Relationship Between Pro-Environmental Behaviors and Internal/External Workplace Factors A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Climate change is becoming an increasingly prevalent topic in business and industrial/organizational psychologists are recently entering the conversation (Campbell & Campbell, 2005). This meta-analysis selected 10 studies that fit the designated criteria to investigate whether internal or external workplace factors would be more effective in encouraging and influencing pro-environmental behaviors at work. Using an effect size calculator, the average effect size for each group was computed in order to make a quantitative comparison. Internal factors such as job satisfaction and daily affect/emotions were found to have a moderate average effect, which was larger than the small effect that external factors like managers and coworkers had. This suggests that employees must be internally satisfied at their job in order to be influenced by managers and coworkers, because they will be less motivated to excel at work if they aren’t invested. In future research, investigating the difference in pro-environmental behaviors between those with high and low satisfaction with coworker relationships would broaden the understanding behind what motivates people to be innovative in sustainability at work.