The effect of green HRM on employee green behaviors in higher education: the mediating mechanism of green work engagement

International Journal of Organizational Analysis

ISSN : 1934-8835

Article publication date: 7 September 2020

Issue publication date: 18 January 2022

Building on the social exchange theory (SET), this study aims to propose a model of the effects of green human resource management on employee in-role, extra-role and green innovative work behavior (GIWB). This study proposes, building on both the job demands-resources model and SET, that the aforementioned links can be explained through the mediating role of green work engagement (GWE).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from employees ( n . 208) working in Palestinian higher education organizations using a self-administered questionnaire. The partial least squares-structural equation modeling was the primary statistical technique adopted to examine the study’s hypotheses.

The results suggest that green human resources management (GHRM) was a significant predictor of employee in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB. Furthermore, GWE demonstrated to be a significant intervening mechanism to explain the above-mentioned relationships.

Practical implications

The results provide useful insights for higher education policymakers on how GHRM may positively contribute to employee green outcomes.

Originality/value

This paper is novel for several reasons. First, it contributes to the general literature of GHRM. Second, it contributes to the limited body of knowledge on GHRM in the context of higher education. Third, the distinct contribution of this study is the introduction of GIWB as an outcome of GHRM, and GWE as a mediating variable in the relationship between GHRM and employee green behaviors.

  • Green human resources management
  • Green work engagement
  • Extra-role green behavior
  • Higher education
  • Green innovative work behavior
  • In-role green behavior

Aboramadan, M. (2022), "The effect of green HRM on employee green behaviors in higher education: the mediating mechanism of green work engagement", International Journal of Organizational Analysis , Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 7-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-05-2020-2190

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Mohammed Aboramadan.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

As organizations currently shifting their strategies and priorities toward more green-oriented agendas, human resources management (HRM) professionals need to rethink the mission and extend the reach of their practices through the integration of green management practices to improve the way they conduct the fundamental HRM practices ( Ángel del Brío et al. , 2008 ). Pham et al. (2019) proposed that HRM can quantify and influence sustainability-related behaviors, attitudes, awareness and motivation of employees. Therefore, organizations may also use HRM to generate and develop environmentally-friendly policies in an effective manner ( Renwick et al. , 2013 ).

In the past few years, a growing number of higher education organizations around the world have tried to make environmental management and green practices an essential part of their provided services. As a teaching and research organizations, higher education organizations are expected to play a significant role in adopting approaches and alternates to tackle existing environmental issues ( Benayas et al. , 2002 ; Disterheft et al. , 2012 ; León-Fernández and Domínguez-Vilches, 2015 ). Besides, they need to set a precedent in revitalizing and recognizing the evolving needs and challenges of environmental management concerns ( Finlay and Massey, 2012 ). As such, to encourage an environmentally friendly workplace climate, higher education institutions should embrace the philosophy of “Go Green” ( Gilal et al. , 2019 ). Members of higher education institutions, including teaching, research and administrative staff, would need to adopt green and environmentally friendly practices in their day to day activities at the workplace ( Benayas et al. , 2002 ).

In general, employees’ behaviors that promote environmental management practices at the workplace refer to green behaviors ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ). Employee green behaviors are viewed as keys to the effective implementation of green practices in the workplace. Moreover, studies have demonstrated that involving employees in green practices is crucial for the environmental management initiatives ( Jabbour et al. , 2008 ; Mazzi et al. , 2016 ), as this would contribute to the better environmental performance and completive advantage ( Kim et al. , 2019 ). To motivate green employees’ behaviors, green human resources management (GHRM) practices are considered as a critical HRM strategy to raise employees’ environmental awareness at the workplace. GHRM processes aimed at promoting environmental management incorporates several functions such as green recruitment, green training, green rewarding and green performance appraisal ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ; Jabbour et al. , 2008 ; Renwick et al. , 2013 ; Tang et al. , 2018 ).

Research on GHRM has flourished in the past years with studies carried out in diverse industries such as tourism and hospitality ( Luu, 2017 ), information and technology ( Ojo and Raman, 2019 ) and automobile industry ( Chaudhary, 2019 ). Nevertheless, research on GHRM in higher education is limited ( Fawehinmi et al. , 2020 ; Gilal et al. , 2019 ). This was confirmed by a recent literature review by Pham et al. (2019) , who called for the need to conduct more research in diverse service sectors. Among the limited studies, the study of Fawehinmi et al. (2020) found that GHRM increases employees’ green behaviors of academics through mediating role of environmental knowledge, whereas Gilal et al. (2019) found that including green behaviors of employees in the management doctrine of higher education organizations is vital to enhancing organizational financial and environmental performance and to gaining employee commitment.

Therefore, to advance the literature of green HRM in general and in higher education in particular, this study aimed to propose a model of the effects of GHRM practices on employees’ green behaviors, namely, in-role, extra-role and green innovative behavior. Green work engagement (GWE) was hypothesized to play a mediating role among the aforementioned links. This research makes the following contributions: first, it contributes to the general literature of GHRM, as the relationship between GHRM and employees’ green work-related outcomes are in infancy stage ( Pham et al. , 2019 ; Saeed et al. , 2019 ; Yong et al. , 2019 ). Second, it contributes to the limited body of HRM research ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 b) and green HRM research ( Fawehinmi et al. , 2020 ) in higher education organizations. Third, this research is novel as it investigates a model that introduces new variables to the literature of GHRM, namely, green innovative behavior and GWE. Fourth, it improves our understanding of the mechanisms that underline the relationship between GHRM and employees’ green workplace behavior ( Ren et al. , 2018 ).

Literature review

Green human resources management and green outcomes.

GHRM practices have been defined and conceptualized by several scholars ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ; Tang et al. , 2018 ; Pham et al. , 2019 ) as practices that include green recruiting and hiring employees with green awareness and knowledge; green training to develop employees’ green skills, competencies and knowledge; green performance appraisal with established green standards for assessing performance; and green rewards to provide incentives based on the successful implementation of the green objectives set by the organization.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ in-role green behaviors.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ in-extra green behaviors.

Innovative work behavior is viewed as employee behavior that is composed of idea creation, promotion and realization ( Scott and Bruce, 1994 ). In general, innovative work behavior has been perceived as an essential component to sustaining an organization’s competitive advantage ( Bos-Nehles and Veenendaal, 2019 ; West and Farr, 1989 ). Furthermore, it has been argued that HRM practices are of primary importance in realizing innovation outcomes in the organization ( Bos-Nehles and Veenendaal, 2019 ; Seeck and Diehl, 2017 ; Zhou et al. , 2013 ). By applying the concept of environmental management to innovative work behavior, green innovative work behavior (GIWB) can be conceptualized as employees’ behaviors devoted toward green ideas generation, promotion and realization.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ GIWB.

Green human resources management and green work engagement

Work engagement is defined as “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption” ( Schaufeli et al. , 2002 , p. 74). Engagement can be seen as up to which level employees are connected to their works cognitively, emotionally and physically. Building on this, GWE can be defined as the energy an employee puts in his green work-related tasks, the willingness to exert efforts at the green level and the absorption level in green work.

In general, factors such as job characteristics ( Christian et al. , 2011 ), leadership ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 ) and HRM practices ( Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016 ) were found to be common antecedents to work engagement. The mainstream literature of HRM examined the top-down impact of HR practices and systems on work engagement. For instance, Albrecht et al. (2015) proposed a model that is composed of organizational, job, motivational and individual factors that can trigger higher levels of work engagement. Other studies ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 b; Karatepe, 2012 ; Schaufeli et al. , 2006 ) demonstrated the positive relationship between job resources and work engagement.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ GWE.

Green work engagement and green outcomes

As per the SET, it appears that employees with greater levels of engagement are more inclined to have a secured and elevated quality relationship with their organizations. This, in turn, creates favorable job-related outcomes ( Saks, 2006 ). Correspondingly, such manifestations will not only inspire workers to fulfill their jobs but also allow them to participate in voluntary activities that go beyond their work tasks ( Kahn, 1990 ). For instance, previous research ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 ; Agarwal et al. , 2012 ; Alfes et al. , 2013 ; Haynie et al. , 2016 ; Rich et al. , 2010 ; Rodwell et al. , 2017 ) suggest that work engagement was found to be a significant predictor of work performance and extra-role behaviors, such as innovative and citizenship behaviors.

GWE exerts a positive effect on employees’ in-role green behaviors.

GWE exerts a positive effect on employees’ extra-role green behaviors.

GWE exerts a positive effect on employees’ GIWB.

The mediating role of green work engagement

GWE mediates the relationship between a) GHRM and in-role green behaviors, b) GHRM and extra-role green behaviors and c) GHRM and GIWB.

Research model.

The study aims at proposing a model of the effects of GHRM in higher education on green work-related outcomes at the individual level, namely, in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB. As shown in Figure 1 , GWE was hypothesized to serve as an intervening mechanism among the aforementioned links.

Participants and procedures

Data were collected from staff working in Palestinian higher education institutions ( n . 5). These included both academic staff and administrative employees. In total, 410 questionnaires were distributed, 215 were returned back, of which five were removed due to incomplete answers and two were removed due to the presence of multi-outliers. In total, 208 questionnaires were usable for statistical analysis representing a response rate of 50.7%. Questionnaires were distributed in Arabic, the official language used at the Palestinian workplace. The questionnaire was translated using the back-translation method of Brislin (1986) . Drop off and pick up method was used to increase the response rate. Cover letters were attached to the questionnaire explaining the main purpose of the research and ensuring that respondents’ personal information will be kept confidential. The questionnaire was short, clear and easy to fill within 10–15 min. Of the respondents, 73.1% were men and 26.9% were women. Concerning age, 44.7% were between 25 and 30 years of age, 5.3% were between 31 and 35 years, 21.6% between 36 and 40 years and 28.4% were older than 40 years. Regarding experience, 53.8% had an experience ranging from 1–5 years, 14.4% had 6–10 years, 30.8% had 11–15 years, whereas only 1% had more than 15 years of experience. All employees had full-time contracts, 70% of which occupied administrative positions and 30% occupied academic positions.

Multicollinearity and common method bias remedies

Multicollinearity was checked using the Variance Inflation Factors for each item. According to Hair et al. (2018) , data are free of multicollinearity if the VIF values are below 5. In this research, VIF values ranged from 1.061 to 3.304. This indicates that the data were free of multicollinearity. To check for common method bias, the Harman single factor test was used to check for the percentage of variance explained. The results suggest that a single factor did not explain the majority of the variance (only 31.495). As the variance explained was below the cut-off point of 50% ( Podsakoff et al. , 2003 ), this gives an indication that the data were free of common method bias (CMB) contamination.

Statistical strategy

Descriptive statistics, reliability measures and correlations were analyzed using SPSS v.24. To test the study hypotheses, the author has used partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) ( Hair et al. , 2018 ). PLS-SEM was used as it has been widely used in different scientific disciplines, such as human resource management ( Ringle et al. , 2018 ), marketing ( Hair et al. , 2011 ), strategic management ( Hair et al. , 2012 ) and hospitality ( Ali et al. , 2018 ). PLS-SEM technique measures the path coefficients through the ordinary least squares ( Rigdon, 2012 ). Moreover, PLS-SEM deals with correlated measurement errors ( Rademaker et al. , 2019 ) and ordinal measures ( Schuberth et al. , 2018 ).

Green human resources management.

This was measured using the six-item scale developed by Dumont et al. (2017) to gauge employees’ perceptions of GHRM adopted at their organizations. A sample item was “my university sets green goals for its employees.” The Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.883.

Green work engagement.

This was measured using six-items obtained from Schaufeli et al. (2006) . As this scale was originally developed to measure work engagement, the six items were modified to assess green employee engagement. A sample item was “I am enthusiastic about my environmental tasks at my job.” The Cronbach alpha for this construct was 0.851.

In role green behavior.

This was measured using the three-item scale developed by Bissing-Olson et al. (2013) . A sample item was “I adequately complete the assigned duties in an environmentally friendly way.” Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.667.

Extra role green behavior.

This was measured using the three-item scale developed by Bissing-Olson et al. (2013) to assess voluntary green behaviors. A sample item was “I take initiatives to act in environmentally friendly ways at work.” The Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.667.

Green innovative work behavior (GIWB).

The six-item scale developed by Scott and Bruce (1994) was borrowed to gauge innovative work behavior. This scale was modified in which green-related terms were added to adapt to the study purposes. A sample item was “I Investigate, and secure funds needed to implement new green ideas ” The Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.866.

Measurement model assessment

Factor analysis loadings were checked for the items of the research scales. As shown in Table 1 , the values of standardized factor loading ranged between 0.658 and 0.866. All the loadings were significant at the 0.001 level. The average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) were computed to check for convergent validity and internal consistency ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ). The results suggest that all the research variables had AVE values higher than 0.5 and CR values higher than 0.70, indicating that the data were convergently valid and internally consistent.

Discriminant validity was checked using two tests. First, the Fornell and Larcker (1981) rule which compares the square root of AVE with the intercorrelations among the variables. The results in Table 2 , show that the square root of AVE was higher than the intercorrelation, indicating that the condition of discriminant validity was met. On the other hand, to further confirm the presence of discriminant validity, the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) was employed. The results in Table 3 , suggest that all ratios are below 0.85 as suggested by Hulland (1999) suggesting that constructs were discriminantly valid.

Structural model assessment: quality check

To assess the structural model, several criteria were computed. First, the R square ( R 2 ) for the research variables were as follows: GWE (0.102), in role green behavior (0.164), extra-role green behavior (0.199) and GIWB (0.433). As per the recommendations of Chin (1998) , these values are considered acceptable. Second, the f square ( f 2 ) for the research variables were as follows: medium effect for GHRM on GWE (0.113), GHRM on in-role green behavior (0.026), GHRM on extra-role behavior (0.037). The effect size was of GHRM on GIWB (0.509) was a string. On the other hand, the effect size of GWE on in role-green behavior (0.116), GWE on extra-role green behavior (0.140) and GWE on GIWB (0.062) was medium. Finally, predictive relevance (Stone–Geisser’s Q 2 ) was calculated for latent variables and the results showed that Q 2 values were: 0.053 for GWE, 0.083 for in-role green behavior, 0.092 for extra-role green behavior and 0.23 for GIWB. As Stone–Geisser’s Q 2 values were higher than 0, this indicated high predictive relevance as suggested by Hair et al. (2018) .

Table 2 presents descriptive figures, means, standard deviations and correlations between the research variables of this study. Correlations were found significant and positive between the research variables. The reported correlations were: GHRM and GWE ( r = 0 .329, p = 0.000), GHRM and in-role green behavior ( r = 0.256, p = 0.000), GHRM and extra-role green behavior ( r = 0 .267, p = 0.000) and GHRM and GIWB ( r = 0.614, p = 0.000). significant correlations were found between GWE and in-role green behavior ( r = 0.361, p = 0.000), GWE and extra-role green behavior ( r = 0.390, p = 0.000) and GWE and GIWB ( r = 0.363, p = 0.000).

Hypotheses testing

Figure 2 presents the results for the direct path analysis and mediation analysis. The results suggest that GHRM was positively associated with in-role green behavior ( ß = 0.154, t = 2.38, p = 0.017), with extra-role green behavior ( ß = 0.182, t = 2.42, p = 0.015) and with GIWB ( ß = 0.567, t = 10.31, p = 0.000). The results lend support for H1 , H2 and H3 . Furthermore, the results provided support for H4 , in which it was indicated that GHRM showed to exert a positive effect on GWE ( ß = 0.319, t = 4.93 p = 0.000). GWE demonstrated to have a significant effect on in role-green behavior ( ß = 0.329, t = 4.64 p = 0.000), on extra-role green behavior ( ß = 0.353, t = 4.84 p = 0.000) and on GIWB ( ß = 0.198, t = 3.45 p = 0.001), suggesting that H5 , H6 , H7 were supported. Finally, using the 5,000-sample bootstrapping technique, the mediating effect of GWE was examined. The results suggest that GWE showed to have a significant mediating effect between GHRM and in-role green behavior ( ß = 0.105, t = 3.26 p = 0.001), between GHRM and extra-role green behavior ( ß = 0.113, t = 3.39 p = 0.001) and between GHRM and GIWB ( ß = 0.063, t = 2.89 p = 0.004), therefore, H8a , H8b and H8c were supported.

Discussion and implications

The study examined the relationship between GHRM and in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB through the mediating effect of GWE. The results demonstrate that GHRM significantly predicated both in-role and extra-role green behavior. The results were in line with the research of Dumont et al. (2017) that found that GHRM positively influenced both in-role and extra-role green behavior. Furthermore, these results were in line with the norm of reciprocity embedded in SET in which employees exchange the green management efforts of the organization with task-related and voluntary green behaviors. The results, as well, suggest the GHRM exerted a positive and significant effect on employees’ GIWB. This implies that attributes of HRM practices determine employees’ innovative work behavior as suggested by ( Wright and Nishii, 2013 ).

The results indicated that GHRM and GWE were positively associated. The results support what has been discussed in the JD-R framework ( Demerouti et al. , 2001 ), highlighting that resources at work serve as a motivational variable to encourage employee’s engagement at work. Further, GWE was found to positively affect in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB. This implies that employees with higher levels of GWE are more prone to have a trustful and quality exchanges with their organization, which would ultimately encourage employees to display positive outcomes such as green outcomes.

Finally, the results suggest that GWE demonstrated to be a significant mediating mechanism among the examined relationships. GWE significantly mediated the relationship between GHRM and in-role green behavior, GHRM and extra-role green behavior and GHRM and GIWB. This implies the relationship between GHRM and green outcomes may not be only direct, which means that HRM (GHRM in this case) affects workplace outcomes (green outcomes) through a particular mechanism ( Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016 ) such as GWE.

This study has several contributions to GHRM research in general and higher education research on green management in particular. Research on GHRM is evolving, and more research is needed ( Pham et al. , 2019 ), especially within the context of the higher education sector ( Gilal et al. , 2019 ). In response to that, the study proposed a model and empirically examined a new mechanism through which the relationship between GHRM and its consequences can be explained. It is the first study of its kind to use the GWE construct as a study variable and as an intervening mechanism. In previous research, the intervening mechanisms used were green psychological climate, environmental knowledge, environmental passion, green employee empowerment, green capital and green crafting ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ; Fawehinmi et al. , 2020 ; Gilal et al. , 2019 ; Hameed et al. , 2020 ; Song et al. , 2020 ; Luu, 2019 ). Furthermore, a new variable (GIWB) was introduced in the model as a latent variable, among other green outcomes. Most of what has been introduced on employees’ green behaviors in the GHRM literature was task-related green behaviors, voluntary green behaviors, organizational citizenship toward the environment ( Pham et al. , 2019 ), while GIWB was not addressed as a potential outcome of GHRM practices.

Managerially speaking, higher education organizations are called upon going green and creating a roadmap for their staff to serve as environmental activists. These organizations will need to effectively and successfully implement GHRM activities for better environmental management and to promote employees’ green behaviors at the workplace. Higher education organizations are required to adopt sustainable green practices to assist employees in resolving environmental challenges and concerns. This may lead to the improved green performance of these organizations and the community as a whole. Human resource (HR) professionals in higher education are advised to include GHRM practices at the top of their agenda, in addition to other HRM systems such as high-performance work practices and high-commitment HRM systems. GHRM practices should include clear green hiring policies, green training and development, a system of green performance evaluation and effective rewarding green rewarding and compensation policies. This research strongly recommends that HR specialists and senior management in higher education establish core organizational concepts and principles when articulating GHRM strategies. Hiring staff (academic and administrative) with common environmental protection values is an important practice to create a state of person-organization fit. Furthermore, HR practitioners in higher education may give a strong example by communicating their environmental morals and ethics at work through different techniques such as communication emails, broachers and regular seminars on green management. HR professionals can also assess candidates' environmental principles in the interview process by analyzing their awareness and readiness to get involved in green management practices. Furthermore, HR personnel can provide higher education staff with adequate training and coaching about environmental conservation, which will help align staff with the environmental policies of their organizations and increase awareness of environmental management concerns. Finally, HR policymakers in higher educations may link performance appraisal and rewarding schemes with employees’ environmental performance. This might include measuring the amount of paper used within a period of time and the number of printing orders performed, which can be tracked using printing monitors.

Limitations and future research

This study has limitations that provide opportunities for future research endeavors. First, the model proposed was investigated using data collected from one source (employees) at one point in time. Although, it was demonstrated that CMB was not a concern for this study, collecting data from multiple sources and at different intervals would minimize CMB. This includes having supervisors evaluate the green behaviors of their employees. Second, data come from employees working in five higher education institutions, which might limit the generalizability of the results. Hence, future research may consider replicating the study model using larger samples. Third, this study is cross-sectional in its nature, which puts restrictions on drawing cause-effect conclusions. Future studies may consider a longitudinal research design to examine the model over time. Moreover, the study examined one mediator (GWE) among the investigated links. Future studies may consider other intervening variables such as green engagement climate, green perceived organizational support and organizational identification. Finally, future research may consider investigating the model in diverse service sectors including higher education, nonprofits, healthcare and hospitality to check for differences between these sectors.

The study investigated the impact of GHRM practices on green outcomes, namely, in-role, extra-role and GIWBs, through the mediating effects of GWE. With data collected from the higher education sector in Palestine, the results demonstrated that GHRM showed a positive relationship with the aforementioned outcome variables. GWE was found to play a significant mediating role between the links examined. The study suggests future research to enrich the literature of GHRM with further investigation of the precise mechanisms governing the relationship between GHRM and its consequences.

thesis on green hrm

Hypothesized model

thesis on green hrm

Model estimates

Factor loading, with t -values, CRs and AVEs

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Further reading

Boudreau , J.W. and Ramstad , P.M. ( 2005 ), “ Talentship, talent segmentation, and sustainability: a new HR decision science paradigm for a new strategy definition ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 44 No. 2 , pp. 129 - 136 .

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Jabbour , C.J.C. and Santos , F.C.A. ( 2008 ), “ Relationships between human resource dimensions and environmental management in companies: proposal of a model ”, Journal of Cleaner Production , Vol. 16 No. 1 , pp. 51 - 58 .

Corresponding author

About the author.

Mohammed Aboramadan is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the department of economics, management and statistics. His special interests focus on HRM and leadership in service-based contexts. Aboaramadan has published in the following journals: International Journal of Educational Management, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, International Journal of Public Administration, Journal of Workplace Learning and other published scientific pieces at AOM proceeding 2020, EURAM 2020, a Journal for Higher Education Policy and Management and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management .

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How does the perceived green human resource management impact employee’s green innovative behavior? —From the perspective of theory of planned behavior

1 School of Political and Public Administration, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

2 School of Finance and Public Administration, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, China

Xiaoyuan Wang

3 Business School, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

Associated Data

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Employees’ green innovative behavior encouraged by enterprises plays an important role in the enterprise sustainable development. The study explores the impact of perceived green human resource management on employees’ innovative behavior. Drawing upon the planned behavior theory, this study examines how perceived green human resource management impact employees’ green innovation behavior. Through three-stage questionnaire survey, 207 samples are obtained and hierarchical regression is employed to test the hypothesis., Data analysis results show that perceived green human resource management has a directly positive effect on employees’ green innovative behavior. Green behavior intention, self-efficacy of environmental protection behavior, and identity with the company’s green environmental protection system are the mediators between perceived green human resource management and employees’ green innovative behavior. Meanwhile, the results demonstrate that there is a chain mediating relationship among these variables. In addition, green supply chain management moderates the relationship between the identity of a green environmental protection system and employees’ green innovative behavior. These conclusions transcend the macro perspective and open the black box between green human resource management and enterprise performance. Enterprise should take a holistic view to play the role of green human resource management and supply chain management in the implementation of environmental strategy.

1. Introduction

As the problem of environmental pollution becomes more and more serious, the public pays more and more attention to the environmental problems of enterprises. Faced with increasing environmental pressure, enterprises take measures to development the sustainable operation model from all around ( Farrukh et al., 2022 ). Besides the enterprises’ environmental actions, employees’ green innovative behavior is the critical force that can help enterprise improve sustainability performance, produce less waste ( Davis et al., 2020 ; Rongbin et al., 2022 ; Tu et al., 2022 ). Given that the employees’ innovative behavior is self-initiated and not prescribed by organization, enterprise need to identify the contextual and individual antecedents to arouse the employee’s motivation to act environmental ( Davis et al., 2020 ; Rongbin et al., 2022 ; Tu et al., 2022 ). Green human resources management (GHRM) is one of the most critical measures that can motivates employee to conduct green innovative behavior ( Tang et al., 2018 ; Napathorn, 2022 ). GHRM was developed by Wehrmeyer and Vickerstaff (1996) and become a hot research topic in recent years ( Tang et al., 2018 ; Napathorn, 2022 ).

Many studies have revealed the impact of GHRM on employee’s green behavior and performance ( Chaudhary, 2020 ; He et al., 2021 ; Aboramadan et al., 2022 ; Tuan, 2022 ; Ye et al., 2022 ). Dumont et al. (2017) pointed out that GHRM influences employees’ green behavior by constructing a green atmosphere, and personal green values moderates the relationship between a green atmosphere and employees’ green behavior. They find only a few scholars explored the relationship between GHRM and employee’s green innovative behavior. For example, taking GHRM as a mediator, scholars ( Ahmad et al., 2021 ; Islam et al., 2021a , b ) discuss supervisor’s ethical leadership style on subordinates’ green or pro-environmental work behavior. In the contemporary, to meet the sustainable development goal, employees’ environmental protection behavior is not enough for the enterprise’s sustainable development. It is imperative for the employee to conduct green innovative behavior, which is initiated by employees, not the enterprise ( Li and Wu, 2017 ). Green innovative behavior plays a crucial role in continuously creating environmental benefits and improving the core competitiveness of enterprises under the pressure of multiple stakeholders ( Zhou and Zhang, 2018 ; Hazarika and Zhang, 2019 ). Currently, a study ( Odugbesan et al., 2022 ) found that green hard and soft talent management practices have significant influence on employees’ innovative work behavior. Scholars ( Bhatti et al., 2022 ) pointed out that GHRM practices and the environmental innovative performance are positively correlated ( Chaudhary, 2020 ; Aboramadan et al., 2022 ; Tuan, 2022 ; Ye et al., 2022 ). However, these studies adopt the macro perspective at the organizational level to elucidate the impact of formulated GHHM on employees’ innovative behavior, ignores the gap between the formulated GHRM and the perceived GHRM ( Bowen and Ostroff, 2004 ; Luu, 2021 ). There is a gap between implementing and perceived HRM ( Napathorn, 2022 ). Employee’s green innovative behavior is an individual level concept, while formulated GHRM is an organizational level concept. It is not suitable to directly examine the impact of organizational formulated GHRM on individual innovative green behavior with the use of OLS method. Therefor, it is necessary to examine perceived GHRM role in the HRM-performance relationship and captures the variations due to employee perceptions and interpretations ( Bowen and Ostroff, 2004 ; Sanders and Yang, 2016 ). And it is necessary to adopt the employee-centric approach to analyze how the perceived GHRM practices drives the employee’s green innovative behavior ( Paulet et al., 2021 ).

Meanwhile, researches have shown that organizational culture ( Sathasivam et al., 2021 ), perceived environmentally-specific authentic leadership ( Luu, 2021 ), national institutional and cultural contexts ( Rajabpour et al., 2022 ), and effective communication moderate the relationship between GHRM and environmental sustainability performance. Especially, some scholars have pointed out that green supply chain management (GSCM), as a kind of environmental management strategy, affects the relationship between GHRM and performance ( Longoni et al., 2018 ). Employees’ innovative green behavior will inevitably be affected by the company’s GSCM strategy. Nevertheless, the impact of GSCM on employees’ green innovative behavior is not fully investigated.

Therefore, this paper will address three problems to fill the above research gap: first, how does perceived GHRM promote the employee’s innovative behavior; second, what is the mediating mechanism of perceived GHRM on employees’ green innovative behavior; third, how does green supply chain management, as a core part of an enterprise’s green development strategy, moderate the relationship between perceived GHRM and employees’ innovative green behavior. Answers to these questions may contribute the literature in three ways. First, drawing on the planned behavior theory (PBT), we provide novel insights on the mechanism which can expound the impact of perceived GHRM on employees’ green innovative behavior. Second, we employ employee-centric approach to investigate the impact of GHRM on employee’s green innovative behavior, the analysis result will be more robust. And it is conducive to help redirect GHRM research paradigm from the organization level to individual level in line with the HRM research paradigm ( Sanders and Yang, 2016 ; Paulet et al., 2021 ). Third, we explore the moderation effect of GSCM, which is helpful to deepen the understanding of the situational factors that affect employees’ green innovation behavior. This paper is organized as follows: first, introduction section to provide the researching background; second, literature review and reasoning logistic for our hypothesis; third, the methods of the study; fourth, the analysis and results; the last, the discussion and conclusion.

2. Theoretical background and hypothesis

2.1. theoretical background.

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) originated from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein in 1975. TRA holds that behavioral intention (BI) is the direct factor in determining behavior ( Yang et al., 2012 ), and is influenced by behavioral attitude (BA), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) ( Trafimow et al., 2002 ). BA refers to an individual’s assessment of how much one likes or dislikes performing a particular behavior, which is usually the most powerful predictor variable of BI. Factors influencing an individual’s BA can be divided into endogenous and exogenous attitudes. The former arises from internal traits of individuals, while the latter comes from external stimuli including employee identification and attitudinal disposition in this study. SN refers to the social pressure when individuals consider adopting a particular behavior. Reno et al. (1993) classify subjective norms as injunctive norms, regulating what others think individuals should do, descriptive norms, about their behaviors of themselves, and personal norms or moral norms, regarding what individuals believe they should do. PBC refers to the ease or difficulty with which an individual believes he or she can control and perform a behavior, such as an employee self-efficacy ( Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2005 ). It relies on both internal control, which is derived from Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and external control which is about the facilitation or inhibition of behavior by other factors such as the level of cooperation from colleagues, resources, or time constraints perceived by the individual ( Kraft et al., 2005 ).

2.2. Hypotheses

2.2.1. green hrm and employees’ green innovation behavior.

GHRM incorporates environmental norms into human resource activities ( Renwick et al., 2013 ; Dumont et al., 2017 ; Amrutha and Geetha, 2020 ). It is an environment-focused HRM system, whose aim is to increase employees’ awareness, knowledge, skills, and motivation in enterprise’s environmental sustainable development ( Ren et al., 2018 ). Green human resource management is a bundle of HRM practices, which combines green management practices and HRM processes, including recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and benefits, performance management, and employee engagement ( Zibarras and Coan, 2015 ; Ren et al., 2018 ; Tang et al., 2018 ). GHRM encourages employees to carry out green behaviors at work ( Kim et al., 2019 ). However, the designed GHRM by the enterprise will not be fully implemented and will be perceived variously by employee due to individuals’ personality, attribution style or value ( Batt and Hermans, 2012 ; Sanders and Yang, 2016 ). Perceived GHRM refers to the perceived GHRM by the employee, regardless of proactive or reactive. It is not the formulated HRM by the enterprise. While an enterprise may design a variety of HRM practices, they are not perceived by the employee for many reasons. These practices will not influence employees. Following this logic, only the perceived GHRM can influence employees ( Renwick et al., 2013 ; Paillé et al., 2014 ; Ren et al., 2018 ; Lu et al., 2022 ) Perceived GHRM is significant predictor of employee behavior ( Yusliza et al., 2021 ).

Employees’ green innovative behavior refers to individuals’ behaviors in the everyday works, including manufacturing new products or providing service ( Rongbin et al., 2022 ). It involves green and novel idea generation, promotion and utilization ( Li et al., 2019 ; Li Y.-B. et al., 2020 ; Singh et al., 2020 ). Employees’s green innovative behavior has two distinguishing characteristics: proactive and prosocial. The former highlights that it is nonmandatory, discretionary, and self-directed initiative ( Dumont et al., 2017 ; Robertson and Carleton, 2017 ; Tian and Robertson, 2019 ; Rubel et al., 2021 ; Biswas et al., 2022 ; Munawar et al., 2022 ). The influence of perceived GHRM on employees’ green innovative behavior can be examined with the use of TPB from the perspective of HR practices. The perceived green recruitment and selection practices will make environmental tendencies an important factor in employee promotion, which will boost employees’ intention to act environment-friendly. The perceived green training practices will help the employee to form green values and develop the ability to implement green innovative behavior. As a form of subjective norms, it will promote an employee to carry out green innovative behavior with high consciousness and innovative awareness, and is conducive for the employee to develop innovative competency. The perceived green performance management and compensation practices highlight that if employees act with a high characteristic of green innovative behavior, the enterprise will reward them with high-level pay. It will enhance employees’ motivation of implementing green innovative behavior. The perceived empowerment and team practices will enable individuals to feel a supportive atmosphere in doing green innovative behavior from others, which is a kind of the subjective norm. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis.

H1 : Perceived GHRM positively relates to Employees' Green Innovation Behavior.

2.2.2. The mediating effect of intention, self-efficacy, and identity

TPB proposed that individuals’ behavior is affected by behavioral intention (BI), which in turn is the combined result of variables, such as personal behavior attitude (BA) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) ( Armitage and Conner, 2001 ). Research shows that the green behavior intention will be influenced by green organization identity ( Chen, 2011 ). Green organization identity refers to the individual’s interpretive scheme on organization’s environmental management and protection system which will impact the individual’s behavior. Green organization identity is embodied in employees’ identification with the green environmental protection system (IWTGPS), which reflects the employees’ recognition of the enterprise’s green strategy including its necessity, and effectiveness. Studies have shown green organization identity impacts individual’s organizational citizenship behavior for the environment ( Liu et al., 2021 ), sustainability exploration innovation (SER) ( Xing et al., 2019 ), green innovation performance ( Chang and Chen, 2013 ) and green creativity ( Song and Yu, 2018 ). IWTGPS can promote employees to establish environmental awareness and green management, and behavior ( Chang and Chen, 2013 ; Xing et al., 2019 ). Therefor, employees, with a high sense of identity with the enterprise’s green environmental protection system, will have a high likelihood to conduct green innovative behavior from the view of TPB. ( Gioia and Thomas, 1996 ; Chen, 2011 ; Chang and Chen, 2013 ; Song and Yu, 2018 ; Xing et al., 2019 ; Liu et al., 2021 ).

Meanwhile, as a type of BI, an employee’s IWTGPS will be affected by the employee’s green environmental protection intention (BA) and environmental behavior self-efficacy (PBC) in the light of TPB. Green self-efficacy refers to the employees’ belief about his competencies to engage and accomplish environment-related tasks ( Chen et al., 2015 ; Faraz et al., 2021 ). Green self-efficacy affects employee’s green behavior ( Adnan, 2021 ), green creativity ( Chen et al., 2015 ), and pro-environmental behavior ( Faraz et al., 2021 ). Employees with high self-efficacy will exert more resource, time and commitment to works and tolerate failure ( Bandura, 1997 ; Zhang et al., 2022 ) Thus, we propose that an employee’s environmental protection intention and environmental behavior self-efficacy are positively related to his green innovative behavior, and the relationship will be mediated by IWTGPS. That is, only when individuals have the will for green innovation, they will continue to strengthen their willingness in the action, till the final green innovation behavior gets implemented.

Furthermore, on one hand, perceived GHRM by employees can strengthen their attitude toward green environmental protection behavior and felt responsibility by conveying the organization’s concern for corporate ES strategy and social responsibility. Which is consistent with the company’s entire green environmental protection strategy ( Lu et al., 2022 ). At the same time, perceived GHRM can enhance employee’s organizational identification, which in turn leads to green behaviors ( Chaudhary, 2020 ). On the other hand, perceived GHRM can help the employee develop conscious awareness and innovation ability when implementing environmental protection behaviors, and pave the way for employees to recognize the organizational green environmental protection system from the perspective of ability self-control and broadening ( Zhou and Zhang, 2018 ). The generation of green environmental protection intention and the strengthening of self-efficacy of environmental protection behavior will be affected by perceived GHRM ( Cherian and Jacob, 2012 ; Gill, 2012 ; Tang and Sun, 2021 ). In combination with H1, we propose the following hypothesis:

H2a : Green environmental protection intention and green system identity are the chain mediators between perceived GHRM and employees’ green innovative behavior.
H2b : Environmental behavior self-efficacy and green system identity are the chain mediators between perceived GHRM and employees’ green innovative behavior.

2.2.3. The moderating role of green supply chain management

GSCM refers to the actions to reduce consumption of raw resources, waste in internal operational processes, and increase the use of recycled/recyclable materials in external operational processes ( Sarkis, 2012 ; Gimenez and Sierra, 2013 ). GSCM reflects the enterprise’s environmental awareness in the process of product development, purchasing, distribution, and reverse logistics ( Chan et al., 2016 ). It is a kind of environmental strategy. ( Chan et al., 2016 ; Li G. et al., 2020 ). Some researches show that GSCM mediate the relationship between GHRM and performance ( Longoni et al., 2018 ). In contrast, some scholars found GHRM influence the implementation of GSCM process greatly ( Kumar et al., 2019 ).

Green supply chain management is a modern management mode that comprehensively considers the environmental impact and resource efficiency in the whole supply chain ( Zheng and Xie, 2017 ) As a complex system to improve economic and environmental benefits, the green supply chain carries out unified organizational planning and coordinated management, which consists of environmentally purchasing materials, energy-saving design, reverse logistics, internal environmental management, cooperation with downstream buyers, and recycling As supply chain management involves various departments and jobs, it has become a research hotspot. In carrying out GSCM model, enterprise will train employees, acquire ISO 14001 certification, strengthen waste disposal ( Li G. et al., 2020 ). GSCM is an effective tool for environmental performance improvement ( Chan et al., 2016 ; Li G. et al., 2020 ). Therefore, green supply chain management can strengthen employees’ sense of identity with corporate environmental protection strategies, and ultimately promotes green innovative behaviors. It will strengthen the relationship between the perceived GHRM and employees’ green innovative behavior. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis ( Figure 1 ).

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Research framework.

H3 : Green supply chain management positively moderates the relationship between green environmental protection identity and employees’ green innovative behavior, that is, the higher the level of green supply chain management, the stronger the relationship between identity and green innovation behavior, and vice versa.

Based on the above assumptions, the analysis framework is as follows.

Both environmental protection intention and environmental behavior self-efficacy are the chain mediators between perceived GHRM and green innovative behavior through producing employee’s sense of identify with company’s green environmental protection system. And in this process, GSCM plays a moderating role, that is, the higher the level of GSCM, the stronger the relationship between employee’s identity and green innovation behavior, and vice versa.

3. Methodology

3.1. samples.

In this study, data were collected by questionnaire. The samples are mainly from Suzhou. We use on-site and online distribution methods to survey and distributed 260 questionnaires, including 214 paper questionnaires and 46 electronic questionnaires. After excluding 53 invalid questionnaires, 207 valid questionnaires were returned, which accounted for 79.62%. Respondents are from chemical, manufactory, pharmaceutical, and hotel sectors. Their jobs are mainly production, supply chain managers, technical workers, R&D and others. Under their consent, paper-pencil or online questionnaire was distributed. The data collection was organized in three stages. During stage 1, employees answered questions about perceived GHRM, green supply chain management, and demographics. During stage 2, about 1 month later, employees answered the questions about mediators, such as green environmental protection intention, green system identity, environmental behavior self-efficacy, and green system identity. During stage 3, about 1 month after stage 2, the employee answered the questions about green innovative behavior. Sample profiles are shown in Table 1 .

Survey samples.

3.2. Measures

The Likert-5 scale was used, ranging from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 5 (“strongly agree”). Perceived GHRM is adopted from Sun et al. (2007) , including 6 items. The intention of green environmental protection involves 4 items and the self-efficacy of environmental behavior includes 3 items adopted from Cordano and Frieze (2002) . The measurement of the green innovation behavior refers to the method of Ng and Lucianetti (2016) , which contains 5 items. Employees’ identification with the enterprise’s green environmental protection system uses items from Mael and Ashforth (1992) , including 3 items. Green supply chain management is adopted from the research of Jabbour and Jabbour (2016) , with 5 items.

3.3. Reliability and validity

We use confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to calculate the reliability and validity. The results are summed in Table 2 .

The results of confirmatory factor analysis.

1. The six-factor model means that all variables are listed separately. 2. The five-factor model combines green environmental protection intention and environmental protection behavior self-efficacy into one variable. 3. The three-factor model combines green human resource management, green environmental protection intention, environmental protection behavior self-efficacy, and employees. The identification with the corporate green environmental protection system is combined into one variable. 4. The single-factor model combines all variables into one variable.

From Table 2 , we can see the goodness of fit of the six-factor model is good, as follows: X2/DF = 1.872 < 3, RMSEA = 0.070 < 0.080, SRMR = 0.048, CFI = 0.909, TLI = 0.895. C.R. = 0.961, AVE = 0.608. It is significantly better than five-factor, three-factor, and single-factor models (see Table 2 ). Each variable’s reliability and validity value is as follows: perceived GHRM ( α  = 0.875, AVE = 0.660, CR = 0.921), Green environmental protection intention ( α  = 0.845, AVE = 0.713, CR = 0.909), environmental behavior self-efficacy ( α  = 0.848, AVE = 0.788, CR = 0.918), green innovation behavior ( α  = 0.865, AVE = 0.687, CR = 0.916), employees’ sense of identity with enterprise’s green environmental protection system ( α  = 0.709, AVE = 0.638, CR = 0.840) and green supply chain management ( α  = 0.880, AVE = 0.710, CR = 0.924). These results show that the reliability and validity of the questionnaire have reached an acceptable level.

Furthermore, we use Harmon’s method to test the common method bias. All items are loaded into a latent variable. The results (RMSEA = 0.161, SRMR = 0.118, CFI = 0.574, TLI = 0.535, X 2  = 1753.193, DF = 275, α  = 0.939, CR = 0.940, AVE = 0.385) indicates that the common method bias is not a serious problem.

3.4. Correlation coefficient

The analysis of the correlation coefficient of each variable is shown in Table 3 .

Mean, standard deviation, and correlation coefficient.

** p  < 0.05, * p  < 0.10; PGHRM, Perceived Green Human Resource Management; EI, Green Environmental Protection Intention; SE, Environmental Behavior Self-efficacy; GIB, Green Innovation Behavior; IN, Employees’ Sense of Identity with the company’s green environmental protection system; GSCM, Green Supply Chain Management.

The data preliminarily verify the hypothesis. It is shown that green innovative behavior is positively correlated with perceived green HRM, green environmental protection intention, environmental protection behavior self-efficacy, employees’ recognition of the enterprise’s green environmental protection system, and green supply chain management.

4. Data analysis results

4.1. the relationship between perceived ghrm and employees’ green innovation behavior.

This study uses SPSS regression analysis to test the hypotheses, and the results are shown in Table 4 .

Regression analysis results.

*** p  < 0.01, ** p  < 0.05, * p  < 0.10; PGHRM, Perceived Green Human Resource Management; EI, Green Environmental Protection Intention; SE, Environmental Behavior Self-efficacy; GIB, Green Innovation Behavior; IN, Employees’ Sense of Identity with the company’s green environmental protection system; GSCM, Green Supply Chain Management.

It can be seen from Model 1 that the regression coefficient of perceived GHRM on employees’ green innovative behavior is 0.543 ( p  < 0.01), and H1 is supported. From model 2 and model 3, it can be seen that the coefficients of perceived GHRM on EI and SE are 0.416 ( p  < 0.01) and 0.532 ( p  < 0.01) respectively. From Model 4, we can see the coefficients of EI and SE on employees’ intention 0.377 ( p  < 0.01) and 0.485 ( p  < 0.01) respectively. Model 5 shows the coefficient of intention on green innovative behavior is 0.641 ( p  < 0.01). It provides a preliminary test for H2.

4.2. The mediating role between perceived green HRM and employees’ green innovative behavior

This study analyzes the mediating role of employees’ identification with the enterprise’s green environmental protection system on employees’ green environmental protection intention, environmental protection behavior self-efficacy, and employees’ green innovation behavior. Employing Hayes’s PROCESS program, we explore the two chain mediating paths to test H2. Data analysis results shows that the chain mediating effect value of the former is 0.136 [0.072, 0.226], while the latter is 0.272 [0.185, 0.375]. This proves that the above two chain mediation paths are both valid, and the mediating effect of the latter is higher than that of the former. H2 is supported.

4.3. The moderating role of green supply chain management

From model 6, we can see the interaction coefficients of green supply chain management and intention on employee’s green innovative behavior is 0.129, hypothesis H3 is verified. Further, we divide samples into two subgroups based on green supply chain management. The results show that when one standard deviation is subtracted, β is 0.358, and the confidence level is 95%. The interval is between 0.173 and 0.543; when one standard deviation is added, β is 0.411, and the confidence interval at the 95% level is between 0.234 and 0.588. From this, we can see that both results do not include 0 points, as shown in Figure 2 . Therefore, the significance of the moderating effect of green supply chain management has been further verified, the interaction effects are as in Figure 2 .

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The moderating role of green supply chain management.

5. Conclusion and implications

5.1. conclusion.

Based on the above analysis, the findings of this study are as follows. First, perceived GHRM has a significant positive impact on employees’ green environmental intentions and environmental behavior self-efficacy. Green environmental intentions and environmental behavior self-efficacy also significantly and positively affect employees’ green innovative behavior. Second, employees’ identification with the company’s green environmental protection system plays a significant mediating role in the transformation of green environmental protection intentions and environmental behavior self-efficacy into green innovation behaviors. The two intermediary influence paths (i.e., perceived GHRM - green environmental protection intention - employee’s identity with the enterprise’s green environmental protection system - green innovation behavior, and perceived GHRM - environmental protection behavior self-efficacy - employee’s identity with the enterprise’s green environmental protection system) are confirmed. Third, green supply chain management has a positive moderating effect on the mechanism of employee’s identity with the enterprise’s green environmental protection system influencing employees’ green innovative behavior.

5.2. Theoretical and practical implications

Theoretical implication is threefold. First, previous research adopted the macro perspective to examine the impact of GHRM on green behavior ( Rongbin et al., 2022 ; Zhang et al., 2022 ). However, a few studies adopted the micro perspective to analyze the influence. Our research applies TPB to examine the impact of perceived GHRM on employees’ innovative behavior which is more critical for enterprise sustainable than green behavior at the individual level. Our study shows that perceived GHRM affects the employees’ identity with the company’s green environmental protection system via employees’ green environmental protection intention and environmental protection behavior self-efficacy. The results precisely clarify the chain mediation linkage between perceived GHRM and employees’ green innovation behavior and deepen our understand of the black box between GHRM and enterprise environmental performance. Second, scholars ( Sanders and Yang, 2016 ) highlight that the process of HRM may be more crucial than the content of HRM. The perceived GHRM is a paradigm of process HRM. Therefore, the conclusions of this study prove the core views and the validity of process HRM. Third, previous studies ( Nejati et al., 2017 ; Saeed et al., 2022 ) have explored the relationship between GHRM and GSCM, and many of them argued that GHRM is the driver of GSCM. Nevertheless, our research show that GSCM, as a kind of enterprise’s environmental strategy, moderates the relationship between GHRM and employees’ innovative behavior. The contingency theory of strategic HRM points out that HRM can play a better role only when it matches with other management practices. Further on this basis, our research reveals that the interactions GHRM and GSCM impact the employees’ green innovative behavior and deepen the understanding of the role of supply chain management in the contingency theory of strategic human resource management.

Practical implications are as follows. First, HR department should guide employees consciously to l earn about green behaviors through professional training and green knowledge sharing ( Islam et al., 2021a ; Ahmed et al., 2022 ), thereby enhancing their psychological sense of self-control for green innovation behaviors, so as to independently carry out green innovation behaviors. Second, enterprise ought to set up a position dedicated to the construction of environmental protection culture, responsible for coordinating the construction of corporate green culture, to push the company’s green environmental protection culture closer to the employee, and to arouse individual resonance to integrate into his work. Third, enterprise should take a holistic view to play the role of GHRM and GSCM. Enterprise need to keep the match between GHRM and GSCM, try to utilize information and communication technology in GSCM ( Batool et al., 2019 ), and train employees in the green procurement, production and innovation in the process of GSCM.

5.3. Limitations and future research

While the study tests the hypothesis, there also are some limitations. First, we collect GSCM data from the employee, not from managers. It may lead to measurement bias. In the future, we can collect data from multisource to conduct an integrated macro and micro level, and provide a comprehensive framework to discuss the interaction effects of perceived GHRM and GSCM. Second, perceived GHRM originates the paradigm of process HRM, which stresses that the strength as well as attribution style is critical in the prediction of employees’ behavior. These variables are not incorporated in the study. It provides another future research direction.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

DS: conceptual work and literature review. HW: writing, translating, editing, and revise. YB: writing, translating, and editing. XW: editing and revise. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Green HRM practices for encouraging pro-environmental behavior among employees: the mediating influence of job satisfaction

  • Research Article
  • Published: 09 September 2023
  • Volume 30 , pages 103620–103639, ( 2023 )

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  • Jing Xie 1 ,
  • Zahra Masood Bhutta 2 ,
  • Di Li 3 &
  • Naima Andleeb 4  

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This study aims to investigate the relationship between green human resource management (HRM) practices and pro-environmental behavior among employees with mediating role of job satisfaction in this relationship. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the employees working in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to examine study hypotheses. The study’s findings indicate that green HRM practices favorably effect employees’ job satisfaction, with the exception of green recruiting and selection, which leads to a greater degree of pro-environmental activity among employees. Additionally, it was discovered that job satisfaction, with the exception of green recruitment and selection, partially mediates the association between green HRM practices and pro-environmental behavior. The study also advances the field of analyzing firms’ green activities from a psychological and sociological perspective, testing employee job satisfaction as a psychological condition that supports the link between green HRM and pro-environmental behavior. The study highlights the importance of green HRM practices in promoting pro-environmental behavior among employees. By aligning HRM procedures with environmental objectives, implementing environmental training, and involving employees in sustainability initiatives, organizations can build a culture of environmental responsibility and encourage sustainable behavior.

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The idea of the original draft belongs to Jing Xie and Di Li. Jing Xie writes the introduction, literature review, and empirical outcomes sections. Zahra Masood Bhutta and Naima Andleeb helped collect and visualize data of observed variables. Jing Xie and Di Li constructed the methodology section in the study. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Xie, ., Bhutta, Z.M., Li, D. et al. Green HRM practices for encouraging pro-environmental behavior among employees: the mediating influence of job satisfaction. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30 , 103620–103639 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29362-3

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