The Measurement of Green Workplace Behaviors: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The literature on the green behaviors adopted by individuals in workplace settings has grown significantly over the past decade. Many studies have examined the factors associated with individual actions. However, the comparability of the studies conducted on the subject is a common concern, mainly because of the wide range of measurement tools based on different sets of items used in such research. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the degree of methodological maturity of green workplace behaviors based on a systematic review of research published on the subject between 1977 and 2016. Five major trends were identified from the 53 papers reviewed as part of this research: (a) the predominance of scales for measuring “green office” behaviors, (b) the redundancy of certain items, (c) the limited efforts devoted to measuring counterproductive green behaviors, (d) the emergence of new subcategories of proenvironmental behaviors, and (e) and the abundance of scales measuring voluntary green behaviors (extra-role). Through an analysis of existing measurement tools, this article proposes a decision tree designed to help scholars choose appropriate items for their studies. This may, in turn, contribute to the literature on green workplace behaviors by reducing bias and limiting the unnecessary creation of new measurement scales.