Abstract:
Business and human activities are central to the debate on global environmental
challenges. The apparel industry is a major economic sector in most countries with
significant contribution to employment and economic growth. However, the apparel
industry also negatively affects the environment through over consumption of natural
resources, pollution and solid*-and liquid waste. Employees' pro-environmental
behaviour serves as a cornerstone in realizing organizations' sustainability initiatives.
Leadership plays a vital role in shaping and nurturing the desired employee
behaviors. This study has developed and tested a research model that investigated
the mediating role of green self-efficacy in the relationship between environmentally
specific servant leadership and employees' pro-environmental behaviour.
Data were collected using a questionnaire survey method. Questionnaires were issued
to 358 employees in selected apparel manufacturing firms in Batticaloa district.
Among them, information from 340 respondents was analyzed. In this study, the
statistical tools used to analyze the levels of variables, while relationships were
measured by Pearson correlation, linear regressions for further mediation analyses.
The result of the correlation analysis indicates that all the variables are positively
related to the employees' pro-environmental behavior and the result of regression
analysis shows that the factors in the research model explain 575% of the changes in
the pro-environmental behaviour of employees' selected apparel manufacturing firms
in Batticaloa district. Research result shows that green self-efficacy (GSE) mediates
the relationship between environmentally specific servant leadership (ESSL) and
employees' pro-environmental behaviour (EPEB). Based on the research result
researcher has made green self-efficacy played an interactive role with
environmentally specific servant leadership in shaping employees' pro-environmental
behaviour. This research responds to multiple calls for research and advances the
knowledge on servant leadership and pro-environmental behaviour.
