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Organisations are identified as the major anthropogenic sources of climate change, and there are increasing numbers of environmental sustainability initiatives to address the challenge. Their success relies on the active participation of employees through engaging in pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs). Leaders play a crucial role in their responsibility for managing or influencing employees, but research identifies issues of poor leadership, lack of support from leaders, and inability to motivate subordinates as significant barriers to employees' PEBs. Environmental transformational leadership (ETFL) has been identified as the most suitable leadership style for influencing employees' autonomous motivation, and improving PEBs, and there are thus calls to foster or boost leaders' ETFL competencies. This study developed, administered, and evaluated an ETFL training intervention conducted for leaders (managers and supervisors) in two multinational manufacturing companies in the chemical and automobile industries located in China. Nine (9) leaders participated in each company, and their subordinates (chemical company, n = 112; automobile company, n = 104) provided ratings of leaders' ETFL behaviours, and subordinates' autonomous motivation and PEBs, at pre- and post-training stages. Results show that subordinates' ratings of leaders' ETFL behaviours, and their self-reported autonomous motivation and PEBs, all significantly increased after the intervention, with large effects in the chemical company and above-small effects in the automobile company. This study offers theoretical insights on how leaders' ETFL can be developed or boosted, which is beneficial for influencing improvements in employees' PEBs and promoting organisational environmental sustainability initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmentally specific transformational leadership (ETFL) is a prominent stimulus of employees' green behaviour, but its mechanism continues to receive inadequate scholarly attention. A cultural self-representation lens was used as a basis for exploring the mediating role of employees' green self-concept (i.e. green self-identity and green self-efficacy) and the moderating role of employees' man–nature orientation in the relationship between ETFL and employees' green behaviour. To examine these hypotheses, a three-wave survey of 362 employees was conducted in Southern China. Results from hierarchical regressions supported the mediating effect via employees' green self-identity, and this effect is more salient when employees have a stronger man–nature orientation. These results suggest practical implications for shaping and employing ETFL to cultivate employees' green self-identity, thereby supporting their green behaviour, particularly for those with a stronger man–nature orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]