Sustainable Human Resource Management: A Literature-based Introduction

Abstract

The concept of sustainability has deeply penetrated in all functions of management such as supply chain, organisational behaviour, human resource, strategic management and so on. But recently, sustainable human resource management (S-HRM) has garnered a significant amount of attention from industry practitioners and academicians due to the escalation of adverse impact of existing HRM approaches on employees, society and the environment ( Mariappanadar, 2003 , International Journal of Social Economics, 30(8), 906–923; 2014a, Human Resource Management Review, 24(4), 313–329; 2014b, Sustainability and Human Resource Management, Springer). Human resource sustainability is being desired by all because of its notable implications for both the employees and the organisations. Previous literature establishes that human resource management (HRM) practices play a vital role in determining organisational success and survival. Furthermore, the harmful impact of high performance work systems and their existing HRM practices on the well-being of employees and their families has made it even more pertinent for industry practitioners to identify mechanisms to reduce employee harm and increase human resource sustainability for organisational growth and well-being. A research report by the Society for Human Resource Management in 2010 and a few other scholars claim that S-HRM can help HRM practitioners to reduce the negative impact of business practices on employees, society and the environment ( Cohen & Taylor, 2012 , HR’s role in corporate social responsibility and sustainability; Daily & Huang, 2001 , International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 21(12), 1539–1552; Dumitrana, 2009 , Human resources role in sustainable development). However, S-HRM has been studied sporadically, and there is a lack of convergence in its understanding. It has been broadly defined with the help of various perspectives borrowed from literature on strategic HRM, corporate social responsibility, Green HRM and sustainable work systems. This article aims to explore the existing literature of S-HRM to develop a deeper understanding of the concept. Through a comprehensive literature review, this article also highlights the evolution of S-HRM along with its implications for employees, HR managers and the organisations that have been studied in the previous literature.