Green leadership and pro environmental behavior in the public sector: Systematic literature review using PRISMA

Abstract

Environmental sustainability is critical in the public sector, yet adoption of pro environmental behavior (PEB), particularly Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment (OCBE), among public servants remains inconsistent Prior studies on green leadership in the public sector are fragmented, geographically limited, and micro focused, offering little integration with organizational, structural, and institutional governance dimensions. Crucially, the novelty of this review lies in its exclusive public sector synthesis, integrating individual, organizational, and institutional governance dimensions into a holistic multi-level framework absent in prior systematic reviews. This study systematically reviews the literature on green leadership's role in promoting PEB and OCBE within public sector organizations. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Articles were sourced from Scopus indexed journals, screened for eligibility and thematically analyzed. Seventeen high-quality studies met inclusion criteria and were analyzed to identify key mechanisms, theoretical perspectives, and research trends. Findings indicate green leadership consistently drives PEB and OCBE among public employees. Its influence is mediated by environmental value internalization, leadership role modeling, green organizational culture, green HRM, and individual psychological factors such as environmental self-efficacy. Thus, green leadership functions a as both a normative leadership style and a managerial instrument for sustainability behavior and performance in bureaucracies. Theoretically, it positions green leadership as a multidimensional adaptive framework enriching public sector leadership and OB literature. Practically, it underscores institutional and policy support to embed sustainability values into public sector systems, while identifying research gaps such as longitudinal, cross level, and contextually diverse studies.