Management Accounting Section Midyear Meeting

Communicated Value Statements, Personal Norms and the Intention to Follow Pro-Environmental Behavior

• In Event: Control systems (Mixed Methods) II

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of a value statement on the intention to follow pro-environmental behavior and if these effects depend on employees’ personal norms. I predict that, in situations where employees hold ambiguous personal norms, a value statement is of greater importance for them because it communicates organizational prioritized goals and clarifies expectations, providing the necessary meaning to guide employees’ decisions. Results show that the intention to follow pro-environmental behavior is higher (lower) when an environmental (economic) value statement is communicated from the main executive, but only for employees with ambiguous personal norms. Additional analysis shows that the effect of a value statement on the intention to follow pro-environmental behavior is mediated by the development of a pro-environmental attitude for employees with unambiguous personal norms. In addition, employees with ambiguous personal norms who do not receive a value statement have no guidance as to appropriate behaviors and tend to ‘sit on the fence’. The main implication of these results is that the communication of an environmental value statement for employees with ambiguous personal norms can be an effective informal control mechanism to provide guidance that fosters the intention to follow pro-environmental behavior.

Author

• Andson Braga de Aguiar, University of Sao Paulo