Archetypes of Green-Growth Strategies and the Role of Green Human Resource Management in Their Implementation

Ana Labella-Fernández

doi:10.3390/su13020836

Abstract

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework that explains how organizations address green growth. By integrating perspectives of organizational learning and ambidexterity, this paper proposes four archetypes of green-growth strategies. On the basis of exploration and exploitation dimensions, the proposed strategic green-growth archetypes are environmental-laggard, cooperative, entrepreneurial, and ambidextrous approaches. This paper suggests propositions about how to implement entrepreneurial and cooperative archetypes. It is also proposed that cooperative and entrepreneurial archetypes necessitate a set of the best and well-defined green human resource management (HRM) practices oriented towards strategic environmental goals. This paper thus proposes specific green HRM practices that better fit with each archetype. Lastly, this research concludes with a discussion of research implications.

Highlights

On the basis of the ambidexterity literature, this study describes the entrepreneurial archetype on the basis of the search for radical environmental innovations and business models
It was argued that a combination of monetary and nonmonetary rewards is more effective to motivate employees [25], this paper proposes that organizations under the entrepreneurial green-growth strategy should emphasize recognition programs more because they foster the generation of new ideas and employee creativity and innovations [68]
This paper provides insight into the proper alignment between the green-growth strategy archetypes and the green human resource management (HRM) practices to manage and implement them [34]

Summary

Introduction

Environmental strategies emphasize radical product and process innovation [8,11,17] or business-model innovation [18,19] that changes market structures These initiatives require creative problem solving and knowledge integration, are typically less formalized, and rely on architectural knowledge that is typically not written anywhere and is dispersed in the organization. Organizations should implement different approaches to green HRM and bundles of practices depending on their environmental strategy and green-growth goals. By highlighting the human side in the implementation of green-growth strategies, this study proposes different configurations of green HRM practices to favor the adoption of each archetype.

Organizational Learning

Exploratory Learning and Architectural Knowledge

Exploitative Learning and Component Knowledge

Ambidexterity Perspective to Green-Growth Strategies

Implementation of Green-Growth Strategies

Training and Green-Growth Strategies

Information Sharing and Green-Growth Strategies

Reward System and Green-Growth Strategies

Discussion

Conclusions