The Impact of Green Human Resource Management on Green Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Role of Organizational Identification in Iraqi Higher Education

Developing countries are putting more pressure on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to embrace green practices, but the psychological processes that relate Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) to voluntary employee green behavior are not well understood. This paper utilized the Social Identity Theory to analyze how the GHRM practices affect Green Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Green OCB) in academic and administrative employees in Iraqi universities and the mediating role of Organizational Identification. A cross-sectional research design was used as quantitative. A sample of 300 academic and administrative personnel at the University of Anbar and the University of Babylon was used to gather data through a self-administered questionnaire due to their performance in the UI GreenMetric rankings. To test the hypothesized relationships, the collected data was analyzed with the help of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that the GHRM practices positively influence both Organizational Identification and Green OCB significantly. Moreover, the research establishes that the role of Organizational Identification is critical as a mediating factor, indicating that the practice of GHRM is effective in influencing voluntary green behavior by improving the psychological attachment and the pride of employees of their university regarding green identity. The paper fills a major gap in the literature as it presents empirical evidence of the Iraqi higher education sector. It confirms Social Identity Theory in a non-Western setting and proves that the development of the so-called Green Organizational Identity is one of the effective strategic mechanisms that can be used by the university to enhance their environmental performance and global sustainability scores.