The (in)congruence effects of organizational green compensation and employee green conscientiousness on pro-environmental behavior: evidence from China

Background In past decades, the Chinese government has enacted a series of ecological policies to encourage organizations, the pivotal institutional agents implementing national policies, and employees, the crucial micro-actors engaging in ecological construction, to bring about employee pro-environmental behavior (EPEB) which is the foundation to realize nation's ecological strategies. Yet, the effectiveness of a widely adopted organizational-level green management practice "organizational green compensation" (OGC) and a typical individual-level green personality trait "employee green conscientiousness" (EGC) have been explored alone, ignoring the prevalence of various OGC-EGC combinations and failing to clarify the potential influences of OGC-EGC (in)congruence on EPEB. Our research endeavors to address this limitation by resolving the following two problems: What are the (in)congruence effects of OGC and EGC on EPEB in the Chinese context? And what is the underlying mechanism? Methods Study 1 surveyed EGC, OGC, and EPEB among 778 subordinate-supervisor dyads and sought to test two single effects and three sets of comparisons between and within the congruence and incongruence effects using the methodology of polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Study 2 measured EGC, OGC, employee environmental commitment (EEC), and EPEB among 713 subordinate-supervisor dyads and attempted to verify the mediating role of EEC employing the block variable approach. Results Study 1 found that OGC and EGC independently, positively promote EPEB (ss = 0.39, p < 0.001; ss = 0.24, p < 0.001), the OGC-EGC congruence relates to higher EPEB compared to the OGC-EGC incongruence (p(11) = 3.77, 95% CI = [0.71, 23.04]; p(10) = - 0.65, 95% CI = [- 25.80, 0.42]; [alpha(3) -alpha(4) +alpha(5)] = - 0.24, 95% CI = [- 0.41, - 0.07]), the EPEB level is higher when the OGC-EGC congruence is at a high rather than low level ([alpha(1) +alpha(2)] = 0.51, 95% CI = [0.39, 0.62]), and the EPEB level under the high-low combination is lower than that under the low-high combination ([alpha(1)-alpha(2)] = - 0.20, 95% CI = [- 0.38, - 0.02]). Study 2 further confirmed that EEC plays a mediating role during the OGC-EGC-EPEB relationships (the indirect effect = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.08, 0.20]). Conclusion This research substantiates the value of OGC-EGC (in)congruence to fully understand EPEB variations such that, EPEB will be boosted (hampered) when OGC is (in)congruent with EGC; a higher congruence between OGC and EGC leads to higher EPEB, the high-low combination of OGC and EGC results in lower EPEB compared to the low-high combination, and EEC plays a mediating role in the above relationships, offering the Chinese evidence and providing theoretical and practical implications for the optimization of the OGC-EGC combinations to strengthen EPEB.