Learning Patterns and Sustainability: Mapping the Link Between Cognitive Strategies and Employee Green Behavior

ABSTRACT

Employee green behavior (EGB) is pivotal for translating corporate sustainability strategies into everyday environmental performance. Yet, substantial heterogeneity persists among employees exposed to similar organizational cues. While prior research has emphasized leadership, climate, and motivational antecedents, less attention has been devoted to the cognitive–regulatory microfoundations through which sustainability‐related information is processed and internalized at work. Drawing on Vermunt's learning patterns framework, this study examines how learning configurations are associated with pro‐environmental self‐identity (PESI) and EGB. Using cross‐sectional data from employees in a Latin American agri‐food organization ( N  = 149), we combine person‐centered and variable‐centered analyses. Results show that profiles characterized by deep processing and active regulation report significantly higher EGB than passive/undirected profiles. At the activity level, deep processing emerges as the strongest correlate of both PESI and EGB. Indirect association analyses further suggest that PESI may operate as a proximal psychological correlate linking cognitive processing and ecological action. By positioning learning patterns as microfoundational correlates of employee sustainability engagement, this study advances CSR and environmental management research beyond climate‐ and value‐based explanations toward a configurational understanding of how sustainability capabilities are cognitively developed and enacted within organizations.