Green leadership, green action: How environmentally specific transformational leadership drives employee green behavior

Abstract In the realm of environmental sustainability, exploring environmentally specific transformational leadership holds great importance. Nonetheless, there is a lack of comprehensive research on how environmentally specific transformational leadership affects green behavior among employees. Hence, this study employs affective events theory, self‐determination theory, and the cultural self‐representation perspective to explore. The validity of the research hypotheses is confirmed through survey data collected from 460 employees in the Chinese manufacturing industry and the structural equation model method. The results demonstrated a substantial positive influence of environmentally specific transformational leadership on employee green behavior. Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that harmonious environmental passion, green self‐identity, and autonomous motivation each played a mediating role in the relationship between environmentally specific transformational leadership and employee green behavior. In addition, the mediating effect of harmonious environmental passion accounted for 11.8% of the total effect, green self‐identity accounted for 11.6%, autonomous motivation accounted for 9.3%, the total mediation effects of these three variables mediated 32.7% of the total effect. Comparison tests revealed no statistically significant differences between the three mediating variables. These research findings provide reference and guidance for scholars, managers, practitioners, and policymakers, particularly those involved in sustainable business development and reducing organizational carbon footprint, offering practical implications.