Make it their Decisions, not your Directives: Exploring Required Green Competencies for Employee Ecological Behaviour

Background and Purpose: A growing body of evidence confirms that employee ecological behaviour (EEB) is the most critical factor indicating organisational competitive advantage and environmental performance. The present study identifies and explores the green competencies required at the workplace to perform ecological behaviour.

No prior study has explored the required green competencies from employees at the workplace in higher education institutions to the researchers’ knowledge.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The research utilises the data generated from eighteen comprehensive interviews with the top five Malaysian green universities’ employees. The study adopted the content analysis approach to explore contextually relevant competencies required for EEB in the workplace.

Results: Six main green competencies, namely environmental awareness, environmental attitude, environmental knowledge, environmental consciousness, green mindfulness, and green ability, were generated from the analysis supporting ecological behaviour at the workplace.

Conclusion: This research explored the required green competencies of employees to be environmental-friendly in the workplace by investigating the previously neglected domain required in the workplace. The research offers practical implications to universities and human resources (HR) to adopt accountabilities for an organisation to be environmentally sustainable. The recruitment committee and top management of higher education institutions should accentuate an environmental stance and green competencies in job descriptions to entice applicants with an environment-friendly mentality.