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 of environmentally-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 Submit your article to this journal Article views: 2617 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 58 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsus20 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 2020, VOL 28, NO 8, 1193–1222 https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1729165 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 ARTICLE HISTORY Received October 2019 Integrating strategic, top-down management and employee-oriented, Accepted February 2020 bottom-up approaches, this inquiry proposes a research model in which green management initiatives (i.e., the fusion of green strategy and KEYWORDS green human resource practices) influence organizational green per- Employees’ organizational formance and in turn organizational performance This research model citizenship behavior for the was comparatively tested in South Korean and Vietnamese tourism ser- environment; environmen- vice contexts The research results revealed that in both samples, envir- tally-specific servant onmentally-specific servant leadership mediated the top-down leadership; green human relationship between green management initiatives and employees’ resource practices; green organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE), and strategy; organizational employee OCBE mediated the bottom-up relationship between environ- green mentally-specific servant leadership and organizational green perform- performance; Vietnam 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 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 organizational campaigns for environmental protection turned out to be symbolic since these initiatives were highly visible (hence allowing organizations to appear committed to the cause) but had a large cost-saving advantage, whereas less visible and less cost-saving green activities such as recycling were 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 vocal contingent 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 1194 T T LUU 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 organizational performance (Obeidat et al., 2018), empirical studies have tapped mainly into organization-level antecedents of organizational green performance (Obeidat et al., 2018) and relatively overlooked antecedents at the individual level (Kim, Kim, Choi, & Phetvaroon, 2019; Pham, Thanh, Tuckova, & 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 per- formance originates from mechanisms at the organizational level, especially the integration of green strategy and green HR practices, through the impact of such mechanisms on individuals (Kim, Kim, et al., 2019) Though both green strategy and green human resource (HR) practices are focal to the man- agement of the human factors of organizational green performance in general business as well 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’s strategic 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: How does 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 servant leadership, through the lens of Liden, Wayne, Liao, and Meuser (2014) perspective of servant leadership, alludes to leading with a motivation to engage and serve followers in their pursuit of pro-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; and 2) examining the micro-level process of environmentally-specific servant leadership and employee 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-level process of environmentally-specific servant leadership and employee OCBE, the current study will apply multiple theories used in the green management literature including social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978), social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989), social cognitive perspective (Bandura, 1999), the value-belief–norm theory (VBN) (Oreg & Katz-Gerro, 2006; Stern, Dietz, Abel, Guagnano, & Kalof, 1999), and the organismic motivational theory of Ryan and Deci (2000) self-determination theory JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 1195 Based on a comparative analysis in the tourism industry in two non-Western contexts with a certain extent of environmentalism divergence: Vietnam and South Korea, this study contributes to the existing literature in various ways First, the current study extends organizational green performance research in the tourism discipline by conceptually identifying and empirically inves- tigating an integration mechanism (i.e., “green management initiatives”) as an organization-level precursor of organizational green performance and in turn organizational performance Second, this study indicates that this predictive relationship is mediated through a microlevel process of environmentally-specific servant leadership and employee OCBE Our research hence provides further empirical endorsement for Coleman’s (1990) macro-micro-macro-level framework with respect 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 servant leadership research by identifying environmentally-specific servant leadership as a crucial build- ing block for translating green management initiatives into employee OCBE This study thus offers 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 ana- lysis of the effects of green management initiatives on organizational outcomes through a micro-level process in two non-Western contexts, namely South Korea and Vietnam South Korea and 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 green management initiatives in South Korea and Vietnam can offer a nuanced perspective on whether Western theorizing holds valid in non-Western cultures, as well as whether any differences in findings occur in two culturally similar Asian contexts with some environmentalist distinction 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 extreme cultural types for research: Type I (individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, and low long-term orientation) 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 developed countries mainly pertaining to type I group South Korea and Vietnam were focused on in this research 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, South Korea scores higher (85) in terms of uncertainty avoidance than Vietnam does (30) Barring uncertainty avoidance index, other cultural dimension indexes of South Korea and Vietnam are virtually analogous including collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and indulgence (Hill, 2016; Khosrowjerdi, Sundqvist, & Bystro€m, 2019) Even in terms of long-term orientation, while South 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 indicated that ethical perception and behavior (e.g., pro-environmental attitude and behavior) may differ across 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 envir- onmental policy Environmentalism in Vietnam is a comparatively recent phenomenon Since the launch of open-door policy in 1986, Vietnam has experienced rapid industrialization and eco- nomic growth, which has engendered austere pollution issues Nonetheless, the government 1196 T T LUU dismissed their magnitude until 1993 when the government promulgated the law on environ- mental protection (Le, Hollenhorst, Harris, McLaughlin, & Shook, 2006) The implementation of environmental 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 of inspection activities in enhancing business compliance (Ho, 2015) On the contrary, the South Korean government commenced to actively engage in environ- 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 the Korean public (Kern, 2010) South Korea has received consistently high scores on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) over the past 15 years, and was highly ranked on the 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 that differences in the underlying mechanisms of individuals’ pro-environmental behaviors may exist between Koreans and Vietnamese The comparative analysis of the current research model may provide insights about the discrepancies in environmental performance that may exist between different 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 to which green activities are a priority in an organization as mirrored in plans or actions that the organization undertakes to foster green performance Irrespective of being a crucial instrument through which organizations attain green performance, green strategy can serve merely as a necessary condition, but not sufficiently ensure organizations’ green performance without inter- action with relevant management practices, especially HR practices However, in order to build the pool of unique workforce for a specific goal such as green goal, organizations should adopt specific and fine-grained HR practices (Shin & Konrad, 2017) such as green HR practices rather than generic HR practices Green HRM practices comprise selection, training, and involvement designed to build green or pro-environmental values as well as knowledge and skills related to pro-environmental activities (Renwick, Redman, & Maguire, 2013; Tang, Chen, Jiang, Paille, & Jia, 2018) In the tourism and hospitality industry, the relationship has been found between green strategy 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 Through selection and training, green HR practices can build followers who not just have knowledge and skills to undertake green activities and devise eco-initiatives but also have green values and motivation 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 strategy implementation 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 with Ostroff and Bowen (2016) perspective in regards to the consistency in signals from HR practices and other aspects in the organization’s strategic posture JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 1197 Environmentally-specific servant leadership Servant leadership is viewed as leading people with a motivation to serve their needs and inter- ests in their process of task implementation and career development (Liden et al., 2014) They act as a role model with empathy, altruistic values and the commitment to the goals of their group (Whittington, 2017) Servant leaders prioritize the interests of stakeholders and demon- strate moral responsibility to organizational sustainability (Ehrhart, 2004; Greenleaf, 1970; Liden et al., 2014; Whittington, 2017) There has emerged the shift from the focus in which servant leadership behaviors are conceptualized to influence outcomes across diverse contexts, to a focus in which the same set 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 lead- ership to the environmental target and assessing the role of such an environmental form of servant 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 defined environmentally-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 the organization and a larger community (Luu, 2018) As such, environmentally-specific servant leadership is a manifestation of servant leadership in which the content of the leadership behaviors is all focused on fostering green behaviors among followers Grounded in Van Dierendonck (2011) servant leadership attribute framework, environmentally-specific servant leaders demonstrate authenticity and interpersonal acceptance, direct and develop employees to be pro-environmental citizens, and display stewardship toward their pro-environmental contributions (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) deem organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) to be voluntary and not explicitly recognized 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 helping colleagues 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 work hours, and heavy workload (Karatepe, Karadas, Azar, & Naderiadib, 2013), frontline employees especially in tourism and hospitality organizations may face conflicting time demands between in-role and extra-role behaviors, and thus find it difficult or costly to go the extra mile in their work (Bolino, Klotz, Turnley, & Harvey, 2013) They may feel pressured when they engage in more 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 and rewarded, as well as augment their workload (Youn et al., 2017) Hence, to trigger OCBE among followers, organizations and leaders should communicate strong signals on serving employees in their 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 through the integration of green strategy and green HR practices as well as through servant leaders who can communicate signals from green strategy, expose employees to green HR practices, and cul- tivate favourable conditions for employees’ engagement in OCBE 1198 T T LUU Role of environmentally-specific servant leadership The mutual complementarity of green strategy and green HR practices can provide employees with resources (i.e., green values and green-related knowledge and skills) with which they can develop 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 a more 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 to employees 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 enhance employees’ repertoire of resources through role modelling of values and behaviors and providing support 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 financial performance (Clarke & Higgs, 2016) Transformational leadership has been found to thrive when strategic HRM focuses on organizational change (Han et al., 2018) Do et al (2018) reported that servant 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 environmen- 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 management initiatives The development of environmentally-specific servant leadership under the interaction of green strategy and green HR practices (i.e., green management initiatives) can be explained through social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) In light of social informa- tion processing perspective, the social environment in which individuals operate shapes their attitudes and since the milieu provides “a direct construction of meaning through guides to socially acceptable beliefs, attitudes, and needs, and acceptable reasons for action” (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978, p 227) Individuals make sense of their work environments by interpreting cues that 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 adopt environmentally-specific servant leadership behavior to facilitate the transmission of such cues to their 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 of their 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 their organization (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 sacri- fice for that relationship Hence, the identification with their organization through environmentally-specific servant leaders’ communication may lead employees to devote to the organization’s green strategy by engaging in OCBE 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, JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 1199 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 appropri- ate green training opportunities so that they can acquire green-related knowledge and skills as well as develop green values Environmentally-specific servant leaders further serve as a role model for employees to observe how to act pro-environmentally for the green strategy Servant leaders also represent the organization as cultivating a supportive environment for followers to perform (Zhang, Kwong Kwan, Everett, & Jian, 2012) Environmentally-specific servant leaders translate green management practices into green goals and norms, thereby cultivating a green facilitative environment Expressed differently, working with environmentally-specific servant leaders, 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–norm theory (VBN) (Oreg & Katz-Gerro, 2006), an individual who holds certain values and believes that those 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 to sustain these green values by engaging in OCBE Social cognitive perspective further portrays the interactive relationships between environ- mental factors, self-concepts, and behavior as a triadic reciprocity (Bandura, 2008) Working in a green supportive environment that environmentally-specific servant leaders nurture, employees may further internalize green values into their self-concept The interaction between the green norms and the self-concept may shape OCBE among employees Besides, through socio-cognitive lens 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 environment under environmentally-specific servant leadership, employees not only respond to the green norms but likewise proactively engage in OCBE to conserve these norms Further, through social information 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 In light of the organismic motivational theory of Ryan and Deci (2000) self-determination, cer- 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 can foster autonomous motivation for the environment among employees (Han, Wang, & Yan, 2019) Through self-determination lens, having highly autonomous motivation, employees are inclined to engage in OCB on account of an augmenting desire 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 environmen- tally-specific servant leaders, their autonomous motivation will steer them to act in a way that is harmonious with that belief (Kim, McGinley, Choi, & Agmapisarn, 2019) such as in the form of OCBE (Raineri & Paille, 2016) Furthermore, in a green workplace environment that environmentally-specific servant leaders cultivate, 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 green activities 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 pro-environ- mentally In other words, environmentally-specific servant leaders can translate green manage- ment initiatives into a green workplace environment that facilitates employee OCBE Taken together, we posit the following: H2 Employees’ perceptions of environmentally-specific servant leadership are positively related to employee OCBE 1200 T T LUU 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’ inter- ests and bonding them around organizational goals and interests (Linuesa-Langreo, Ruiz- Palomino, & Elche-Hortelano, 2018) Environmentally-specific servant leaders bond followers around the green goal of the organization By modelling and providing support, they shape employees into “servant leaders” with OCBE, who in turn influence colleagues to serve the green goal OCB can be collectively aggregated in virtue of a contagion process (Shin, 2012) OCBE among employees can thus aggregate and culminate in organizational green performance Moreover, since individual creativity functions as a starting point in innovation processes (Bidault & Castello, 2009), employees’ eco-initiatives are a contributing factor to organizational green per- formance Empirical evidence has been found for the relationship between employee green behavior at a unit level and green performance of the organization (Alt & Spitzeck, 2016) In conjunction with the previous reasoning on the nexus between environmentally-specific servant 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 between environmentally-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) Organizational green performance reflects a long-term perspective, continuous efficiency improvement, and continuous 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 organiza- tional green performance and financial performance (Henri & Journeault, 2010) On the one hand, some research has reported the negative link between organizational green performance and 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 to environmental agenda and customers may be driven by price of services rather than corporate environmentalism (Sandhu, Ozanne, Smallman, & Cullen, 2010) Other studies, on the other hand, have supported the positive consequences of organizational green 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 enhance corporate 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 relatively dirty and non-proactive industries than in comparatively clean and proactive contexts (Lucas & Noordewier, 2016) Financial gains can be enhanced through revenue enhancement and cost reduction (De Burgos-Jimenez et al., 2013; Nishitani, Jannah, & Kaneko, 2017) Revenue can be JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 1201 Figure Research model enhanced through improvements in product quality, better access to markets, and increased cor- porate reputation and image, whereas cost reduction can be attained through mitigating a waste of resources and environmental incidents (De Burgos-Jimenez et al., 2013) Organizational green performance may also contribute to financial gains through enhancing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Feng & Wang, 2016) Singjai et al (2018) found that environmental performance leads to cost competitiveness and competitive advantage through differentiation Numerous empirical studies have further found evidence for the positive nexus between organizational 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, De Burgos-Jimenez et al (2013) empirically found a positive link between environmental perform- ance and organizational performance Obeidat et al (2018) reported the positive nexus between environmental performance and both financial and non-financial performances This study follows the stream of research which argues for the positive nexus between organ- izational green performance and organizational performance based on two grounds First, argu- ments for the positive relationship between organizational green performance and organizational performance are stronger and are supported by many empirical works (Obeidat et al., 2018) as discussed above Second, the current study considers both financial and non- 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 OCBE and organizational green performance, we can position employee OCBE as an antecedent for organizational performance mediated by organizational green performance: H6 Organizational green performance is positively related to organizational performance H7 Organizational green performance mediates the relationship between employee OCBE and organizational performance Figure summarizes the hypothesized relationships in this study Research methods Sampling This research targeted the population of tour companies in South Korea and Vietnam Snowball sampling approach was utilized to approach tour companies and their participants especially in the South Korean context, since this approach is helpful in case of lack of adequate contact lists and 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 100 1208 T T LUU Table Comparison of measurement models for variables Model v2 df Dv2 TLI IFI CFI SRMR within SRMR between RMSEA [90% CI] Hypothesized five- 597.38 289 95 95 95 057 092 043 [.037, 049] factor model 806.49 297 255.01ÃÃ 87 85 86 108 156 113 [.106, 124] Alternative reversed model 714.91 293 117.53ÃÃ 91 93 92 Four-factor model: 086 137 089 [.082, 094] Green management initiatives and environmentally-specific servant leadership combined 778.49 296 181.11ÃÃ 88 87 89 097 143 101 [.096, 105] Three-factor model: Green management initiatives, environmentally- specific servant leadership, and employee OCBE combined 861.22 298 263.84ÃÃ 78 78 77 122 175 118 [.112, 126] Two-factor model: Green management initiatives, environmentally- specific servant leadership, employee OCBE, and organizational green performance combined 1,081.92 299 484.54ÃÃ 68 67 68 .141 189 144 [.138, 151] One-factor model: All variables combined ÃÃp < 01 between the coefficients for the relationship between employee OCBE and organizational green performance was significant (z ¼ 2.63, p < 01) (see Table 5) Hypothesis H6 proposed that organizational green performance would be positively associ- ated with organizational performance In the Korean sample, organizational green performance was positively and significantly associated with organizational performance (B ¼ 34, p < 01), which lent credence to hypothesis H6 This hypothesis, however, was not supported for the Vietnamese sample due to the non-significant association between organizational green perform- ance and organizational performance (B ¼ 17, p > 10) (see Table 5) Indirect relationships As shown in Table 6, the fit between the model and the data from the Korean sample for the partial mediation model through environmentally-specific servant leadership was found to be satisfactory and better than the alternative full mediation model As Table displays, the indirect effect of green management initiatives on employee OCBE through environmentally-specific ser- vant leadership was 08 (95% CI [.03, 14], SE ¼ 04, p < 05) The confidence interval range that did not contain zero lent evidence for hypothesis H3 on the indirect effect of green manage- ment initiatives on employee OCBE via environmentally-specific servant leadership as a medi- ation mechanism The model-data fit for the partial mediation model through environmentally-specific servant leadership among Vietnamese employees was found to be adequate and better than the alterna- tive full mediation model (see Table 6) Akin to the Korean sample, the indirect effect of green management initiatives on employee OCBE through environmentally-specific servant leadership (hypothesis H3) was supported in the Vietnamese sample via the coefficient of 14 (95% CI [.08, 19], SE ¼ 09, p < 05) (see Table 7) The divergence between the coefficients for the indirect effect of green management initiatives on employee OCBE via environmentally-specific servant leadership was marginally significant (z ¼ 1.29, p < 10) (see Table 7) Table Comparative results on direct effects Vietnamese sample (N ¼ 483) Korean sample (N ¼ 416) Comparative results z value Hypotheses Description of paths Path coefficients R2 value Conclusions Path coefficients R2 value Conclusions (Unstandardized) (Unstandardized) Controls tenure 03 05 Employee age .01 02 Employee gender Green management initiatives ! 05 07 Employee education Employee OCBE .02 01 Employees’ organizational 02 03 R2 Green management initiatives ! .28ÃÃ (.11) Environmentally-specific .33ÃÃ (.14) .26 Supported .22Ã (.08) 24 Supported 1.34† Paths servant leadership 1.57Ã Supplementary analysis .42ÃÃÃ (.19) .29 Supported .26ÃÃ (.10) .22 Supported Environmentally-specific servant .20Ã (.07) 3.16ÃÃ H1 leadership ! Employee OCBE .37 Supported .31ÃÃ (.13) .28 Supported 1.44Ã .26ÃÃ (.12) H2 Environmentally-specific servant 19 Supported .29ÃÃ (.09) .31 Supported 2.63Ã leadership ! Organizational 15 (.06) Supplementary analysis green performance .17 (.08) .27 Supported .38ÃÃÃ (.11) .36 Supported 1.26 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 1.21 H4 Employee OCBE ! Supported .32ÃÃ (.10) .31 Supported Organizational green Unsupported 34ÃÃ (.11) Supplementary analysis performance 36 Supported H6 Employee OCBE ! Organizational performance Organizational green performance ! Organizational performance Korean sample: v2/df ¼ 231.82/134 ¼ 1.73; TLI ¼ 96; IFI ¼ 95; CFI ¼ 97; SRMR ¼ 041; RMSEA ¼ 038 Vietnamese sample: v2/df ¼ 242.56/134 ¼ 1.81; TLI ¼ 95; IFI ¼ 96; CFI ¼ 96; SRMR ¼ 047; RMSEA ¼ 044 † p < 10; Ã p < 05; ÃÃ p < 01; ÃÃÃ p < 001 Standard errors are displayed in parentheses 1209 1210 T T LUU Figure Results from South Korean sample versus Vietnamese sample Thick solid lines indicate supported hypotheses; thin solid lines indicate significant supplementary results; thick dashed lines indicate unsup- ported hypotheses; thin dashed lines indicate non-significant supplementary results; values in square brackets indicate indirect effect coefficients As Table exhibits, the model-data fit for the partial mediation model through employee OCBE among Korean employees was found to be good and better than the alternative full mediation model Likewise, in the Vietnamese sample, the model-data fit for the partial mediation model through employee OCBE was found to be good and better than the alternative full medi- ation model As presented in Table 7, the indirect effect of environmentally-specific servant leadership on organizational green performance via employee OCBE (hypothesis H5) was supported in both the Korean sample (via the coefficient of 12 (95% CI [.04, 16], SE ¼ 08, p < 05)) and the Vietnamese sample (via the coefficient of 11 (95% CI [.06, 17], SE ¼ 06, p < 05)) Nevertheless, the non-significant z value (z ¼ 1.08, p > 10) was found for the difference between the coeffi- cients for the indirect effect of environmentally-specific servant leadership on organizational green performance through employee OCBE When it comes to the indirect impact of employee OCBE on organizational performance through the mediating role of organizational green performance (hypothesis H7), the data from the Vietnamese sample did not support this hypothesis (.05 (95% CI [-.02, 08], SE ¼ 02, p > 10) (see Table 7) On the contrary, as displayed in Table 6, the model-data fit for the partial medi- ation model through organizational green performance in the Korean sample was found to be satisfactory and better than the alternative full mediation model The coefficient of 13 (95% CI [.08, 19], SE ¼ 07, p < 05) (see Table 7) provided evidence for hypothesis H7 in the Korean sample as to the indirect effect of employee OCBE on organizational performance through the mediating role of organizational green performance JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 1211 Table Comparison of partial versus full mediation models Model v2 df Dv2 TLI IFI CFI SRMR RMSEA [90% CI] Korean sample Green management initiatives ! 245.52 132 .95 95 96 043 .047 [.041, 053] .089 [.082, 095] Environmentally-specific servant 039 [.033, 045] 092 [.087, 098] leadership ! Employee OCBE (partial .057 [.053, 062] .101 [.097, 105] mediation model) 289.44 134 43.92ÃÃ 92 92 91 091 045 [.039, 051] Green management initiatives ! .098 [.093, 106] .048 [.041, 054] Environmentally-specific servant 097 [.092, 104] leadership ! Employee OCBE (full mediation model) Environmentally-specific servant leadership 96.39 51 96 95 95 041 ! Employee OCBE ! Organizational green performance (partial mediation model) 117.66 53 21.27ÃÃ 91 90 91 099 Environmentally-specific servant leadership ! Employee OCBE ! Organizational green performance (full mediation model) Employee OCBE ! Organizational green 91.29 51 95 95 96 055 performance ! Organizational performance (partial mediation model) 115.54 53 24.25ÃÃ 90 91 91 097 Employee OCBE ! Organizational green performance ! Organizational performance (full mediation model) Vietnamese sample Green management initiatives ! 256.08 132 .95 95 94 049 Environmentally-specific servant leadership ! Employee OCBE (partial mediation model) 305.52 134 49.44ÃÃ 91 92 92 095 Green management initiatives ! Environmentally-specific servant leadership ! Employee OCBE (full mediation model) Environmentally-specific servant leadership 105.06 51 .95 95 95 051 ! Employee OCBE ! Organizational green performance (partial mediation model) 118.72 53 13.66ÃÃ 90 91 91 102 Environmentally-specific servant leadership ! Employee OCBE ! Organizational green performance (full mediation model) ÃÃp < 01 Discussion As the results unveil, in both South Korean and Vietnamese samples, credence was lent to hypoth- esis H1 on the nexus between green management initiatives and environmentally-specific servant leadership, hypothesis H2 on the relationship between environmentally-specific servant leadership and employee OCBE, and hypothesis H4 on the nexus between employee OCBE and organizational green performance The finding for hypothesis H2 is in line with Luu’s (2020) report of the link between environmentally-specific servant leadership and green creativity Nonetheless, albeit empirical evidence on organizational green performance and overall organizational performance has been garnered in both Western and non-Western contexts (e.g., De Burgos-Jimenez et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2016; Obeidat et al., 2018; Singjai et al., 2018), the endorsement for hypothesis H6 on the nexus between organizational green performance and organizational performance was found only for the South Korean sample, but not for the Vietnamese sample In both South Korean and Vietnamese samples, support was lent to hypothesis H3 on the mediation of environmentally-specific servant leadership and hypothesis H5 on the mediation of employee OCBE The marginally significant divergence between the two samples was found only for hypothesis H3 Hypothesis H7 on the mediation of organizational green performance received validation only in the South Korean sample