Abstract
This study examines how workplace ostracism influences hotel employees’ pro-environmental behavior, highlighting the psychological and organizational conditions that shape sustainable actions in the hospitality sector. Guided by social cognitive theory, the model tests green work engagement as a mediating mechanism and green management initiatives and environmental passion as boundary conditions. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 528 employees from four- and five-star hotels in major Chinese cities. Using Hayes’ PROCESS macro, the study assessed both mediation and moderated effects. Results show that workplace ostracism significantly reduces employees’ pro-environmental behavior, and this relationship is partially mediated by green work engagement. Moreover, green management initiatives strengthen the negative association between workplace ostracism and green work engagement, while environmental passion strengthens the effect of green work engagement on pro-environmental behavior. These findings contribute to sustainability and hospitality research by demonstrating how interpersonal exclusion undermines environmentally responsible behavior and by identifying organizational practices and individual motivations that can intensify or enhance these effects.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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The authors confirm their contributions as follows: MR: conceptualization; HH: data curation, resources, software; HH: writing original draft, formal analysis; MR: supervision, validation, writing review; MR: editing, funding acquisition. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the Graduate Business School, ethics committee, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, approval No. UCSI/GBSEC/2025/0013. All procedures were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection.
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Haijiang, H., Rafiq, M. Workplace ostracism influences hotel employees pro-environmental behaviour through green work engagement. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38569-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38569-6
