Intertwining Corporate Social Responsibility, Employee Green Behavior, and Environmental Sustainability: The Mediation Effect of Organizational Trust and Organizational Identity

A revisit to corporate social responsibility (CSR) has prompted this study to further investigate how the employee green behavior (EGB) perspective has an effect on sustainability of the organization and how it can be mediated by organizational trust (OT) and organizational identification (OI). Our survey involves 213 employees who are currently employed in socially responsible companies with CSR and sustainability reports that are publicly accessible in Malaysia. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS 25 and Smart-PLS. Findings show that both OI and OT partially mediate the relationship between CSR and EGB, and that such behavior has a positive and significant effect on environmental sustainability (ES), specifically, in terms of initiative on low utility and paper consumption, care and protection, as well as hygienic priority in the whole ecosystem. This research extended the literature and makes contextual contributions. Primarily, it integrates the environmental sustainability literature from the perspective of CSR initiative and employees’ green behavior. Nevertheless, the respondents self-reported their green behavior instead of using a more objective data collection method such as supervisor-ratings or peer-ratings. This lacuna may be worth tweaking it in the future endeavors. This study offers valuable knowledge by providing organizations and regulators with several insights into improving company’s environmental sustainability, including motivating employee, establishing clear communication, creating awareness, and integrating into company’s strategy. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first research that empirically tested the inter-relationship between CSR, EGB, and ES, with the inclusion of the partial mediating effect of OT and OI.