The Psychology of Green Organizations

As we move further into the 21st century, the global challenges and consequences posed by climate change are becoming increasingly apparent. Although organizations are considered significant contributors to climate change, they also have the potential to positively affect it through their employees. As a result, understanding how employees’ pro-environmental initiatives can positively affect climate change has increasingly become the focus of inquiry among organizational researchers. The Psychology of Green Organizations brings together a number of these researchers to review leading research in different areas of organizational environmental sustainability. In so doing, this book consolidates available knowledge on employees’ contributions to corporate environmental initiatives, stimulates future empirical research on this topic, and provides recommendations for how organizations can improve their environmental performance through their employees. Many chapters provide case examples of environmentally sustainable organizations to illustrate lessons gleaned from research. Chapters in part 1 provide a conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundation for research on workplace pro-environmental behaviors, while those in parts 2 and 3 review research on the promotion of workplace pro-environmental behaviors at the individual and organizational levels, respectively. Part 4 explores one organization that has been successful at promoting employees’ environmental initiatives, highlighting how both organizational and individual factors can be used to effect major changes in corporate environmental sustainability.