Exploring the cornerstones of green, sustainable and socially responsible human resource management

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to delineate the fast-growing path of human resource management (HRM) research with a sustainable orientation and resolve confusion over the differences and interdependences of the various approaches that have emerged: green human resource management (GHRM), sustainable human resource management (Sustainable HRM), and socially responsible human resource management (SR-HRM).Design/methodology/approachIn this study, bibliometrics and science mapping were used to analyze the field's conceptual structure based on 587 related documents extracted from the ISI Web of Science database. Co-word analysis with SciMAT software enabled the authors to map the main themes studied and identify evolution, importance, and relevance.FindingsSR-HRM is the least developed of the three approaches analyzed and has been overlooked by the journals that publish the most work in the field of HR. The authors identify a lack of sustainability-related HRM studies on higher education and an ongoing need both to explore the role of culture in GHRM implementation and to explain further the potential non-green behavioral outcomes that can result from GHRM's use.Practical implicationsThis study demonstrates how human resource factors are key to managing challenges such as aging workforce, unstable employment relationships, implementation of green supply chain management, and Industry 4.0.Originality/valueThis study explores in detail the interrelations among various emerging sustainable human resource approaches and subtopics derived from the interrelations to reveal hotspots, dilemmas, paradoxes, and research gaps.