Determinants of employee electricity saving: the role of social benefits, personal benefits and organizational electricity saving climate

• We study antecedents of employee electricity saving intention.
• We test the model using survey data collected from China.
• Attitude toward electricity saving positively influences the intention.
• Enjoyment, organizational and environmental benefit positively influences attitude.
• Organizational electricity saving climate positively influences attitude.

China is one of the major energy-consuming and carbon-emitting countries. Promotion of efficient energy use is crucial in reducing energy consumption and carbon emission. Under external pressure and realizing the importance of energy conservation, many firms have adopted measures to save energy. Such measures entail active employee participation. However, employees often lack motivation and thus do not actively participate in energy saving activities. Studies on factors that drive employee energy saving remain scarce. To fill this gap in research, drawing on theory of planned behavior and taking office workers as example, we develop a model for studying the antecedents of employee electricity saving behavior in organizations. The model was empirically examined using survey data collected from office workers in Beijing, China. Results show that employee attitude toward electricity saving and perceived behavioral control positively influence employee intention to save electricity. Environmental benefit, organizational benefit, enjoyment, and organizational electricity saving climate positively influence employee attitude toward electricity saving, whereas the effect of anticipated extrinsic benefit is found insignificant. This study contributes to research on energy saving by presenting the energy saving behaviors of employees, which remains largely ignored in the current literature despite its importance. The implications of promoting employee electricity saving are discussed in accordance with the study findings.