Interplay between corporate social responsibility and organizational green culture and their role in employees’ responsible behavior towards the environment and society

Organizational green culture and corporate social responsibility are known for their significant role in organizational and societal development. However, it is rarely known whether such corporate activities inspire their employees to act in an environmentally and socially responsible fashion outside their firms or not. Following the Operant Conditioning theory, the current research analyzes the link between CSR and OGC and their role in workers’ responsible behavior toward the environment and society at the individual level outside their organization. Data were collected from members of private and public manufacturing and services firms and analyzed via structural equation modeling, which indicated that OGC significantly inspires workers to behave environmentally and socially responsible manner outside their firms. However, an insignificant relationship is found between organizational CSR activities and employees' responsible behavior towards the environment and society, suggesting that employees only show this behavior within the organizations. Moreover, firms having green culture actively participate in CSR activities. This research is among the pioneer investigations that focus on promoting workers' environmentally and socially responsible behavior, which can serve as a foundation to transform society into a sustainable civilization. •Organizational green culture (OGC) promotes socially responsible behavior among employees in the society.•OGC promotes environmentally responsible behavior among employees in the society.•Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a positive but insignificant impact on employees' socially responsible behavior.•CSR has a positive but insignificant impact on employees' environmentally responsible behavior in the society.•OGC serves as a driving force for CSR activities.