Environmental Training and Environmental Orientation of Organization: The Mediating Role of Environmental Behavior of Employee

Previous studies rarely examined the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization. Moreover, most studies neglect the mediating effect of environmental behavior of employee on the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. Hence, this paper aims to examine the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization and the mediating effect of environmental behavior of employee on the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. In order to achieve the study objectives, primary data were collected from 108 employees of a leading apparel company which is operating in Batticaloa and Polonnnaruwa areas of Sri Lanka. The simple mediation analysis was used to test the research model. Findings of the study revealed that, there are positive and significant relationships existing among the study variables. Moreover, empirical finding of the study indicated that environmental behavior of employee does not mediate the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. The empirical finding of the study contradicted with what was hypothesized in the study. Hence, further empirical studies should be carried out to test and prove the mediating role of environmental behavior of employee.


Introduction
In general, industrial development highly contributes to several grave environmental problems such as climate change, global warming, ozone depletion, air, water and land pollution, reduction of bio diversity, destruction of natural resources and etc. These environmental problems turned the spot light on the organizations to focus on environmental protection and management. On the other hand, institutional actors (government, environmentally conscious customers, community and environmental target groups and industry associations) imposed the pressure on organizations to concern about the environment (Delmas and Toffel, 2004). Hence, organizations increase their attentions towards environmental orientation of organization to mitigate their negative environmental impact and enhance the positive environmental impact. Environmental orientation of organization refers to the notion of organizational responsibility towards the environment, the importance of recognizing the negative impact of an organization on the environment and need to minimize such impacts (Banerjee, 2002).
In an organizational context, employees are viewed as the significant actors in determining the environmental orientation of the organization (Jabbour et al.,2010;Jabbour and Santos, 2008a;Jabbour and Santos, 2008b;Brio, Fernandez and Junquera, 2007;Kim et al., 2016;Ji et al., 2012;Opatha and Arulrajah, 2014;Daily and Huang, 2001;Govindarajulu and Daily, 2004;Thevanes and Arulrajah, 2016a;Thevanes and Arulrajah, 2016b). Arulrajah, Opatha and Nawaratne (2016) argued that every employee is responsible for environmental performance of an organization. Accordingly, environmental performance of employee leads to enhance the environmental performance of organization (Arulrajah, Opatha and Nawaratne, 2016). Hence, it is important to improve the employee's environmental competencies and positive environmental attitude and behavior to enhance their consideration and conscious participation on environmental management initiatives of the organizations. In general, the environmental performance of employee leads to improve the environmental performance of organization. Several authors suggested that employees with adequate positive environmental behaviors should be exemplary ones towards excellent environmental performance of organizations (Kim et al., 2016;Perron, Cote and Duffy, 2006;Sammalisto and Brorson, 2008;Paille and Boiral, 2013;Daily, Bishop and Govindarajulu, 2009;Boiral, Paille and Raineri, 2015;Robertson and Barling, 2013;Ones andDilchert, 2012, Opatha andArulrajah, 2014;Arulrajah, Opatha and Nawaratne, 2016).
Many scholars suggested that environmental training is a critical area of green human resource management (green HRM) which highly contributes to create environmental orientation of organization (Perron, Cote and Duffy, 2006;Zoogah, 2011;Ji et al., 2012;Opatha and Arulrajah, 2014;Arulrajah, Opatha and Nawaratne, 2015;Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2008;Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013). Further, some researchers reported that organizations can create, develop and sustain environmentally friendly behaviors among the employees through providing the environmental training to them (Perron, Cote and Duffy, 2006;Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013).
Based on above research background, this research study explores the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization and mediating role of environmental behavior of employee in the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization.

Problem Statement
Nowadays, managers are facing social and political pressures to improve the environmental orientation of their organizations (Ji et al., 2012). The governments of the countries have been implementing several international and local environmental standards, environment management systems and laws and regulations to prevent or minimize negative environmental impact of the organizations. In this context, there is also increasing attentiveness that has been paid by the organizations in implementing environmental initiatives in order to improve the environmental orientation of organization.
Even though, environmental training, environmental behavior of employee, environmental orientation of organization are considered as the interrelated concepts. Previous studies rarely examined the relationships among these concepts theoretically as well as empirically. Moreover, most studies neglect the mediating role of environmental behavior of employee in the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. Kim et al. (2016) pointed out that further studies are needed to examine factors that encourage environmental behavior of employee, relationship between environmental training and employee green behavior, and related organizational outcomes such as environmental orientation of organization and environmental performance of organization. In addition, Renwick, Redman and Maguire (2013) pointed out that Green HRM has considerable research potential however, academic research is rather lagging behind the practice in this area including environmental training. They also pointed out that organizational level research studies are needed to examine the relationship between Green HRM practices and environmental performance. Moreover, Banerjee (2002) stated that broader studies are needed to explore the factors which determine the environmental orientation of organization.
Considering above evidences, the researchers of this study would like to conduct a research in order to fulfill the theoretical and empirical knowledge gaps in connection with the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization. Hence, the objectives of this study are to explore the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization and to test the mediating effect of environmental behavior of employee in the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization in a leading apparel company which is operating in Batticaloa and Polonnnaruwa areas of Sri Lanka.
This article is structured as follows. The next section presents the review of the relevant literature about environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization and proposes the hypotheses; the third section provides the methodology of this study. Then, we present the findings and discussion of the study and finally, it ends up with the conclusion.

Environmental Training and Environmental Orientation of Organization
Environmental training seems to be an important role of HRM and plays a crucial role in environmental management of organization (Wehrmeyer, 1996). It is because of that environmental training develops the environmental knowledge, skills and awareness of employees. Arulrajah, Opathaand Nawaratne (2015) also indicated that environmental training is an important aspect to create environmental concerned employees. Due to that, organizations are investing considerable amount of investment on environmental training.
Environmental training is considered as the essential tool to determine the environmental performance of the organization (Aragon-Correa, 1998). Moreover, ISO 14001 environmental management standards also mandated the environmental training to the employees. In addition, Cook and Seith (1992) argued that environmental training to employees leads to compliance with regulatory requirements, increase the employees' responsibility and liability, create positive public image, encourage employees to become stewards of the environment and motivate the employee to participate in the proactive environmental management.
Environmental training plays a major role by developing employees' skills to create innovative environmental management initiatives that will positively influence the environmental performance of organization (Cole, Elliott and Strobl, 2008). Without proper environmental training, it is impossible for an organization to achieve its environmental goals (Arulrajah, Opatha and Nawaratne, 2015). In addition, Ahmad (2015) suggested that environmental training makes the employees aware of different aspects and value of environmental management. Researchers have stated that environmental training and education improve the employee abilities to give high contribution to environmental management activities (Ramus, 2002;Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2008). Jabbar and Abid (2014) have suggested that environmental training improves the employee's motivation towards eco initiatives and environmental performance of organization. In addition, environmental training helps to reduce waste, using the resources properly, conserve energy and reduce the causes of environmental degradation which in turn leads to environmental orientation of organization. Therefore, contemporary organizations focus more on providing the environmental training to the employees to ensure their active participation in the environment initiatives and activities of organizations which pave the path to enhance the environmental orientation of organization. According to the above literature, this review builds that environmental training has a positive relationship with environmental orientation of organization as the first hypothesis of this study: Hypothesis 1: There is a positive relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization.

Environmental Training and Environmental Behavior of Employee
Organizations require appropriate environmental behavior of employees to create environmental orientation of the organization (Kim et al., 2016). When managers determine that a change in the organization is necessary, training activities are often among the first area for human resource management involvement (Jackson et al., 2011). In addition, Opatha (2009, p. 447) explained that training is a formal process of changing employee behavior and motivation in the way that will enhance employee's job performance and then organizational overall performance. Graves, Sarkis and Zhu (2013) stated that the employee motivation is a key factor to promote the environmental behavior of employee. Organizations provide the environmental training in order to demonstrate proactive environmental behavior of employees in the organizations. In this context, Perron, Cote and Duffy (2006) have stated that environmental training is a key aspect or necessary condition for the environmental management effort which contributes to improve the employees' environmental behavior and responsible actions. Environmental training is providing opportunities to everybody to be trained on environmental management aspects (Opatha, 2013). Further, environmental training aims to assess the environmental issues, develop practical solutions to problems and promote environmentally responsible behaviors within the organization (Mangas, Martinez and Pedauye, 1997;Pooley and O'Connor, 2000).
However, few studies have considered the relationship between environmental training and environmental behavior of employee. In this study, the researchers fill this gap by reviewing the existing literature. There are research evidences that showed that provision of environmental training for the employees helps to change the positive environmental behavior of employees (North, 1997;Sammalisto and Brorson, 2008). Moreover, Paille and Boiral (2013) have stated that the environmental training should also have a positive impact on environmental behavior of employee by promoting the values and knowledge necessary to promote appropriate environmental management initiatives in the organization. In addition, Renwick, Redman and Maguire (2013) have stated that environmental training and education help to improve the environmental actions and behaviors at workplace. Further, environmental transformational leaders have also engaged in coaching and mentoring to develop employees' capacity to address environmental issues, thereby increasing employees' feelings of competence, and, ultimately enhancing their level of motivation to engage in environmental behaviors (Graves, Sarkis and Zhu, 2013). Based on the above cited literature evidences, it is possible to show a positive relationship between environmental training and environmental behavior of employee. According to the above literature, this review builds that environmental training has a positive relationship with environmental behavior of employee as the second hypothesis of this study: Hypothesis 2: There is a positive relationship between environmental training and environmental behavior of employee.

Environmental Behavior of Employee and Environmental Orientation of Organization
Environmentally proactive firms are interested in taking environmental actions that will improve the environmental performance of the organization's operations, products and services (Ramus, 2002). The employees are the ultimate actors in the environmental initiatives of the organization because they implement the changes in behaviors and routines which are required to achieve the environmental goals of the organization (Perron,Cote and Duffy,2006). Therefore, environmental behavior of employee is considered as an important aspect to improve the environmental orientation of the organization.
Several authors have argued that environmental behavior of employee leads to improve the environmental orientation of organization (Unsworth, Dmitrieva and Adriasola, 2013;Young et al., 2015;Kim et al., 2016). Environmental behavior of employee includes broad set of eco-friendly activities in the workplace such as learning and thinking about the environment, developing and applying ideas to reduce the organization's negative environmental impact on physical environment, developing green products and processes and recycling as well as reusing (Graves, Sarkis and Zhu, 2013). These environmental friendly behaviors of employees contribute to environmental orientation of the organization (Kim et al., 2016).
Encouraging environmental behavior of employee is an important aspect to implement successful environmental programs in the workplace (Young et al., 2015). Moreover, Daily, Bishop and Govindarajulu (2009) have indicated that successful environmental programmes of the organization often depend on the environmental behavior of employee. Therefore, organizations provide incentives and rewards to the employees in order to encourage the environmental friendly activities and environmental behavior (Berry and Rondinelli, 1998;Jackson et al., 2011). Environmental behavior of employee is associated with the pollution prevention, internalization of environmental management practices, eco innovation and knowledge management within the organization (Boiral, Paille and Raineri, 2015). Davis and Challenger (2013) suggested that organizations should provide the opportunities to the employees to engage in the environmental sustainability behavior to improve the environmental orientation of the employees. In other words, actual environmental behavior of employee such as printing double-sided, turning off electric appliances, using substitutes for polythene, reducing water wastage, reducing the paper usage, using public transport and many more aids to reduce negative environmental impact of organization, and such behaviors (actions and activities) improve the environmental orientation of organization. Therefore, this study proposes the third hypothesis: Hypothesis 3: There is a positive relationship between environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization.

Mediating Role of Environmental Behavior of Employee in the Relationship between Environmental Training and Environmental Orientation of Organization
According to Russell and Griffiths (2008), environmental behavior of employee is any action taken by employees that would improve the environmental orientation of the organization. In other words, environmental behaviors of employee such as reducing paper usage, reducing water usage, recycling waste, conserving energy and many more contribute to improve the environmental orientation of organization. In this context, North (1997) stated that providing the environmental training will result in a change in the environmental behavior among the employees. Moreover, providing training to encourage recycling and waste management and reducing long distance business travel (Jackson et al., 2011) are very useful actions and activities (behaviors) to reduce the negative environmental impact of the organizations. Environmental behavior of employee contributes to the greening of the organization (Robertson and Barling,2013). Hence, changing the environmental behavior of employee through the environmental training has a significant role in determining the environmental orientation of organization. Hence, the researchers of this study conclude that environmental behavior of employee mediates the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. Therefore, this study proposes its fourth hypothesis as: Hypothesis 4: Environmental behavior of employee mediates the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization.
Hence, based on the review, this study proposes a conceptual framework that shows the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization (see Figure 1)

Sampling and Data Collection
Due to limited research regarding the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization and mediating role of environmental behavior of employee in the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization, the researchers decided to conduct a quantitative investigation based on the review of literature. The empirical data for the current study were collected from a leading apparel company which provides environmental training to its employees and practices environmental management seriously in its operations. It is an ISO 14001 certified apparel manufacturing company in Sri Lanka. Hence, employees of this company are appropriate respondents to conduct this study. Apparel manufacturing sector of Sri Lanka has been recognized for its excellence in speedy delivery and reliability while keeping quality and innovation at global standard. Further, good industrial practices in labour management and environmental management have made Sri Lanka as an attractive destination for apparels made under ethical labour and environmental condition (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2015). Based on the environmental concern of the apparel industry as well as this particular company, this study has selected employees of that particular leading apparel Environmental Training Environmental Behavior of Employee Environmental Orientation of Organization company which is operating in Batticaloa and Polonnnaruwa areas of Sri Lanka. Therefore, conducting this study in Sri Lankan context could provide useful knowledge that helps Sri Lankan companies to develop their environmental orientation and performance.
The total population for the study was 185 employees in the selected leading apparel company which is operating in Batticaloa and Polonnnaruwa areas of Sri Lanka. Out of these, 108 employees were selected as the sample to conduct this research by using disproportionate stratified sampling method.
This study depends on primary data. The data of this study were collected from the respondents through a structured questionnaire. In order to ensure the content validity of the scale used, it is advised to largely adapt the items for each construct from prior research works (Luarn and Lin, 2005). Hence, all23question items related with this study were adapted from prior research works. The questionnaire contained three instruments relating to environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization.

Measures
All constructs were measured with multiple items developed and tested in previous studies. Each item was measured on a five-point Likert-type scale anchored by 'strongly disagree' and 'strongly agree' response options.
This study has used an instrument adapted from past review works of Opatha and Arulrajah (2014) and Arulrajah, Opatha and Nawaratne (2015). This instrument can be used to measure environmental orientation of training (environmental training) in an organization that consists of four question items. This instrument had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.71 which is higher than 0.70. Hence, this instrument had a good reliability. To measure environmental behavior of employee, thirteen question items were used from past research works of Graves, Sarkis and Zhu (2013). The instrument had a good degree of reliability with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91.Six question items were employed to quantify the environmental orientation of an organization from past research works of Bansal (2005) and Chan (2005). The instrument had a good level of internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.87.

Data Analysis Techniques
Correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between the variables (Jahangir & Begum 2008). According to Sekaran (2000), the correlation coefficient value (r) ranging from 0.10 to 0.29 is considered weak, from 0.30 to 0.49 is considered medium and from 0.50 to 1.0 is considered strong. However, according to Field (2005), correlation coefficient should not go beyond 0.8 to avoid multicollinearity. The correlation matrix shows that multi-collinearity does not threaten the validity of the data.
To test the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization (H1), environmental training and environmental behavior of employee (H2) and environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization (H3) correlation analysis was used. Mediation analysis was used to examine the mediating effect of environmental behavior of employee on the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. This method was proposed by Baron andKenny (1986) andFrazier, Tix andBarron (2004) to examine the mediating effect. Their procedure presents four steps to be followed by performing the runs of three regression equations in order to establish a mediating effect of a variable on the relationship between a predictor variable and an outcome variable. The first step is to show that the predictor is significantly related to the outcome, and the second step is to show that the predictor is significantly related to mediator. To show that the mediator is significantly related to the outcome variable is the third step. The fourth step is to show that the strength of the relationship between the predictor variable and the outcome variable is significantly reduced when the mediator is added to the model. A study conducted by Opatha (2020) also applied the same method in testing the mediating role of lecturing behaviour on the relationship between lecturers' competence and students' satisfaction of lecturing.

Profile of the Respondents
In the survey, the gender distribution of the respondents is 73.1 percent males and 26.9 percent females. The results revealed that the respondents are young, with 54.6 percent between 21 and 30 years. In terms of educational background of the respondents, 75.9% of them were A/L qualified, 21.3% of them were graduates and 2.8% of them were postgraduates. More than 80 percent of the respondents are middle level employees. The results also revealed that 38.9 percent respondents have the work experience below 3 years, 27.8 percent of the respondents have work experience between 3 and 5 years and 33.3 percent of the respondents have the experience above 5 years. Table 1 displays the correlations and descriptive statistics for all variables tested in the study. The descriptive statistics of the study suggest that there are high levels of environmental training and environmental orientation of organization existing in this leading apparel company. The results also imply that there are high degrees of positive environmental friendly behaviors existing among the company's employees towards environmental protection with mean scores from 3.78 to 4.17 out of 5.

Correlation Analysis
Correlation analysis illustrates that environmental training has a strong positive correlation with environmental orientation of organization. Correlation analysis also shows that there is a positive correlation between environmental training and environmental behavior of employee. Further, correlation analysis indicated that environmental behavior of employee has a weak positive correlation with environmental orientation of organization.  Table 2 shows the results of mediation analysis.

Mediation Analysis
Step-1 which tests the effect of the predictor (environmental training) on the outcome (environmental orientation of organization) was performed (regression coefficient=0.527, p=0.000). The result indicates that environmental training is positively and significantly related to environmental orientation of organization. Step-2 shows that environmental training is positively and significantly related to environmental behavior of employee (regression coefficient = 0.440, p=0.000). The result reveals that the predictor is significantly related to the mediator.
The result of step-3 indicates that environmental behavior of employee is positively related to environmental orientation of organization (regression coefficient= 0.253, p = 0.008). The result reveals that the mediator is significantly related to the outcome.
Finally, based on the mediation analysis, from step 1 to step 3, the relationships between the variables are significant as sig value is less than 0.05. In the step 4, environmental behavior of employee (0.782) is insignificant while environmental training (0.000) is significant. The results of mediation analysis suggest that environmental behavior of employee does not mediate the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. The analysis yield results quite different what was hypothesized in Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Discussion and Recommendation
The empirical evidence suggests that there is a significant and positive relationship existing between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. This result provides a support to the first hypothesis of the study. Environmental training is the key element to the success of organization's environmental improvement efforts and determines the environmental orientation of organization. Without proper environmental training to the employees achieving the environmental orientation of organization becomes unrealistic. Environmental training activities make a constructive and cost-effective contribution to successfully confront the environmental challenges of the organizations. Further, in an organizational context, environmental training highly contributes to create, develop and sustain the environmentally oriented employees by enhancing the environmental knowledge, skills, attitude, awareness and behavior of employees. In addition to that, environmental training can be considered as the motivating factor to improve the employee's active participation in the environmental initiatives and practices of organization which directly contribute to achieve the environmental orientation of organization. The results of the current study suggest that when employees obtain high level of environmental training it directly contributes to improve the environmental orientation of organization. This finding was consistent with previous studies which suggested that environmental training contributes to enhance the environmental orientation of organization (Fernandez, Junquera and Ordiz, 2003;Perron, Cote and Duffy, 2006;Ji et al., 2012).
The results of analysis further indicate that a significant and positive relationship exists between environmental training and environmental behavior of employee. In other words, environmental training is a highly fruitful practice among the green HRM practices for fostering the environmentally friendly behaviors of employee at workplace. Actual environmentally friendly behavior of employee is crucial to achieve the environmental goals of organization. In this context, environmental training plays a significant role in creating, shaping and developing the actual environmentally friendly behaviors among the organization's employees which turn in leads to enhance the environmental orientation of organization. It is possible to promote the environmentally friendly behavior of employee through the appropriate environmental training by developing the environmental knowledge, skills, awareness and positive environmental attitude. Implementing the environmental management system is impossible without promoting positive environmental behaviors among the employees. Environmental training helps to understand the environmental issues of the organization and motivate the employees to foster the environmentally friendly innovative behavior and environmentally responsible actions to promote the environmental quality of organization. Such environmental training not only contributes to motivate the employees to foster the environmental behaviors at workplace but also to motivate the employees to transmit such environmental behaviors to their home as well as society which highly contribute to reduce environmental pollution and future environmental degradation. For instance, if an employee is trained on recycling, he/she will be engaged in the recycling behavior at workplace and also at home. Hence, environmental training is considered as one of the socially responsible activities of the organization. Thus, organizations are able to promote the actual environmental behavior of employee by focusing on providing the environmental training. This finding lends to support to the previous studies which suggested that it is possible to enhance the environmental behavior of employee through the environmental training (Pallie and Boiral 2013; Sammalisto and Brorson, 2008;Peron, Cote and Duffy, 2006).
The results have shown that there is a significant but weak positive relationship between environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization. In other words, actual environmental behavior of employee such as suggesting ideas to reduce the negative impact on the environment, applying new ideas for reducing the negative impact on the environment, recycling and reusing materials, and reducing energy usage and many more were positively associated with environmental orientation of the surveyed company but this association was inadequate. The findings of the study suggest that company must pay a special attention on enhancing the environmental behavior of employee in order to improve the environmental orientation of organization. Because, environmental behaviors of the employees contribute to achieve the environmental goals of the organization such as reducing the carbon footprint, water consumption, and waste to landfill which in turn leads to improve the environmental orientation of organization. Therefore, organizations should provide the opportunities to the employees to engage in the environmentally friendly behavior at workplace to improve the environmental orientation of organization. In addition, organizations can provide the incentives and rewards to the green employees in order to enhance the environmental behavior of employees. The finding of the current study matches with findings of the recent researches (Boiral, 2009;Unsworth, Dmitrieva and Adriasola, 2013;Young et al., 2015;Kim et al., 2016). The researchers discovered through their research works that environmental behavior of employee is one of the important factors which lead to improve the environmental orientation of organization.
Moreover, this study is unique in testing the mediating role of environmental behavior; prior researchers have not examined this mediating effect. However, results did not provide empirical support for the hypothesis developed through the literature review that environmental behavior of employee mediates the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. This finding contrasts with the theoretical argument of the study. Theoretical evidence of the study suggested that environmental behavior of employee mediates the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. The empirical finding of the study is different from what was hypothesized. Hence, further empirical studies should be carried out to test and prove the theoretical argument of this study.

Conclusion
This study concluded that there is a positive and significant relationship existing between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. Similarly, there is a positive and significant relationship existing between environmental training and environmental behavior of employee. At the same time, environmental behavior of employee has a weak positive but significant relationship with environmental orientation of organization. Moreover, the findings of the study revealed that, environmental behavior of employee does not mediate the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization.
This study has certain significant implications in this research area. The study contributes to the emerging literature in this area by reviewing related literature in connection with the relationships among environmental training, environmental behavior of employee and environmental orientation of organization. This may be a first study that examines the meditating role of environmental behavior of employee in the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. Previous researchers have not adequately addressed this research gap. It still remains unclear. Further, considerations should therefore be given to the mediating role of environmental behavior of employee in the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization. This study is also useful to the managers who are seeking to improve their organization's environmental orientation and performance. Based on this study, managers will be able to understand the importance of the environmental training and environmental behavior of employee to enhance the environmental orientation of organization.
Apart from these, this study provides opportunities to the future researchers to test and verify the mediating role of environmental behavior of employee in different contexts. And future studies have the further opportunities to consider the antecedent variables related to this study. This study was conducted in Sri Lankan context. Whether these findings are equally applicable to other countries need to be tested in comparative studies. The results of this study have some limitations, and some points need further research. First this study focuses on only one apparel manufacturing company in Sri Lanka. The study results warrant further studies that could examine different samples in other industries or countries. Moreover, this study tested hypotheses with a questionnaire survey that provided only cross-sectional data and did not consider or gather longitudinal data. Therefore, future studies can focus on a longitudinal study in this research area. Finally, future studies may try to examine other mediators in the relationship between environmental training and environmental orientation of organization, increasing our understanding of how environmental training affects environmental orientation and performance of organizations.