Survey dataset on the double-edged effects of perceived greenwashing on employees' green creativity

Study 1 employed a full-model questionnaire survey using a multi-wave data collection design. Data were collected from full-time employees working in representative industries, including manufacturing and energy and chemical sectors, through an online survey platform. Participants were recruited from multiple regions in China, including Beijing, Henan, Hebei, and Tianjin, to enhance the external validity of the findings.The survey was administered at three time points with approximately two-week intervals between waves. At Time 1, participants reported their perceptions of organizational greenwashing, attribution variables, and demographic information. A total of 409 employees completed the questionnaire at this stage. At Time 2, participants reported their anger toward the organization, forgiveness toward the organization, green intrinsic motivation, and green self-efficacy; 381 valid responses were obtained (response rate = 93.15%). At Time 3, participants self-reported their green creativity, yielding 344 responses (response rate = 90.29%).After matching the questionnaires across the three waves and excluding responses that failed the attention checks, the final sample consisted of 336 valid matched cases. Attrition analyses indicated no significant differences between retained and dropped samples in terms of gender (t = 1.31, p = 0.192), age (t = 0.84, p = 0.400), or educational level (t = 0.87, p = 0.386).In the final sample, 50.0% of participants were male. The average age was 32.3 years (SD = 8.85), and 77.10% held a bachelor’s degree or higher. Participants had an average organizational tenure of 8.81 years (SD = 7.41). Regarding job positions, 56.50% were non-managerial employees, 25.90% were frontline supervisors, 15.80% were middle managers, and 1.80% were senior managers.