Soomro, S. A., Soomro, S. A., Ibrahim, B., & Aljarah, A. (2026). Managerial green leadership behavior and its impact on employee environmental citizenship behavior: the mediating role of green intellectual capital in the hospitality sector. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 34(4), 1135–1156.
In a recent article published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Near East University (NEU) researcher Dr. Suhaib Ahmed Soomro, together with Shuaib Ahmed Soomro (KEDGE Business School, France), Blend Ibrahim (Balıkesir University, Türkiye) and Ahmad Aljarah (Cyprus International University), set out to answer a deceptively simple question for the hospitality industry: when a hotel manager genuinely cares about the environment, does that care actually change what employees do at work — and if so, how?
The question matters because hotels and tourism companies sit in a difficult middle ground. They are major economic engines (in Northern Cyprus alone, tourism brought in roughly 1.18 billion USD in 2023 and covered nearly half of the trade deficit), but they are also significant consumers of energy, water, and materials. Most of a hotel’s real environmental footprint comes from countless small, daily decisions made by frontline staff: how lights and air-conditioners are used, how food waste is handled, how guests are nudged toward greener choices. Getting an entire team to act sustainably is therefore not a poster campaign — it is a leadership and culture problem.
To investigate this, the team surveyed 264 frontline employees working in 16 four- and five-star hotels in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, using a two-wave design that separated questions in time to reduce bias. They asked employees three things. First, how green their direct manager actually behaved on a daily basis — coaching the team on environmental issues, encouraging eco-friendly ideas, and visibly recognizing green initiatives (“Green Leadership Behavior”, GLB). Second, how strongly the employees perceived three forms of “green intellectual capital” in their organization: Green Human Capital (the green skills, knowledge and expertise of staff), Green Structural Capital (the policies, systems and procedures that support sustainability), and Green Relational Capital (the partnerships and reputation the hotel has built around environmental issues). Third, the employees’ own “Environmental Citizenship Behavior” (ECB) — the voluntary, going-the-extra-mile actions that don’t appear in any job description, such as suggesting greener practices or quietly correcting wasteful habits.
To make sense of how these pieces fit together, the authors drew on two complementary ideas from organizational research: signaling theory (the idea that leaders constantly send signals that employees read and act on) and the Conservation of Resources theory (the idea that people are more willing to put in extra effort when their organization gives them the resources to do so). The data were analyzed using a multilevel mediation model in Jamovi 2.5, which can simultaneously handle the team-level signal (the manager’s leadership) and the individual-level response (the employee’s behavior).
The findings tell a clear and useful story. A manager’s green leadership is indeed positively associated with employees’ environmental citizenship behavior — but, crucially, that effect runs through the three forms of green intellectual capital. In other words, when a manager signals that environmental sustainability matters, employees act on that signal mainly to the extent that the organization has actually invested in green skills among its people, in green policies and systems, and in green-minded external partnerships. All four hypotheses tested in the study were supported. The leader’s example is necessary, but on its own it is not enough; without the underlying intellectual capital to back it up, the message risks staying at the level of words and posters.
For hospitality organizations, the practical takeaways are three-fold. First, hire and promote managers with a genuine, demonstrable commitment to environmental sustainability — not as a nice-to-have, but as a core selection criterion for leadership roles. Second, invest in the intangible green assets that turn leadership into action: train staff in environmental skills, embed clear sustainability rules into everyday systems and procedures, and recognize and reward green ideas. Third, cultivate external relationships — with suppliers, regulators, communities and guests who share environmental values — because reputation and partnerships reinforce what happens inside the building. When all three are in place, a manager’s green commitment stops being a personal trait and becomes a chain reaction that reaches every corner of the hotel.
For collaboration and inquiries, please contact Dr. Suhaib Ahmed Soomro at [email protected].
About the researcher
Dr. Suhaib Ahmed Soomro is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Administration at Near East University. He earned his doctorate in Business Administration with a specialization in Marketing. His research has examined topics including consumer behavior, influencer marketing, and green intellectual capital. His broader research interests lie in marketing and tourism, with a particular focus on customer citizenship behavior, environmental and green marketing, social media marketing, and technology adoption in emerging markets.
He has published in SSCI-, ABS, and ABDC-indexed peer-reviewed international journals, including the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, the Journal of Product & Brand Management, and the Journal of Intellectual Capital. Dr. Soomro actively participates in international conferences and workshops, where he shares his research insights and encourages meaningful discussions that connect academic theory with real-world practice. His work explores the emerging intersection of influencer marketing, tourism, neuromarketing, and digital consumer engagement. He also contributes to the academic community as a reviewer for leading marketing and management journals.
Disciplines: Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Sustainable Tourism, Green Intellectual Capital.
For collaboration and inquiries, he can be reached at [email protected].
Abstract
Hospitality organisations are crucial in driving green and sustainable business practices as the world advances toward global decarbonisation. This study investigates the relationship between Green Leadership Behavior (GLB) and employee Environmental Citizenship Behavior (ECB), focusing on the mediating role of three facets of Green Intellectual Capital (GIC), i.e. Green Human Capital (GHC), Green Structural Capital (GSC) and Green Relational Capital (GRC). The study is based on a multilevel dataset comprising 264 employees (Level 1) nested within 16 hospitality organisations (Level 2). We used a 2-1-1 multilevel mediation model to analyse the data, using Jamovi 2.5 software. We found that GHC, GSC, and GRC serve as a mechanism through which GLB is associated with increased ECB. The study recommends valuable insights for hospitality organisations to provide the necessary and timely availability of intangible assets such as GHC, GSC, and GRC so that GLB may effectively exploit GIC to encourage ECB. We contribute to the leadership literature in tourism and hospitality by identifying key pathways through which GLB influences ECB, emphasising the crucial role of GIC in shaping employees’ environmentally friendly behaviors.
