Dual Mediation Through Green Organisational Identification and Environmental Psychological Ownership in Indian Manufacturing Firms
Author(s): Meenakshi Sundaram Rajagopal, Priya Lakshmi Venkatesan
Affiliation: Department of Human Resource Management, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, Department of MBA, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India
Page No: 40-43-
Volume issue & Publishing Year: Volume 3, Issue 3, 2026/03/09
Journal: International Journal of Modern Engineering and Management | IJMEM
ISSN NO: 3048-8230
DOI:
Abstract:
The manufacturing sector accounts for approximately 27% of India’s total greenhouse gas emissions and is subject to escalating environmental regulatory pressure through the Bureau of Energy Efficiency’s Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme, the National Action Plan on Climate Change sectoral missions, and increasingly stringent Environmental Impact Assessment norms. HR departments in manufacturing firms are accordingly being called upon to embed environmental sustainability into people management practices — a domain termed Green HRM (GHRM) — encompassing environmentally oriented recruitment criteria, green training and awareness programmes, eco-performance appraisal indicators, and green rewards for sustainable behaviour. Despite growing practitioner interest, the mechanisms through which GHRM practices translate into tangible employee pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) remain inadequately theorised and empirically validated in the Indian manufacturing context.
Grounded in Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and Psychological Ownership Theory (Pierce et al., 2001), this paper proposes and tests a dual mediation model in which GHRM practices influence PEB through two parallel psychological pathways: Green Organisational Identification (GOI) — the degree to which employees incorporate the organisation’s environmental identity into their self-concept — and Environmental Psychological Ownership (EPO) — the felt sense of ownership over the organisation’s environmental outcomes. The model is tested through PLS-SEM on data from 487 employees nested within 31 manufacturing firms across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh representing six industry sub-sectors.
Keywords:
Green HRM, pro-environmental behaviour, green organisational identification, environmental psychological ownership, mediation, PLS-SEM, manufacturing, sustainability, Social Identity Theory, India, GHRM bundle, bootstrapping
Reference:
[1] Jabbour, C. J. C., de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L., Govindan, K., et al. (2012). Environmental management and operational performance in automotive companies in Brazil. Journal of Cleaner Production, 37, 273-280.
[2] Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13(2), 103-123.
[3] Pierce, J. L., Kostova, T., & Dirks, K. T. (2001). Toward a theory of psychological ownership in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 298-310.
[4] Renwick, D. W., Redman, T., & Maguire, S. (2013). Green HRM: A review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1), 1-14.
[5] Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 7-24). Nelson-Hall.
[6] Van Dyne, L., & Pierce, J. L. (2004). Psychological ownership and feelings of possession. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(4), 439-459.
[7] Yong, J. Y., Yusliza, M. Y., Ramayah, T., et al. (2020). Nexus between green intellectual capital and green human resource management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 272, 122667.
[8] Yusliza, M. Y., Yong, J. Y., Tanveer, M. I., et al. (2020). A structural model of the impact of green human resource management on employee performance. Sustainability, 12(17), 7041.
[9] BEE. (2023). PAT Cycle VI Results. Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, India.
[10] Mittal, S., & Dhar, R. L. (2016). Effect of green transformational leadership on green creativity. Journal of Cleaner Production, 116, 190-199.