Employees' perception of environmental practices: A public institution example

The concept of sustainability is based on a philosophy that aims to reduce natural resource consumption and environmental pollution and places responsibility on human behavior. Protecting nature requires not only resource management but also sustainable behavior that respects the right to life of other living beings. In the 21st century, environmental management policies have become institutionalized, and environmentally responsible practices have been encouraged in the public and private sectors in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. One of the concepts contributing to this process at the individual level is "Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behavior." Employees' voluntary environmental attitudes and behaviors contribute positively to organizations' environmental performance. However, individuals' personal environmental awareness can play a decisive role in demonstrating these voluntary behaviors. The aim of this study is to measure the environmental awareness levels of individuals working in public institutions as consumers and their organizational environmental citizenship behaviors within the framework of the sustainability approach; to examine the relationship between individual attitudes of employees towards environmental problems in the example of Bursa Courthouse and the organizational environmental citizenship levels of these attitudes, and to analyze the hypotheses created to determine the differences between these attitudes and behaviors with demographic variables. The research was conducted with the participation of 350 volunteer employees working at the Bursa Courthouse. The Consumer Environmental Awareness Scale and the Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale were used to collect data. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, T-tests, and Correlation analyses were conducted in the study. As a result of the factor analysis, four dimensions were obtained in the Consumer Environmental Awareness Scale, and two dimensions were obtained in the Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale, unlike the main test: "Towards Oneself and Colleagues" and "Towards the Organization." While no statistical differences were generally observed in the variance analysis tests, a statistical difference was found in favor of female participants in the Consumer Environmental Awareness Scale. The t-test revealed statistical differences in the Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale for age and experience. Correlation analysis revealed generally moderate positive relationships between the scale dimensions. It was observed that as environmental awareness increased, environmental organizational behavior also increased.