational green performance for both Korean sample (B ¼ 38, p < 001) andVietnamese sample (B ¼ 26, p < 01), which lent support for hypothesis H4 The disparity