An Explorative Study of the Determinants of Environmental Leadership Actions in Public Sector: Evidence from China

Humanity is facing a great challenge in protecting the natural environment while meeting the need for resources. Government leaders play a critical role in formulating and implementing environmental policies. Nonetheless,... [ view full abstract ]

Humanity is facing a great challenge in protecting the natural environment while meeting the need for resources. Government leaders play a critical role in formulating and implementing environmental policies. Nonetheless, researchers have focused primarily on organizational environmental strategies and performance, as well as the political and institutional arrangements responding to the rising environmental and sociopolitical pressures. The role and behaviors of individual public administrators are largely ignored. Seeking to build a deeper understanding of the determinants of environmental leadership actions (ELA), this study aims to answer the following two questions: (1) How to conceptualize ELA in the public sector? And (2) what motivates public administrators’ environmental actions? Using the leadership and environmental psychology literature that situates leaders’ transformational change actions in environmental decision-making, this study first deciphers the concept of ELA in the public sector by identifying three dimensions: stating environmental vision, changing perceptions, and taking symbolic actions. Then it provides an explanation of what motives government leaders to engage in ELA by emphasizing the role of normative leadership motives. With a database from Fujian province, China— a national pioneer in government green policy and management, it finds that the different dimensions of ELA are associated with the strength of instrumental and normative motives. The exploration of the interplay between ELA and motivations to engage in pro-environmental behaviors suggests that different motivations determine different types of ELA. Effective leadership strategies for environmental management should include policies and practices that fortify leaders’ appreciation of biospheric values in order to encourage environmental actions.