The soft side of environmentally-sustainable organizations

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to present a discussion on the "soft and human" side of building environmentally sustainable organizations, a flourishing management subfield called "green human resource management" (GHRM), which concerns alignment of people and environmental management objectives of organizations. Design/methodology/approach: The authors reviewed some of the most relevant research results in GHRM. Findings: In this paper, the authors define GHRM, its workplace-based practices and some recent developments' evidence on the positive impact of it on firms’ ecological objectives. The authors conclude by detailing a new research agenda in GHRM. Originality/value: The authors conclude by detailing a new and contemporary research agenda in GHRM

Contemporary trends in Brazilian human resource management studies over the last decade (2001–2010)

In seeking to detail what is new in the lesser-known field of Brazilian Human Resource Management (HRM) research, this study analyzes 136 recent Brazilian HRM articles over the last decade from 2001 until 2010. Findings reveal that contemporary Brazilian HRM research contains: a wide range of HRM topics; the isomorphic use of some Western HRM themes; and case-based, descriptive methodologies using non-probability sampling. While the number of recently published Brazilian HRM studies has increased, such research seems ripe for further empirical and theoretical development. Our contributions to knowledge lie in: surfacing and classifying recent Brazilian HRM research trends and identifying potentially fruitful areas for future research. Implications for practitioners include the need to attract and retain expert staff, to use more localized pay and reward systems, and to assess the usefulness of HR interventions in the public sector

'Too-much-of-a-good-thing'? The role of advanced eco-learning and contingency factors on the relationship between corporate environmental and financial performance

Inspired by the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) theory, we attempt to shed light on a controversy which has been persistent over the last decade, concerning the relationship between corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Using the 'too-much-of-a-good-thing' (TMGT) concept, which suggests that "too much can be worse than too little," we link mixed results and consider the roles of advanced eco-learning and contingency factors in influencing the CEP-CFP relationship. Based on a sample composed of ISO 14001 certified companies in Indonesia, and analyzing the data using consistent Partial Least Squares (PLSc), we found that: the CEP-CFP relationship follows an inverted U-shape; advanced eco-learning is a significant predictor of the CEP-CFP relationship, meaning that organizations able to develop higher eco-learning capability will be better able to identify the ideal boundaries of investment in environmental performance without reducing their financial performance; and that contingency factors such as environmental strategy and firm size have a significant role in influencing the CEP-CFP relationship. The study's limitations, implications for practitioners and a future research agenda are also detailed

Who is in charge? A review and a research agenda on the 'human side' of the circular economy

The adoption of the circular economy (CE) at the firm level has rarely intersected with human resource management (HRM) – here called 'the human side of organizations' – and these two fields remain largely separate areas of knowledge. While the literature on the CE is expanding, discussion of its implementation in organizations is, so far, rare, along with exploration of the necessary alignment of the CE with green human resource management (GHRM). In this article, we extend the state-of-the-art literature on CE business models through the inclusion of the ‘human side’ of such issues. This goal is met by offering an original integrative GHRM framework for organizations developing CE. The theoretical lenses of stakeholders' theory and the resource based view (RBV) form the foundation of this framework, which represents a 'middle range theory'. We underline the practices and dimensions of the links between GHRM and the 'ReSOLVE' CE model. Through an exploration of this integrative framework, we propose a future research agenda along with original research propositions. Furthermore, the middle-range integrated theoretical framework we propose can serve both academics and practitioners in developing understanding of the human resource management (HRM) and change management aspects of the CE