Exploring the Association Among Green Human Resource Management Practices and Green Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

Environmental sustainability has become a priority, and this has pushed organizations to incorporate green principles in human resource management systems. Green human resource management (GHRM) practices have become a strategic instrument to encourage the voluntary pro-environmental behaviors of employees, often called green organizational citizenship behavior (GOCB). This paper examines the relationship between GHRM practices and GOCB in terms of the way environmentally oriented HR activities determine the discretionary behaviors of employees to the protection of the environment. By applying the quantitative research design, data was gathered via a structured questionnaire among workers in environmentally sensitive firms. To test the proposed relationships, structural equation model was used. The results indicate that GHRM practices (green practices, especially green recruitment and selection, green training and development, green performance management, and green reward systems) have a crucial and beneficial effect on GOCB. The findings imply that the higher the rate at which the organizations incorporate environmental values in their HR policies, the higher the chances of employees embracing voluntary activities like resource conservation, environmental activities, and motivating their colleagues to embrace environmentally friendly activities. The paper is part of the green management literature since it presents empirical data on the contribution of HR systems towards pro-environmental citizenship behaviors. In practice, the results indicate that managers and policy makers should establish and adopt integrated GHRM strategies in a bid to improve the environmental commitment of employees and the outcomes of the sustainability objectives of their organizations.

Keywords: green HRM practices; green organizational citizenship behavior; green lifestyle; green innovation; green shared values; AMO theory