1.0 Overview
In this new era, the United Nations call up efforts from all countries in the world to promote sustainable development. By definition, sustainable development means that the current generation should not seek for economic interests at an expense of the next generation. In this light, not only individuals but also companies should take the responsibility to make their business operations and activities more sustainable. According to the three pillars of sustainability, sustainable developed mainly consists of three parts, namely environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability. Rewick, Redmand and Uaguire (2008) states that green practices in a company or an organization are an effective too to achieve environmental sustainability. In order to help companies to stay green, many of them also implement Green Human resource management as part of their corporate social responsibility(CSR) schemes to promote environmental sustainability(Porter&Kramer, 2006). However, the concept of CSR is more on specifying company’s social obligations and responsibility in protecting natural environment. It does not tangibly show what kind of profits a company or an organization may receive after implement these measures. Rewick, Redman and Maguire (2008), in fact, manage to prove that measures such as energy regeneration, green training, carpooling, etc, will reduce waste or convert waste into useful resources. In this light, not only sustainable development will be promoted, product cost will also be significantly reduced. To reduce cost of product (COP) is equivalent to generate more profits for companies. So it means that they will be more incentivized to implement green measures.
However, currently there is a potential lag in researching for green measures or Green Human Resource management. It may be because of the fact that green awareness has not been fully created among various enterprises and employees. HR practitioners, from traditional point of view, should take the responsibility to mitigate or improve the employer-employee relationship and meanwhile provide sufficient guidance and motivate employees to accomplish their tasks and production activities. Very few researches have focused on investigating the role of HR in promoting green human resource management. Thus, the research motivation is to figure out what HRs can contribute in this process.
The major objective of this research is to elicit employees’ attitude and perception toward green HRM in their working environment. In order to guide the direction of this study, four research questions have been proposed as follows,
Ø Are employees fully aware of the importance of Green HRM practices in a company’s EM system? (Green Awareness) (RQ 1)
Ø What are some common green practices employed in their companies? (RQ 2)
Ø How they believe that Human resource management could be relevant in facilitating the development of GHRM and make it more effective? (RQ 3)
Ø Identify weakness in current HRM regarding to green practices (RQ 4)
2.0 Green HRM function and process
Muster and Schrader(2011) first state that Human resource managers should actively contribute in the process of green human resource management. Dutta (2014) further asserts that the GHRM process is not only about implementing green measures or practices but rather inculcating the green values and principles to employees. It will be very convenient if HRs could recruit employees who share the same moral values or agree upon a company’s business ethics about Green or circular economy.
By definition, codes of ethics in business is referring to a set of rules and principles which commonly agree upon in a company or organization. Employees may not share the same moral values but the business ethnics is compulsory for them all. Currently, there is no specific ethic approach to facilitate the process of green human resource management. In other words, it is also difficult to specify morally “correct” standards for employees to follow up. However, it is rather crucial for HR practitioners or managers to provide ethical justifications for employees and other stakeholders about GHRM measures. From the viewpoint of conventional business school, companies or businesspersons are more profit-driven. It implies that if they will not be very interested in environmental conservation or sustainability if it could not generate any profits for them(Winstanley and Woodall, 2000). But the situation has remarkably changed. Not all enterprises are profit-driven. Social entrepreneurs, for instance, are targeting to generate more positive social externalities. Besides, according to the concept of circular or green economy, to implement green measures will also save production cost for enterprises and meanwhile create positive social implications. But it also implies that the role of HR in facilitating the GHRM process should also be redefined. It is not just simply to mitigate the relationship between employees and employers but also establishes a commonly agreed ethical framework to regulate or influence employees’ behaviors.
Dutta(2014) describes that Green Human resource management mainly include five parts, namely, green recruitment, green performance management, green training and development, green compensation and green initiatives. Through effectively implementing the above-mentioned measures, it is expected that effective GHRM could be implemented in a company or an organization.
Green Recruitment
Green employment, by definition, is referring to the process of selecting and recruiting employees who share the same green values and principles(Rewick, Redman and Maguire, 2008). It is true that HRs should take the responsibility to inculcate green values and relevant concepts to employees in the workplace. But it will be much easier if employees who shared the same values are recruited at the first place. It often takes time for HRs to deliver green values to employees in their human resource management process. Thus it will be better if job applicants have green awareness such as environmental conservation, sustainable development, circular economy, etc. In the selection or recruitment round, HRs could also use green measures such as paperless interview when recruiting employees. As such, employees will interpret these measures as part of organizational culture.
Green Performance management
Apart from Green Recruitment, Green Performance management is also very important. By definition, Green performance management is a process to make sure that both short-term and long-term environmental sustainability goals could be achieved(Otley, 1999). Green performance management is comprised of two parts, including environmental responsibility and organizational measures. Very often, enterprises are facing the problem of misalignment between corporate business goals and environmental goals(Green, Zelbst, Meacham&Bhadauria, 2012). In other words, many companies have very accomplished business appraisal system but not apparent green performance management framework. Employees will be accessed simply based on their work performance. In a green performance management system, environmental factor will also be taken into account. HRs should take the responsibility to introduce the green job description to employees and inform them that green factors is part of company’s performance management system. As such , the overall GHRM process could be improved significantly.
Green Training and Development
It is certainly not sufficient to just provide an appraisal framework for employees to follow. Inf act, it is also important to inculcate green values and concept to influence employees’ behaviors in the workplace. By definition, green training and developing is a process to guide and influence employees’ attitude, and develop essential skills in order to achieve a company’s long-term environmental sustainability goal. In this light, the major goal of HRs in this process is to create green awareness, developing essential skills and preparing green knowledge for employees when they are working. For instance, HRs could hold regular workshops to create green awareness for employees(Teixeira et al, 2016).
In fact, among all the GHRM measures, many people agree that green training and development is the most crucial part to facilitate the effectiveness of green human resource management(Paillé, Chen, Boiral and Jin, 2014). Muster, and Schrader (2011) further point out that the fundamental aim of Green training is to deliver the critical messages to employees that green measures will reduce the waste of resources and help a company to achieve its long-term environmental sustainability goal.
Green Compensation
However, It will be ineffective to simply brainwash employees with green concepts. For instance, when employees have to bother about green practices and measures even though it will help a company to save production cost. As such, the concept of green compensation should be taken into the picture. By definition, Green compensation is referring to the monetary or non-monetary reward to encourage employees to undertake green practices in their workplace. It shows that employees’ contribution to environmental sustainability is fully recognized and appreciated by a company. Monetary rewards may include bonuses and salary increase. Non-monetary rewards may include promotional opportunities, special recognition, etc. Apart from green compensation, punishment measures should also be well defined to deter employees from harming the environment. It is understandable that employees may not be fully cooperated with HR’s green practices because they can not receive too many benefits for doing so. HRs thus should take the responsibility to educate employees about what they will receive or lose according to a company’s environmental management system. If employees are fully aware of the benefits to protect environment or punishment for not doing so, the overall process of green human resource management will be significantly improved.
Green Initiatives
Besides the above-mentioned, other green initiatives could also be introduced to facilitate the effectiveness of GHRM. Green initiatives such as energy regeneration, reusing and recycling of waste resources,etc, will help companies to achieve long-term environmental sustainability goals (Remmen and Lorentzen, 2000). However, it requires employees to actively engage in this process. Dangelico (2015) points out that employee engagement and participation could be motivated through effective internal human resource management. As compared to the managing team, HRs should take the responsibility to coordinate all tangible, intangible and human sources to carry out respective green initiatives. Dangelico (2015) also asserts that to implement green initiatives does not just mean to protect environment but also create economic values for a company. Apart from reducing cost of production and promoting lean operations, Green initiatives will also foster an upright corporate and brand image to the public. In other words, these green initiatives could also work as effective Public Relationship strategies to enhance the overall brand reputation.
2.2 Conclusion
From the literature review, it is quite clear that Human Resource practitioners could contribute their parts in facilitating the effectiveness of Green Human resource management through green recruiting, green training, green compensation and so on. However, at the very first place, it would be important for Human resource managers or practitioners to establish a mutually agreed ethical framework for all stakeholders(Johnson, 2015). In fact, stakeholders such as HRs, employers, employees, local communities, governments, etc, may have diverse interests. HRs should guide employees to reach a morally “correct” decision with respect to green measures(Paillé, Chen, Boiral&Jin, 2014). For instance, individual stakeholder should be aware of the benefits of practicing HRM measures and understanding the harm for not doing so. Green Human Resource management should be morally justified to all parties. Through providing detailed benefit and harm analysis, employees and other stakeholders will be aware of the importance of GHRM in the workplace (Trevino, 1992).
3.0 Research method
As the aforementioned, the research objective is to explore the respondents’ attitude and perceptions toward green HRM. It does not aim to test a hypothesis or verify a relationship between two variables. Hence, hypothetico-deductive model or quantitative analysis method will not be used in this research. The major research methodology in this proposal will be qualitative. A one-to-one face-to-face interview will be conducted to directly elicit interviewee’s responses about GHRM process. The detailed interviewed questions could be referred in the Appendix. Interview question 1~3 correspondents to research question 1. Interview question 4 is addressing RQ 2. The last two questions are designed to find answers to RQ 3 and RQ 4(See Appendix).
Interview question 1 states, “Do you believe that it is important to have green practices in your working place? What is your idea about environmental sustainability?” This question is set to figure out whether interviewees have awareness about green HRM and environmental sustainability. Interview question two and three is to check whether companies have established an accomplished system for promoting green practices. It could be a simple punishment-and-reward system. Interview question 4 is checking whether there are tangible green practices such as green recruitment in the workplace. Interview question 5 is to verify the role of HR in this process of GHRM. More professional answers are expected from HRs as compared to normal employees. The last interview question is corresponding to interview question 4. Employees could provide constructive ideas about the role of HR in facilitating the process of green human resource management.
3.1 Research Participants and Sampling
In this proposal, fifteen people will be invited through snowball sampling. It means that I will first invite one working professional and he or she will help me to find someone else to join the research. Thus, it is highly possible for them to come from the same company. As the research topic is regarding to GHRM, five of the invited interviewees will be from HR department whereas the rest are normal employees. Demographically, the invited respondents should be aged from 25 to 50.
3.2 Data Collection
As the aforementioned, one-to-one face-to-face interview will be conducted in a classroom, which will be booked in advance. The duration of the interview will be no more than 15 minutes. Invitation letter will be sent through email to one respondent. He or she will help me to find other suitable interview candidates. Goodie bag will be provided as an incentive for participating the interview. The interviewed contents will be first recorded through a recording pen. Then, the transcribed interviewed contents in written form will be presented to interviewees for confirmation to enhance the credibility and quality of the research. Then, the interviewed contents will be further evaluated. Each interview question will be evaluated in details. Research report will be completed based on observations from the interviewed contents.
One effective tool for HRs to facilitate the GHRM is through guiding employees in their moral reasoning process before making ethical decisions. In fact, the role of HR is rather important in raising green awareness, training and developing essential skills associated with green human resource management. However, one potential criticism of GHRM is that green measures are often constructed upon emotions and irrationality. It might be true that ethical approaches in HRM may be closely related to emotional factors(Greenwood, 2002). Employees are more internally driven by their inner sense or emotionality(Ferris, Hochwarter, Buckley, Harrell-Cook& Frink, 1999). Thus it is the HR’s responsibility to guide employees toward mutually agreed moral values. Hence, it could build an ethical justified framework for employees.
In addition, GHRM practices should also consider the internal interests of employees. Instead of forcing employees to do according to green practices, they have to be motivated or incentivized for doing so. Some people may believe that it is human beings’ responsibility to protect natural environment. But some people may be reluctant to do so. At least, HRs should establish a well-specified and functioning green performance management system, and green compensation schemes. Employees will thus be very clear about what they can benefit for practicing Green initiatives.
Green HRM would actually provide a very important role in managing employees in their whole employment cycle. It would not only create a green awareness, inculcate green values on employees but will also provide employees skills to be integrated in company’s Environmental Management (EM) system. Effective Green HRM would also provide employees with more incentives and motivations to promote the environmental protection measures. The Green HRM would also create more positive social implications and provide economic benefits for different companies.
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Appendix
Interview Questions
1. Do you believe that it is important to have green practices in your working place? What is your idea about environmental sustainability?
2. Does your company have established Green Performance Management appraisal? If so, how your green performance are evaluated?
3. Do you receive rewards for remarkable green performances in your company?
4. Besides appraisal, does you company have any tangible green practices such as energy saving or green recruitment? Show us in details.
5. How do you think that HRs could help you to improve your green performances? What things they should do to facilitate the effectiveness of green human resource management?
6. What do you think is the major weakness in your company’s HR division with respective to green practices and measures?