Stimulating Pro-Environmental Behavior using Management Control: Survey Evidence from a City Government

This paper investigates how pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) of public sector employees can be stimulated using management control. We mobilize the theory of planned behavior to hypothesize that employee environmental concerns are associated with PEBs, and that this relation can be strengthened by management control instruments that provide structure and signals about prevailing norms. Using survey data from 151 public sector employees, we find support for most of our expectations. Specifically, our findings suggest that sustainability-related output controls (e.g., sustainable performance budgets and accounting reports) can help employees to translate their environmental concerns into action through PEBs. Furthermore, we find that behavior controls (e.g. formats that incorporate sustainability and resilience-enhancing action programs) positively associate with PEBs, regardless of employees' initial environmental concerns. Taken together, our findings have implications for public sector organizations seeking to stimulate employees to engage in more environmentally sustainable behaviors.