Exploring the psychological mechanism underlying the relationship between organizational interventions and employees' energy-saving behaviors

Organizational interventions (OIs) and employees' psychological factors have a substantial effect on employees' energy-saving behaviors. However, existing studies have not considered the psychological mechanisms underlying the linkage between interventions and behaviors. To fill this gap, we explored the effect of OIs on employees' psychological factors and that of employees' psychological factors on their intentions to save energy. In doing so, we incorporated OIs in the theory of planned behavior model, and included employees' energy-saving knowledge and educational level as moderators. We found that (1) OIs improved employees' energy-saving attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, and they strengthened employees' intention to engage in energy-saving behaviors; (2) conveying expectations regarding energy-saving behaviors to employees worked better than emphasizing the importance of such behaviors; (3) increasing employees' knowledge of energy consumption may have strengthened the positive effect of OIs on employees' attitudes and perceived behavioral control in this context; and (4) the positive effect of OIs on the perceived behavioral control of employees with high and low educational level was greater than that on those with moderate educational level. These findings can help decision makers in companies to understand employees' energy-saving behaviors better and to formulate more effective energy-efficient policies.