Go green! Measuring the factors that influence sustainable performance

Abstract

This study examines the GHRM practices and the transformational leadership specific to environmental sus-tainability of Pakistan's dairy industry. It also investigates the mediating role of pro-environmental behaviour in the relationship of GHRM practices, The environmental-specific transformational leadership, and sustainable behavior. Additionally, the study examines the moderating role of the pro-environmental attitude between GHRM practices and The environmental-specific transformational leadership. The target population consists of employees working in dairy organizations of Pakistan. A simple random sampling technique was used for data collection. A survey questionnaire method was used to collect data; after data screening a total of 430 responses were subjected to SEM for analysis. The findings indicated that the GHRM practices play a significant role in improving employee environmental and sustainable behavior. The environmental-specific transformational leadership positively affects the pro-environmental behaviour of employees, but its impact on sustainable per-formance is insignificant. In addition, GHRM practices and environmental-specific transformational leadership have been shown to indirectly contribute to sustainable performance through environmental behavior. The pro -environmental attitude moderates the effect of GHRM practices and environmental-specific transformational leadership on pro-environmental behavior, and pro-environmental behavior leads to sustainable performance. This study is one of the rare attempts to examine the integrated impact of GHRM practices and environmental -specific transformational leadership on pro-environmental behavior and sustainable performance in the domain of environmental management. It explicitly offers insights into the literature by developing a mechanism to improve sustainable performance through GHRM practices and environmental-specific transformational lead-ership in the dairy industry. The findings of this study have postulated that a package of GHRM practices and environmental-specific transformational leadership is needed to build pro-environmental behavior and foster sustainable performance. It can help managers in their effort to build environmental friendly behavior under the lens of a pro-environmental attitude that facilitates sustainable performance. Aligned to cope with the increasing environmental concerns of the dairy industry, this study proposes that managers would support specific trans-formational environmental leadership along with green discipline by raising pro-environmental behaviour under the lens of a pro-environmental attitude for the implication of environmental policies to achieve sustainable performance of dairy firms.