SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE CRITICAL ROLE OF HRM

Nancy PAPALEXANDRIS

doi:10.2478/subboec-2022-0013

Authors

Nancy PAPALEXANDRIS Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. E-mail: npapal@aueb.gr

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/subboec-2022-0013

Keywords:

sustainable development, HRM

Abstract

The link between sustainable development and human resource management (HRM) has been only recently widely established in the literature. Systematic studies are available but there is a wide range of interpretations and several overlapping terms that often cause confusion to practitioners. HRM practices included in the CSR Programs of a company are often linked with sustainability, business ethics and workplace justice and are often under the terms of sustainable HRM. It is well recognized that HR can play a critical role in enhancing corporate sustainability through policies and practices that benefit its people and society in general and that all these initiatives must be documented and reported to gain visibility and credibility. Lately great emphasis has been placed on the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the dimensions of the Environment, Society and Governance (ESG) which form the criteria for documenting and reporting relevant practices implemented by business firms. HRM can play an important role in designing and implementing such practices, especially those linked to society. This paper presents the notion of Sustainable Development, its increasing importance for companies and its link with Human Resource Management. (HRM). It describes and clarifies Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), their history and the three pillars e.g., Environment, Society and Governance (ESG) which form the basic criteria for organizations to implement and report relevant practices in order to prove their involvement in sustainability. Third, the paper presents the concept of Sustainable HRM, and Sustainable practices implemented by companies in Greece following the 2010 economic crisis and the need for reporting them mainly under the social dimension of the ESG Criteria. To stress the need for the involvement of HRM in sustainability in order to enhance its ethical profile, expand its agenda and improve its role as a strategic partner and a source of competitive advantage.

JEL classification: M54.

References

Aust, I., Matthews, B., Muller-Camen, M. (2020). Common Good HRM: A paradigm shift in Sustainable HRM? Human Resource Management Review, 30(3), 100705.

Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34(4) 39-48.

Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate Social Responsibility. Evolution of a Definitional Construct. Business Society, 38: 268-274.

Cooke, F.L., Dickmann, M., and Parry, E. (2022) Building sustainable societies through human-centred human resource management: Emerging issues and research opportunities. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33, 1-15.

Dylllick, T. Hockerts, K. (2002). Beyond the business case for Corporate Social Responsibility. Business Strategy and the Environment, 11: 130-141.

Ehnert, I., (2009) Sustainable Human Resource Management: A conceptual and exploratory analysis from a paradox perspective, Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag.

Ehnert, I., Harry, W., & Zink, K. J. (2014). Sustainability and HRM: An introduction to the field. In I. Ehnert, W. Harry, & K. J. Zink (Eds.), Sustainability and human resource management: Developing sustainable business organizations (pp. 3-32) Heidelberg: Springer.

Ehnert, I. , (2016). Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world’s largest companies, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 27, Issue 1.

Elkington, J. (1997). Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Capstone, Oxford.ility reporting practices by the world’s largest companies, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 27, Issue 1.

Jackson, S.E., Renwick, D.W.S., Jabbour, C.J.C.,& MullerCamen, M. (2011). State-of-the-art and future directions for green human resource management: Introduction into the special issue. Zeitschrift für Personalforschung, 25, 99–116.

Papalexandris, N. and Nikandrou, I. (2014). “Linking Sustainability with HR practices: A new road to competitiveness, in Via Futuri 2014, edited by K. Tibor, Pecs Hungary, 2014.

Renwick, D.W., Jabbour,C. J., Muller-Camen, M., Redman, T., and Wilkinson, A. (2016). Contemporary developments in Green (environmental) scholarship. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(2), 114-128.

Rompa, I. (2011). Sustainable HRM Ingredients: Yet to be established, Dissertation at V.U., University of Amsterdam.

S&P (2022), Market Place Reports, www.marketplace.spglobal.com

Shen, J., Benson, J. (2016). When CSR is a social norm: How socially responsible human resource management affects employee work behavior. Journal of Management, 42(6), 1723-1746.

Squire, Patton & Boggs (2022), Legal Reports, www.squirepattonboggs.com

Stahl, G.K., Brewster, C.J., Collings, D.G., and Hajro, A. (2020). Enhancing the role of human resource management in corporate sustainability and social responsibility: A multi-stakeholder, multidimensional approach to HRM. Human Resource Management Review, 30(3), 100708.

Qualitynet Foundation (2022). Greek Sustainability Code: ESG Sustainability Reporting System.

United Nations (2015). Transforming our world: the 2010 agenda for sustainable development.

Wagner, M. (2013). ’Green’ human resource benefits: Do they matter as determinants of environmental management system implementation? Journal of Business Ethics, 114, 443–456. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1356-9.

Wilkinson, A., Hill, M. (2001). The Sustainability Debate. International Journal of Operations & Production Management: 21:1492-1502.