Research on the relationship between environmental servant leadership, employee environmental proactivity, employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior.

This article investigates the impact of environmental servant leadership—a leadership style emphasizing environmental responsibility and employee support—on employee environmental proactivity, employee environmental creativity, and organizational environmental citizenship behavior within manufacturing, IT, and pharmaceutical organizations in China. Using a theoretical framework grounded in social cognition theory, conservation of resources theory, and self-determination theory, the study analyzed data from 363 leader–employee pairs and found that environmental servant leadership positively influences employee environmental proactivity, which in turn enhances both employee environmental creativity and organizational environmental citizenship behavior. Additionally, environmental servant leadership directly affects these two outcomes, with employee environmental proactivity partially mediating these relationships. The findings suggest that organizations aiming to improve environmental performance should adopt environmental servant leadership practices and foster employee environmental proactivity to promote innovative and voluntary environmental behaviors.