The role of green human resource management in the translation of greening pressures into environmental protection practices

• Published in: Business strategy and the environment Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 3628 - 3648
• Main Authors: Vázquez‐Brust, Diego, Jabbour, Charbel Jose Chiappetta, Plaza‐Úbeda, José Antonio, Perez‐Valls, Miguel, de Sousa Jabbour, Ana Beatriz Lopes, Renwick, Douglas W. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Wiley Periodicals Inc 01-09-2023; Wiley
• Subjects: Business administration; Empirical equations; Environmental protection; Human resource management; Human resources management; Humanities and Social Sciences; Motivation; Multivariate statistical analysis; Stakeholders; Structural equation modeling; Sustainable development; Technology adoption; Translation; Workplaces; Brazil; corporate environmental sustainability; empirical analysis; green human resource management; AMO theory; Brazil; management practice; stakeholder pressures; corporate social responsibility; environmental protection; stakeholder; workplace; human resource
• ISSN: 0964-4733; 1099-0836
• DOI: 10.1002/bse.3319

Corporate environmental sustainability requires two complementary types of green practices—environmental protection hardware (EPH) and environmental protection software (EPS). Stakeholder greening pressures drive implementation; however, corporate responses vary, often lacking the balance and intensity of EPS and EPH needed. This paper explores the role of green human resource management (GHRM) in explaining variations in the implementation of EPH and EPS in response to stakeholders' pro‐environmental pressures. Drawing on stakeholder theory and the ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) framework, a mediating role is hypothesized. Empirical findings from Brazil using structural equation modeling reveal that increased green pressure from stakeholders drives the adoption of both types of green practices through a partial mediating role of GHRM that is stronger for EPH than for EPS. The value of this study lies in the consideration of EPH and EPS practices in the same model and expanding stakeholder theory on how stakeholders can improve environmental protection through GHRM. Implications are that organizations can level the field for the balanced application of EPS and EPH with a system of green human resource management practices—training, assessment, rewards, and teamwork—to channel the translation of stakeholder pressures into workplace green outcomes. Limitations, future research ideas, and policy and practice implications are detailed.