School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Mar 18;17(6):2019. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17062019.
Excessive energy consumption and carbon emission damages the ecological environment and socially sustainable development in China. Organizations are major energy consumers, and should be principally responsible for energy saving. Despite that many organizational leaders know it is urgent to manage the energy saving behavior of employees, "how to effectively manage" receives less attention in both academic and practical fields. To fill this gap, this study adapts charismatic leadership theory to develop a theoretical model and explores how organizational leaders manage the electricity saving behavior of employees. This model was tested with a survey of 627 full-time employees from 14 provinces and municipalities of China. Results show that sustainable development vision, electricity saving cues, inspiration and role modeling significantly increase the electricity saving responsibility of employees, which in turn positively influences their electricity saving behavior. Moreover, organizational reward policy buffers the positive relationship between responsibility and behavior. This study contributes to energy conservation literature by explaining what characteristics of leadership improve the electricity saving behavior of employees and how leader characteristics match with organizational policy to effectively manage this. The practical implications for electricity saving management are also discussed.
能源消耗和碳排放过度损害了中国的生态环境和社会可持续发展。组织是能源的主要消耗者，应该主要负责节能。尽管许多组织领导者知道管理员工的节能行为迫在眉睫，但在学术和实践领域中，“如何有效地管理”却没有得到足够的重视。为了填补这一空白，本研究借鉴魅力型领导理论，构建了一个理论模型，探讨了组织领导者如何管理员工的节电行为。该模型通过对来自中国 14 个省、直辖市的 627 名全职员工的调查进行了检验。结果表明，可持续发展愿景、节电提示、激励和角色示范显著提高了员工的节电责任感，进而积极影响了他们的节电行为。此外，组织奖励政策缓冲了责任感和行为之间的正向关系。本研究通过解释哪些领导特征可以提高员工的节电行为，以及领导特征如何与组织政策相匹配来有效地管理这一点，为节能文献做出了贡献。还讨论了节电管理的实际意义。
