Leadership styles and employee pro-environmental behavior in the tourism and hospitality industry: A cognitive-affective personality system perspective

Despite substantial attention given to employee pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in recent years, the role of leadership and the underlying mechanisms for employee PEBs remain unclear. By integrating regulatory focus theory, conservation of resources theory, and cognitive-affective personality system theory, we constructed a chain mediation pathway to reveal the effect of transformational and transactional leadership on employee PEBs via the distinct personality system of employees in the tourism and hospitality industry. Adopting a field investigation of 935 employees in Chinese hospitality corporations, we found that transformational leadership motivates subordinates to engage in PEBs by instilling a work promotion focus mindset, which later leads to a reduction in their emotional exhaustion. Transactional leadership, however, exerts a negative influence on PEBs by evoking subordinates’ work prevention focus, which increases employees’ emotional exhaustion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, along with the study's limitations and future directions.