Promoting sustainability and desirable workplace behaviors in educational institutions in the presence of organizational politics and CEO narcissism

Purpose The workplace environment has a significant impact on employees' attitudes and actions, and their understanding of the organizational activities determines sustainable and collaborative work conditions. The present research undertakes an indispensable research framework that addresses how sustainable and desirable workplace behaviors can be promoted in educational institutions. Accordingly, this research examines: how employees perceive their institute's sustainability initiatives, i.e. CSR actions that ultimately translate into desired attitudes and behaviors, i.e. employee green behavior (EGB) and knowledge sharing (KS) at the workplace by underpinning social identity theory. However, when undesired working conditions, i.e. Perception of Politics (POP) and CEO Narcissism, adversely influence these desired outcomes at the workplace? Design/methodology/approach Philosophically, this research opted for the post-positivist lens with a deductive approach to theory testing by employing a survey strategy. The unit of analysis for the present research is middle managers and operationalized at an individual level. We deliberately selected 62 higher education institutes recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Thereafter, three self-administered surveys were conducted by employing a time-lagged design with two temporal breaks. A total of 785 surveys were distributed among deans/directors across selected institutions. The present research opted for contemporary data analysis techniques, such as Smart PLS, employed to examine the measurement qualities before hypothesis testing. Findings It is found that employees who feel strongly identified with their institute are more likely to align their values with the institute's sustainability initiatives and engage in environmentally conscious behaviors, and employees are more willing to share information and contribute to the organization's collective intelligence. However, the existence of organizational politics and CEO narcissism undermines these positive relationships. For example, when employees perceive a high degree of organizational politics, their faith in the organization's ethical standards declines, resulting in a range of unfavorable attitudes and actions in the workplace. Practical implications This study offers practical insights for leaders and policymakers for promoting sustainability in higher education institutes and also enlightens the damaging impacts of organizational politics and CEO narcissism. Originality/value The broader perspectives of this research are twofold: a) to examine the employees' understandings of their institutes' sustainability initiatives and their trickle-down effect on desirable employees' attitudes and behaviors at the workplace, b) and when employees' perceptions of politics and CEO Narcissism adversely affect the above-said relationship.