Eco-Heroes at the Workplace: A Systematic Review of Research on Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment in the Past 15 Years

Faced with the severe consequences of climate change, organizations are increasingly adopting formal environmental management practices (e.g., ISO 14000) to reduce their ecological footprint. Yet, given the complexity of environmental challenges, voluntary “green” behaviors of employees play a crucial complementary role. These behaviors can be considered as organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE), defined as discretionary, unrewarded individual behaviors contributing to organizations’ environmental management. Empirical research over the past 15 years has addressed the conceptualization, antecedents, and outcomes of OCBE, however, a systematic integration of these findings is still lacking. Following PRISMA guidelines, this review synthesizes evidence from 151 articles across seven databases, offering a comprehensive overview of conceptual and methodological approaches to OCBE. We further summarize extant evidence on antecedents, mediators, moderators, and consequences of OCBE at the individual, team, leadership, organizational, and societal level. Where possible, we meta-analytically aggregate empirical findings. This review culminates in an integrative OCBE framework, outlines future research avenues, discusses methodological limitations, and provides practical recommendations for employees, supervisors, and human resource managers.