Feeling good by doing good: hospitality employees’ voluntary workplace green behavior enhances their thriving at work

To address environmental challenges, contemporary hospitality organizations are embracing their environmental responsibilities by encouraging their employees to engage in voluntary workplace green behavior (VWGB). While previous research has focused primarily on the antecedents of VWGB, this study examines the implications of VWGB for workplace thriving. When hospitality employees with higher levels of optimism engage in VWGB, their behaviors lead to a perceived prosocial impact and positive emotions, which ultimately enhance workplace thriving. Using an experience sampling design, we administered daily surveys to 179 hospitality employees over five consecutive workdays. The results of multilevel analyses showed that VWGB in the morning is positively related to perceived prosocial impact and positive emotions in the afternoon, which, in turn, are positively related to next-day thriving at work. These relationships are stronger ( versus nonsignificant) when hospitality employees hold higher ( versus lower) levels of optimism. This study contributes new insights to the VWGB literature by revealing how and when VWGB is related to thriving at work. • Voluntary workplace green behavior enhances thriving at work via perceived prosocial impact. • Voluntary workplace green behavior enhances thriving at work via positive emotion. • Optimism strengthens the beneficial effects of voluntary workplace green behavior.