Organizational support for employees: Encouraging creative ideas for environmental sustainability

The environmental sustainability of businesses depends largely on employees ' creative environmental ideas and innovative solutions to environmental pr oblems. This article analyzes how companies that want to improve their envi ronmental performance can increase their employees' willingness to eco-inno vate. Results of an employee survey show that supportive behaviors from lin e managers significantly increase the probability that employees will try e nvironmental initiatives. Even in firms that have sustainable development p olicies, Line managers are less supportive when managing environmental issu es compared to managing other business issues. Stated environmental policie s may not have much of a direct influence on employees' willingness to eco- innovate. This article shows how firms can encourage line managers to adopt behaviors that employees perceive to be supportive of environmental action s, and it indicates which behaviors and policies are most effective at supp orting environmental innovations.