The role of socio-cultural values in shaping the employees’ pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) in the South African manufacturing firms.

Abstract

As manufacturing firms face intensifying regulatory pressures, resource constraints, and stakeholder demands for sustainability, pro-environmental behaviour has become critical for operational resilience and environmental performance. While organisations increasingly adopt environmental management systems and compliance frameworks, persistent gaps remain between sustainability policies and employees’ everyday environmental practices. However, limited research has examined how socio-cultural values interact with organisational drivers to shape PEB in emerging economy manufacturing contexts, particularly in South Africa. The objective of this qualitative study was to explore how organisational motivations, workplace practices, and socio-cultural values influence pro-environmental behaviour within South African manufacturing firms. The data was obtained from the in-depth semi-structured interviews with fourteen environmental sustainability leaders and analysed using thematic analysis guided by the three research questions of this study. The analysis revealed three central dynamics. First, sustainability motivations operate through both instrumental drivers (compliance, cost efficiency, competitiveness) and normative drivers (corporate citizenship, ethical responsibility, reputation). Second, organisational systems such as leadership signalling, communication, training, and performance monitoring influence how sustainability priorities are translated into employee behaviour. Third, socio-cultural values, including collectivism, Ubuntu, inclusiveness, and socio-economic considerations, act as behavioural enablers or barriers shaping how employees interpret the environmental responsibility within their workplace context. The findings suggest that sustainable behavioural change requires alignment between institutional structures, organisational systems, and socio-culturally grounded value narratives. For manufacturing leaders, this implies moving beyond compliance-based approaches towards socio-culturally resonant engagement strategies that strengthen behavioural internalisation and long-term sustainability performance.