How green transformational leadership promotes green organizational citizenship behavior: roles of empowerment, perceived corporate social responsibility, and leaders' emotional intelligence

Purpose This study examines how green transformational leadership (GTL) promotes green organizational citizenship behavior (GOCB) by integrating empowerment (EP) and perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR) as motivational and cognitive mediating mechanisms and leaders' emotional intelligence (LEI) as a cross-level boundary condition. Design/methodology/approach We collected three-wave, multi-source survey data from 517 employees and 77 team leaders in China's new energy industry, and tested the hypotheses using multilevel structural equation modeling. Findings GTL positively predicted GOCB, EP and PCSR. EP and PCSR mediated the GTL–GOCB relationship, indicating that GTL promotes discretionary green behavior through agency-based motivation and CSR-related responsibility interpretation. LEI strengthened the GTL–PCSR relationship, suggesting that emotionally credible leadership communication helps employees interpret sustainability cues as signals of organizational responsibility. Originality/value This study clarifies the theoretical novelty of combining EP and PCSR in one multilevel model, showing that GTL operates through distinct motivational and cognitive routes. It also identifies LEI as a theoretically meaningful moderator of the GTL–PCSR pathway and demonstrates how proximal leadership cues translate macro-level sustainability pressures into employee-level GOCB within China's new energy industry.