Why Can’t I Work in a Green Way? Research on the Influencing Mechanism of Employees’ Labor Intentions

Abstract

Non-green labor patterns have a negative impact on health and organizational sustainable development. This research proposes a green labor style that takes the sustainable development of employees themselves as the premise, with the protection of their physical and mental health as a long-term goal, that is not only concerned with how to build a reasonable mechanism to guarantee the physical and mental health of employees, but also with the labor protection mechanism of the whole process, from production to output. On the basis of social cognitive theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study recruited a sample of 884 Chinese employees to explore the mechanism of their willingness to conduct green labor, including factors such as institutional constraints, boundary management, and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). The results show that high levels of institutional constraints curbed employee demand for green labor and, in employees, good boundary-management skills acted as a mechanism of resistance against negative constraints. Furthermore, individual OBSE, as a positive psychological resource, could buffer the negative impacts of the organizational scenarios on outcomes.

1. Introduction

Research has shown that countries that are rich in human resources, such as China, are confronted with the task of paying for the high costs associated with employee health while striving to achieve rapid social and economic development [1], and that nongreen labor, which includes long working hours and poor labor protection, should be held responsible for this phenomenon [2]. On the one hand, the working hours of Chinese employees continue to show an inverse growth trend, to the extent that they even exceed those observed in the Japanese labor market, a country that was once notorious for excessive overtime work [3]. On the other hand, employee occupational protection needs to be gradually improved upon alongside the maturity of new technologies [4]. In particular, the rapid development of information technology has accelerated industry competition and blurred the boundary between work and family life [5], which has a negative effect on the psychological well-being of employees. The Chinese government has adopted many methods to protect the rights and interests of employees and their physiological and psychological health, for example, China’s national strategy, entitled “Healthy China”, which points out the need to maintain and protect people’s health in a comprehensive manner, and which strives to greatly improve the health level [6]. Chinese employees are still suffering serious physiological and psychological harm as a result of poor labor protection mechanisms, overtime, and work overload [7]. According to the Report on National Occupational Diseases in 2019, issued by the Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, there were as many as 19,428 new cases of occupational diseases nationwide. In 2020, 27,412 people lost their lives because of production safety accidents [8].

A study of the reasons as to why employees choose non-green labor, in the context of increasingly perfect national policies, reveals that the psychological cognition of individuals is the direct factor that influences their behavioral choices [9]. The root cause of employee physiological and psychological harm was that employees, either actively or passively, selected certain non-green jobs and had to sacrifice their own physical and mental health, as well as sustainable development. Therefore, this study examined the willingness of employees to work by referring to two elements: organizational management and employee work experience. At the organizational level, the management system limits the behavior of different production entities in the production process, which could also restrict the behaviors of employees. Thus, under the management framework, individual behavior is either a rational or irrational choice [10], especially when individuals perceive the organization’s tendency to implement non-green labor system constraints, which will have direct consequences, as employees will reject working in a green way. Therefore, this study proposes that it is necessary to include institutional factors (especially organizational constraints on non-green labor) into the research category of the labor willingness of employees. In addition, one of the direct consequences of non-green labor for individuals is the blurred boundary that exists between work and family life [11]. According to the theory of social cognition and boundary management, when an individual perceives that they have more control over the work-family boundary (that is, stronger boundary management capabilities), they experience a correspondingly higher level of self-esteem. As such, the individual has a greater sense of control over their behavior [12], and they are more likely to choose a work pattern that is more beneficial to their physical and mental health. On the basis of the above conclusions, this study included organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and individual boundary management capabilities in the research framework so as to explore their effects on the vocational behavior choices of Chinese employees.

Furthermore, in terms of current management practices, research on the labor behavior choices of employees mostly focuses on turnover behavior, anti-productive behavior, and procrastination behavior [13]. However, few scholars have examined vocational behavior and self-protection, and research studies have also failed to carry out a systematic exploration of sustainable development from a human resources perspective. An article published in Nature pointed out that the 2030 sustainable development goals should include thriving lives and livelihoods, as well as healthy and productive ecosystems [14]. It is evident that, in present-day society, the concept of sustainable development has gradually become recognized, and the health and the quality of life of individuals valued. Given the continuous innovation, and the development of technology in particular, the traditional employment relationship has been subversively reconstructed, and the structure and modes of employment have become more flexible and borderless [15]. In light of this change, employees need to actively pursue professional growth in order to improve upon their life-long development capabilities. Therefore, this article proposes a mode of green labor that emphasizes the need to protect the physical and mental health of employees, while taking into account how employee sustainable development can be enhanced as a long-term goal. This study examined the individual willingness to conduct green labor, which was characterized by self-protective employee behavior, self-development, and labor behavior choices, so as to explore the mechanisms of labor behavior among Chinese employees in terms of factors such as institutional constraints, OBSE, and boundary management capabilities.

2. Literature Review and Theoretical Construction

2.1. Research on Green Labor and Willingness to Conduct

Some scholars have proposed that “green labor could protect employees’ safety and health standards, which was a safe, comfortable mode of work” [16]. Other scholars suggest that green labor is not simply labor within a green industry, but that it reflects the achievement of a harmonious unity between human beings and nature across the entire labor sector. In this way, green labor should conform to the labor laws of the “human” and achieve a virtuous cycle in order to coordinate the sustainable development of human beings. Thus, we define green labor as “a mode of work, which not only emphasizes protecting employees’ physical health within the context of the entire production cycle, but also pays close attention to improving individual psychological health and self-development”. In addition, employees’ willingness to conduct green labor refers to the attitudes of employees towards green jobs in terms of their own protection and development. The theory of planned behavior, proposed by Ajzen (1991), argues that the behavior of individuals or organizations is directly influenced by their behavioral intentions when other conditions are fully controlled [17]. The more positive the attitude, the greater the support of significant others, and the stronger the perceived behavioral control, the greater the behavioral intention, and vice versa. “Behavioral attitudes” are the combined evaluation of how much an individual likes or agrees with the performance of a particular behavior, as well as his or her expectations of the behavior as a whole.

2.2. Institutional Constraints and Willingness to Conduct Green Labor

Institutional constraints play an important role in influencing employees’ intentions and behavior. Meyer and Rowan first proposed the theory of new institutionalism, which suggests the need to consider the institutional environment of the organization when exploring individual behavior (1977) [18]. On this basis, North regarded institutional constraints as a collection of formal and informal models with respect to the interaction between individuals and organizations (1990) [19]. Gilson subsequently classified institutional constraints into formal constraints, which included regional or national regulations and economic contracts, and informal constraints, such as the prevailing societal culture or the rules of behavior that have been established by conventions [20]. The rewards and punishments inherent to the formal system cause employees to feel restricted, and this type of system tends to reduce the unanticipated willingness of enterprises, while an informal system influences employees’ willingness to act morally, emotionally, and habitually. In China’s unique rural social structure, formal and informal systems often complement each other, and are the binding forces of the system to limit individual behavior. In this research, institutional constraints were examined with reference to direct guidance and the restrictive consequences of management organization systems, as well as in terms of informal constraints, such as the labor styles that are adopted by leadership (especially non-green labor styles), and the impact of these styles on subordinates [21]. Furthermore, we treated institutional constraints as an important factor that may limit employees’ choices and curb their intentions to conduct labor behavior. Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed:

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

Institutional constraints have a significant impact on individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor.

2.3. The Mediating Role of Boundary Management

The notion of the work-family boundary views work and family as two different categories of activities, with different purposes and cultures. Early research on the work-family boundary primarily focused on the organizational level in order to study the impact of human resource policies on the work-life balance of employees [22]. In order to adapt and respond to the work-life conflict that exists in the modern working environment, enterprises adopted a new management system that offered flexible work hours and teleworking in an effort to alleviate the negative impacts arising from the ambiguous work-life interface, and to help employees to achieve a balance between their work and family lives. However, these studies produced conflicting findings, and had only a limited impact on policy [23]. Thereafter, studies that examined related research topics began to focus on the individual level, with the aim of exploring the conflict that exists between these two domains, which is largely due to a frequent blurring of boundaries. However, with the deepening of practical research, some scholars began to realize that it was necessary to move beyond a study of conflict and explore the needs of individuals so as to ensure that they are better equipped to manage boundaries and achieve a work-life balance. Therefore, recent studies place a greater emphasis on improving employee competencies in the area of efficient boundary management so that they can achieve a work-life balance [24]. There are two factors that are relevant when considering the impact of institutional constraints on individual boundary management. On the one hand, high-intensity institutional constraints limit job autonomy and the ability of employees to navigate their work-family lives, which diminishes the self-efficacy of employees in boundary management [25]. On the other hand, a system with a wide range of constraints could expand the work boundary and occupy employees’ living spaces, which is not conducive to improving individual boundary consolidation. Moreover, the rapid advancement of information technology has blurred the boundary between work and family life and eroded the buffer space that would otherwise smooth the transition between these boundaries [5]. This situation then led to role ambiguity, which is not conducive to effective boundary management [26]. Organizations reflect different cultures of work-family boundary management, meaning that they treat the work and family life of employees with different values. Some organizations allow or even encourage employees to integrate work and family life in the workplace, and some policies (e.g., workplace daycare, work-from-home) eliminate the work-family boundary line, while others expect the work and family of employees to be distinctly separate. Organizations with strict institutional constraints on work-family boundaries have employees who weaken their boundary management skills to fit in with the organization, while employees with weaker perceptions of the institutional constraints place more emphasis on work-family separation and have a stronger tendency to manage their boundaries. This study focuses on work-family boundary management, and we argue that institutional constraints have an impact on employees’ work-family boundary management, which leads to the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

The perception of institutional constraints has a significant impact on individual boundary management capabilities.

According to boundary theory, individuals respond to time-related pressure and stress in different ways and they have different tendencies. Individuals who prefer to escape from work-related pressure tend to welcome a clearly defined work-family boundary; that is, a distinct separation of their work and personal lives. When the cost of role transformation between work and family was high, individuals would refuse to switch from a certain activity category to another [27]. As a result, individuals with higher boundary management capabilities have a clearer awareness of work-life boundaries and are more able to withstand the negative impact of work-related pressure on the quality of their family life [28]. Therefore, this article posits that high boundary management capabilities have a positive impact on the willingness of individuals to conduct green labor, and the following hypothesis was proposed:

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Individual boundary management capabilities have a significant impact on willingness to conduct green labor.

From the description of institutional constraints, boundary management, and the willingness to conduct green labor, it can be seen that institutional constraints affect the willingness of individuals to conduct green labor through boundary management. Ashforth et al. believe that the separation or integration of work-family boundaries is neither intrinsically good or bad; rather, it is dependent upon the achievement of a match between the boundary and an individual’s boundary preferences [29]. Wang et al. (2020) point out that a mismatch between institutional constraints and individual preferences can have a significant impact on an individual’s attitudes [30]. If institutional constraints emphasize non-green work, and ignore the protection and sustainable development of employees, individual boundary management capabilities could prove challenging. In this case, high boundary management capabilities could promote high levels of behavioral autonomy as a result of good boundary consolidation and time management, which could thereby enhance an individual’s willingness to engage in green labor. Moreover, in the case of individuals with poor boundary management capabilities, higher levels of work-related pressure force them to expend more energy to maintain a relative balance [31]. In this case, these individuals ignore their own health and sustainable development, and they then tend to choose modes of non-green labor. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Boundary management capabilities play a mediating role in the relationship between institutional constraints and the willingness to conduct green labor.

2.4. The Moderating Effect of OBSE

According to the theory of social cognition, an individual’s self-concept describes how members of an organization view themselves, which has an important impact on their behavior [32]. OBSE is a core component of an employee’s self-concept, which refers to an individual’s judgment and evaluation of their own value and influence in the organization [33]. Some studies have shown that OBSE plays an important role in regulating the relationship between the organizational context and employee behavioral choices. For example, Shrout et al. (2020) demonstrated that high self-esteem could buffer the negative effects of intelligence-related stress among employees [34]. Loi et al. suggest that employees’ OBSE could reinforce the positive link between customer participation and employees’ relational crafting (2020) [35]. Moreover, Neves et al. found that high OBSE could model the negative relationship between psychological empowerment and individual characteristics, such as cognitive, affective, and behavioral intentions, to resist future change [36]. In addition, Panaccio and Vandenberghe (2012) confirmed that individuals with high self-esteem enhanced their perception of external employment opportunities, which may increase their turnover intentions [37]. Thus, this study measured the moderating effect of OBSE, and put forward the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 5 (H5).

OBSE plays a moderating role in the relationship between individual perceptions of institutional constraints and the willingness to conduct green labor.

The constructed conceptual model is shown in Figure 1.

3. Empirical Research Design

3.1. Respondents and Procedures

This study employed directional sampling and arbitrary sampling. The survey was carried out by a research team composed of five doctoral students and five master’s degree students. In order to improve the response rate of the questionnaire, the investigators received training on the survey content and skills training, and a dynamic feedback mechanism was developed before the survey. The questionnaires were mainly completed on-site and online. The research process was divided into two stages. First, previous research has shown that overtime work was more common in the developed coastal areas of China, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and non-green labor is a more serious issue in these regions [7]. Therefore, in the first stage of sampling, this study selected participants from eastern China to conduct a large sample survey. At the beginning of the second stage, supplementary investigations were carried out based on the sample distribution of the first stage, which mainly involved analyzing the distribution of samples in the eastern coastal areas, and conducting random sampling surveys in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and other central and western regions of China, to ensure the universality of the samples. A total of 1200 questionnaires was distributed to participants, of which 1011 were retrieved, of which 127 were deemed invalid due to 10 consecutive questions containing the same response, or if online questionnaire users spent less than 80 s completing the questionnaire. Finally, 884 invalid samples were obtained. The effective rate was 87.4%, and the sample distribution data are shown in

Table 1. Sample distribution.

Gender	N	Marital	N	Education	N
male	537	unmarried	438	<junior	174
female	347	married	416	junior-bachelor	453
Age	N	others	30	>bachelor	257
≤20	42	Income	N	Job position	N
21–30	456	≤3000	389	junior staff	411
31–40	168	3001–5000	285	junior managers	186
41–50	146	5001–10,000	106	middle managers	141
51–60	54	10,001–20,000	54	top managers	114
≥61	18	≥20,001	50	others	32

Note: the unit of income was monthly/RMB.

.

3.2. Measures

Institutional constraints. In this research, institutional constraints were regarded as organizational constraints placed on employees in non-green jobs. The elements of “institutional constraints” were categorized into informal and formal systems. Referring to Gibbons et al. (2015) [38], and Cravens et al. (2004) [39], we used seven items (e.g., “Management often asks us to work overtime” and “I can feel the emotional restraints placed on us by the organization and it makes me dependent on the organization”) to measure individual perceptions of institutional constraints.

Willingness to conduct green labor. According to the theory of planned behavior proposed by Ajzen (1991) [17], individual behavioral intentions were mainly predicted by examining three factors: behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Therefore, this study used the following measurement indicators of willingness to undertake green labor: attitudes towards green labor, subjective norms of green labor, and behavioral control of green labor (perceived risk). On the basis of the scale developed by Elliott et al. (2003) [40], we adapted the measurement items to ensure their applicability for this study and explained the essential meaning of green labor to the participants prior to completion of the questionnaire. Nine items (e.g., “As an employee, I look forward to achieving a green labor status as soon as possible” and “My family wants me to work in a green way”) were used to measure individuals’ willingness to undertake green labor.

OBSE. The 10 measurement items proposed by Pierce et al. (1989) [41], which focus on the concept of OBSE, are highly recognized and cited by many scholars. Therefore, this article used 10 items (e.g., “I am considered to be sincere” and “I have a great influence on the surroundings”) to measure individual OBSE.

Boundary management. We referred to the boundary management questionnaire developed by Faraj and Yan [42] and adapted it to ensure its applicability within the Chinese cultural context while also considering language use. The questionnaire contained a total of 12 items that measured work-life boundary management along three dimensions, including boundary consolidation, boundary crossing, and boundary buffering.

The above questionnaires were rated according to a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). In addition, gender, age, education level, marital status, and monthly income were taken as control variables to produce more accurate results.

3.3. Reliability and Validity Analysis

This study used Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to analyze the reliability of the scale. It was concluded that the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the four variables as a whole and of each dimension exceeded 0.80, which indicates that the scale had very good reliability. As shown in

Table 2. Reliability analysis of each variable.

Variable	Dimension	Cronbach’s α	KMO	Factor Loading	CR	AVE
MPE	informal system	0.839	0.796	0.769~0.860	0.6939	0.3621
	formal system		0.727	0.865~0.903	0.7626	0.5175
WTI	labor attitude	0.875	0.716	0.849~0.862	0.6939	0.4304
	subjective norms		0.722	0.856~0.868	0.7112	0.451
	risk perception		0.714	0.851~0.890	0.6938	0.4304
BM	boundary consolidation	0.858	0.696	0.806~0.833	0.7573	0.5103
	boundary crossing		0.693	0.814~0.875	0.779	0.5406
	boundary buffer		0.722	0.860~0.904	0.4139	0.1914
OBSE	-	0.945	0.958	0.779~0.860	0.9456	0.6351

Note: MPE—institutional constraints; WTI—willingness to implement green labor; BM—boundary management; OBSE—organization-based self-esteem.

, the factor loading of each measurement item on the primary factors of each dimension was much higher than the minimum recommended value of 0.5. The cumulative proportion of variance explained, construct reliability (CR), and the average variance extracted (AVE) were all greater than the evaluation standard level, which indicates that the questionnaire had good aggregate validity.

4. Results

4.1. Correlation Analysis

The relevant analysis of individuals’ willingness to undertake green labor and the influencing factors are shown in

Table 3. The results of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis.

	MPE	WTI	BM	OBSE
WTI	−0.585 **
BM	0.477 **	0.596 **
OBSE	0.390 **	0.483 **	0.405 **
Mean	2.360	2.440	2.355	2.323
SD	0.851	0.822	0.795	1.002

Note: MPE—institutional constraints; WTI—willingness to implement green labor; BM—boundary management; OBSE—organization-based self-esteem. *** p < 0.001. ** p < 0.01. * p < 0.05. the sample size is 884.

. The results reveal a good correlation between the four variables: institutional constraints, boundary management, OBSE, and willingness to conduct green labor.

4.2. Path Analysis of Direct and Indirect Effect

We first tested the direct utility of individual willingness to conduct green labor, institutional constraints, and boundary management. We then constructed a structural equation model that included independent variables, mediating variables and intermediate variables, dependent variables, and Mpluswin was used to perform the analysis to obtain the fitting index of the model, as shown in

Table 4. The results of model fit.

Model	S.E.	C.R	Standardized Estimate	X2	CFI	RMSEA	NFI
M1	0.027	−11.511	−0.669 ***	4217.054	0.893	0.086	0.869
M2	0.026	9.863	0.484 ***	5534.579	0.918	0.100	0.897
M3	0.030	−11.256	0.613 ***	4256.073	0.921	0.087	0.907

Note: M1 refers to MPE <--> WTI; M2 refers to MPE <--> BM; M3 refers to BM <--> WTI. *** p < 0.001. ** p < 0.01. * p < 0.05.

.

It can be seen from Table 4 that each index was in line with, or close to, the evaluation standard. In Model 1, which analyzed the effect of institutional constraints on the willingness to conduct green labor, the path coefficient was −0.669 (p < 0.05), which indicates that institutional constraints had a negative effect on individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor. Thus, hypothesis H1 was verified. Model 2 described the effect of institutional constraints on border management, and the path coefficient was 0.484 (p < 0.05), which indicates that institutional constraints had a negative effect on border management. Thus, hypothesis H2 was verified. M3 examined the effect of boundary management on individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor, and the path coefficient was 0.613 (p < 0.05), which indicates that boundary management had a positive effect on individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor. Thus, hypothesis H3 was verified.

4.3. Analysis of the Mediating Role of Boundary Management

This study adopted Andrew’s proofing method and applied the Amos 22.0 structural equation model to verify the mediating effect of boundary management on institutional constraints and green labor willingness. The results are shown in Figure 2. The relevant data of all of the fitting indicators reached the standard level, and the institutional constraints were positive predictors of boundary management. The path coefficient of boundary management and the willingness to conduct green labor also reached a significant level.

In this study, the deviation-corrected nonparametric percentile Bootstrap method was used to further verify the mediating effect of boundary management, the results of which are shown in

Table 5. Percentile Bootstrap method.

Path	Standard Estimate	S.E	Deviation Corrected Percentile Bootsrap		Percentage of Total Effect
			95% CI Lower Limit	95% CI Upper Limit
Mediation effect	0.203 ***	0.028	0.007	0.479	100%

Note: the percentile Bootstrap method was used to repeat sampling for 2000 times, and the range of the effect value was 95%. *** p < 0.001. ** p < 0.01. * p < 0.05.

. The confidence interval was 0.007–0.479 (excluding 0), which indicated that the mediating effect of boundary management was significant (β = 0.203, p < 0.05), and H4 was verified.

4.4. Analysis of the Moderating Effect of OBSE

We adopted a hierarchical multiple regression analysis to evaluate the moderation role of OBSE (method:enter): (1) Adopting the control variables (M4); (2) Adopting institutional constraints (M5); (3) Adopting OBSE (M6); (4) Adopting the items of interaction between institutional constraints and OBSE (M7). The results of the moderated hierarchical regression analysis are shown in

Table 6. The moderating effect test of OBSE.

	M4	M5	M6	M7
gender	0.130	0.024	0.016	0.017
age	0.137 **	0.076	0.081 **	0.083 **
education level	0.128 **	0.064	0.083 **	0.083 **
marital statue	−0.021	−0.026	−0.032	−0.029
job position	0.010	0.001	0.018	0.016
income	−0.077	−0.153	−0.152 ***	−0.150 ***
institutional constraints		−0.3110 ***	−0.476 ***	−0.511 ***
OBSE			0.244 ***	0.300 ***
institutional constraints * OBSE				0.238 ***
F	9.590 ***	85.276 ***	100.740 ***	89.965 ***
R2	0.062	0.405	0.479	0.481
ΔR2	0.055	0.401	0.475	0.476

Note: OBSE—organization-based self-esteem.*** p < 0.001. ** p < 0.01. * p < 0.05.

. With respect to M7, the regression coefficient of the interaction between institutional constraints and OBSE was significant, which proved that OBSE significantly moderated the relationship between institutional constraints and the willingness to conduct green labor (β = 0.238, ΔR² = 0.476, p < 0.001), and H5 was verified.

5. Discussions

To examine individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor and its underlying mechanisms, this study constructed a model that included the following influencing variables: formal/informal institutional constraints, boundary management capabilities, and OBSE. The results show that employees perceived strong institutional constraints and showed a lack of willingness to conduct green labor. As such, institutional constraints had a significant negative impact on individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor. Generally speaking, the traditional development method of human-resource-based countries relies on labor input in exchange for economic growth [43]. This development model has also made organizations more inclined to implement high-level institutional constraints to ensure the quantity and quality of employee labor input. Combined with the data analysis results of this research, the non-green labor system constraints perceived by the respondents were relatively high, which indicates that China’s current development mode is still relatively dependent on labor input. Furthermore, the research results show that high-level institutional constraints inhibited employees’ green labor needs. While this finding illustrates the current universality of the non-green labor methods in China, it also highlights how employees are prepared to sacrifice self-protection as a result of such constraints. Studies have shown that stringent institutional constraints, particularly non-green labor constraints, such as longer working hours and greater workloads, not only harm the physical and mental health of employees [44] but are also detrimental to the sustainable development of organizational performance [45]. Therefore, within the context of China’s development, it is necessary to resolve this important issue. The government should plan the construction of the system at the policy level, improve the incentive rules for updating rewards and punishments, refine the management methods for participation from implementation to supervision, and open up a channel for workers’ suggestions and opinions. The government should provide guidance on a series of systems, reform the systems that restrict the organization of green labor, enhance the participation of employees, and continuously stimulate their willingness to conduct green labor.

The research results show that individuals’ boundary management abilities played a mediation role between institutional constraints and the willingness to conduct green labor, which indicates that an awareness among employees of their personal boundaries could be regarded as a mechanism to buffer negative external constraints, which is conducive to self-protection. With the intensification of institutional constraints, employees encounter work-related pressures and work tasks that are highly complex and malleable, which directly cause the expansion of work boundaries, such that the scope of individual life activities are squeezed [46]. The continuous turbulence brought about by this blurred work-life boundary has placed significant pressure on individuals in terms of their behavioral choices. In the modern work environment, good boundary management capabilities are particularly important. On the one hand, strong boundary management capabilities can help individuals to maintain a work-life balance, and reduce the psychological anxiety caused by boundary turbulence or blurring [47]. On the other hand, strong boundary management capabilities can also increase an individual’s sense of control over their work and life, as they become more autonomous in stressful situations and are, therefore, more willing to choose green labor methods. On the basis of the perspective of work-family resources, this research incorporated boundary management into the research framework and confirmed how it plays a mediating role between institutional constraints and individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor. This study further opened up the “black box” of institutional constraints that affect individuals’ willingness to choose certain types of labor and provided a new perspective for the study of employees’ labor willingness. The findings also highlight the need for organizational management systems to pay greater attention to the organizational behavior of employees, family members, and multiple work-family relationships simultaneously. Moreover, individual employees should also avoid excessive separation that makes themselves contradict the objective environment, which would only intensify work-related pressures. As such, employees should aim to achieve an appropriate level of integration between their work and family lives so as to meet the needs of both their work roles and personal roles at the same time. In addition, when formulating policies, organizations should also fully consider the separation of individual boundaries within the context of employees’ different preferences about work-family boundaries and provide corresponding management solutions for different preferences.

OBSE can significantly alleviate the negative impact of institutional constraints on individuals’ willingness to conduct green labor. Studies have shown that OBSE is a positive psychological resource that can act as a buffer against the negative impacts of organizational situations on outcomes [48]. It is worth noting that the results of the existing research largely show that high OBSE stimulates high work engagement, which is significantly related to positive work attitudes. For example, Pierce and Gardner (2004) found that people with high OBSE often believed that they were distinctive, important, and meaningful within a certain organization or workplace, which may promote positive individual work behaviors and personal and organizational performances [34]. Frone has proposed that [49], as a psychological (work) resource, OBSE could not only help employees to cope with work pressure and reduced negative emotions, but also affect employees’ perceptions of their own environmental control capabilities (2000). These studies appear to indicate that individuals with high OBSE were more willing to contribute to the organization, which was different from the results of the present study, which found that high OBSE could moderate institutional pressure and encourage individuals to choose green labor by placing self-protection at the core. In fact, we believe that this difference does not exist; the positive correlation between OBSE and variables, such as work engagement and organizational affiliation, only indicate, to a certain extent, that employees place a high value on the recognition of their work and the organization. This correlation does not, however, mean that employees will choose to sacrifice their personal physical and mental health. Therefore, in a sense, we extended OBSE research to incorporate an antagonistic research category that took into account the relationship between the organizational system constraints and self-sustainable development. The findings highlight the effectiveness of OBSE in regulating individuals confronted with stressful situations, which elaborates upon previous research. In addition, we should actively establish organizational values and organizational management principles that focus on the needs of employees and establish a harmonious and fair organizational system to inspire more employees in the organization to work.