The adoption of employees' lean and green practices as a result of leaders' behaviour in Indonesian logistics and transportation service firms

Worldwide climate change, pollution, and resource inefficiency are global challenges, and most Asian logistics and transportation service firms share the 'load' in meeting them. Operational waste within those firms leads to both environmental degradation and avoidable business costs. Hence, many logistics and transportation firms around the globe are in the process of adopting lean and green practices. Our exploratory multiple-case study examines which behaviours of leaders effectively motivate employees' adoption of lean and green practices. Based on 45 interviews with leaders and employees of four Indonesian logistics and transportation firms and numerous field observations, we depict and compare four firms that vary in terms of their degree of adoption of lean and green practices. Lending from various extant theories, we derive a multi-level conceptual model of how individual leaders and employees can contribute to leaning and greening their firm. Four propositions are then presented as part of a multidisciplinary research agenda that aims to advance knowledge of the behaviours of members of Indonesian logistics and transportation firms (i.e., transformational leaders and non-managerial employees in particular). This knowledge must help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, especially goal 8, 'Decent work and economic growth'.