Sustainable HRM and Green HRM: The Role of Green HRM in Influencing Employee Pro-environmental Behavior at Work

Abstract

Considering the increasing social class gap and environmental crisis these days, sustainable development is a must for business-making. Business starts with human resources (HR). Applying sustainability to manage HR in order to achieve organizational sustainability is essential, because human resource management (HRM) can influence a company’s relationship with its external environment in terms of firm’s effect on society and ecology. Forming part of the environmental dimension of sustainable HRM, green HRM (GHRM) defines organizational environmental policies and practices of HRM that contribute to the establishment of green organizations. Those green practices can result in a better corporate image and competitive advantage. Employee pro-environmental behavior (PEB), both voluntary and prescribed, can be influenced by GHRM that may act as a guiding mechanism for organizational personnel to engage in green behaviors aimed at saving organizational resources, which may contribute to achieving corporate sustainability. Voluntary PEB may also be influenced by organizational and individual factors. In this study, we propose a theoretical framework that gathers GHRM policies, organizational and individual factors together in one model to understand the complex mechanisms that promote voluntary PEB at work. We also propose a different classification of voluntary PEB that underlines the importance of target of PEB.