“The paper “When More is More: Do Non-Restricted Goals Benefit Employers and the Environment Too?” by Adelaida Patrasc-Lungu and Dragoș Iliescu, published in The Spanish Journal of Psychology, has been chosen as the Editor’s Choice Article for September 2023.”

In our 2022 paper titled “When more is more: do non-restricted goals benefit employers and the environment too?”, my co-author and I report on several findings after we tested a particular model derived from the self-determination theory.

Our approach was also informed by a growing research body pertaining to environmental identities and environmental behaviours. We highlight below those main findings pertaining to environmental identities and the outcomes we considered in the above-mentioned study.

The relationship between environmental identities and pro-environmental behaviours (behaviours beneficial to the environment) was previously examined by other authors from theoretical perspectives such as the social exchange theory and the norm-based theories. For instance, it is expected that the more one identifies with, feels connected to and feels appreciative of the natural environment (so having a higher level of environmental identity), the likelier they will be to feel like they should act in congruence with that identity, which would explain why they would then engage in pro-environmental behaviours.

Our proposed model put forward an alternative explanation for why environmental identities impact the manifestation of behaviours. More precisely, we considered a motivation- and need-based explanation. We assumed that environmental identities acted as an enabler for pursuing self-concordant goals and for the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. We expected that these combined factors would then positively impact wellbeing for those individuals, along with a series of work behaviours generally considered desirable by employers too. These desirable outcomes included job-specific behaviours as well as citizenship behaviours (behaviours not specific to the job but nonetheless beneficial to the organisation or to colleagues). Along with these rather standard outcomes, we also included a form of pro-environmental behaviours which manifest in work contexts and benefit both the organization and the natural environment at large (formally termed organizational citizenship behaviours toward the environment).  

A key assumption in our reasoning was that stronger environmental identities entail deeply held values and as a result, made more likely the pursuit of self-concordant goals (more autonomously motivated goals and less controlled-motivated goals). A wealth of studies had repeatedly shown that autonomous motivations lead to higher persistence and higher quality results than controlled motivations. It was new, though, to link the environmental identity concept with this goal self-concordance concept and outcomes relevant to organisations.

Although not all the effects we expected were supported by our results, environmental identity surfaced as directly impacting two of the four considered outcomes – namely the citizenship behaviours at work and the pro-environmental form of these citizenship behaviours. For the other two outcomes – wellbeing and on job-specific behaviours – environmental identity showed only some statistically significant yet too small indirect effects.

These results highlight the relevance of considering environmental identity as potential predictor relevant beyond solely environmental research or outcomes. We think the impact environmental identities had on collaborative behaviours such as those falling under the citizenship umbrella might be due to environmental identities potentially reinforcing perceptions of connectedness with nature at large and as part of that, of relatedness and connectedness with other individuals. Of course, this explanation would require further research and we hope future studies and practices will explore thoughtful ways in which to further understand and leverage the above relationships. For example, researchers could test other motivational explanations than the ones we considered. Practitioners could seek to facilitate the establishment and development of environmental action workgroups, which might provide new avenues for employees with strong environmental identities to initiate and contribute to pro-environmental outcomes.

When it comes to ways to encouraging pro-environmental behaviours in work contexts, our study also highlighted work climate along with the explanatory pathway of basic psychological need satisfaction, as potentially relevant and interacting predictors. This, in turn, highlights the potential for designing and testing future interventions focused on increasing basic psychological need satisfaction as a means to facilitating wellbeing and behavioural outcomes.

For other findings and details regarding the procedures we used, we invite you to access the full paper, freely available here throughout the month of September 2023.