Leader green behavior as an outcome of followers' critical thinking and active engagement: the moderating role of pro-environmental behavior

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of followership dimensions of active engagement (AE) and independent critical thinking (ICT) in leader green behavior (LGB), and how followers' pro-environmental behavior (FPEB) moderates between the proposed relationship.

Design/methodology/approach The data was collected from 381 employees working in different small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan, through a structured questionnaire with five points Likert scale. The proposed hypotheses were tested by using Smart-partial least square (PLS).V.3.

Findings Results showed a significant positive impact of followership dimensions on LGB. Moreover, the findings of the study substantiated the moderating role of FPEB between the direct relationship of ICT and LGB, but no significant moderation of FPEB in case of the relationship between AE and LGB was observed.

Practical implications This paper argues that organizational effective green leadership can be enhanced by followership dimensions of AE and ICT, and by participation of followers in pro-environmental behavior. This has been largely overlooked in the past studies.

Originality/value The study attempted to empirically test the “Reversing the Lens” perspective by Shamir (2007) in the context of green human resource management (HRM). This study extends a distinct theoretical contribution to the social exchange theory (SET) by focusing on the fact that follower's role is equally as important as that of a leader in the effective leadership process.