In HRM literature, it is common to find that most HRM practices are shaped by strategic and economic aspirations of organizations to maximize profit [
2,
3]. This concept, which supports the managerial view of HRM practices and primarily aims at improving the economic performance of the company, is assumed to be the mainstream view of HRM [
2,
3]. While corporations need to be profitable in order to ensure their existence; they cannot be interested in profits only when trying to reach Corporate Sustainability [
4]. Organizations should be managed in the interest of more stakeholders than just the shareholder’s [
5,
6,
7,
8,
9]. Sustainable HRM, by relating to multiple stakeholders, seems to bring the people and respect for humanity back to human resource management [
10] and widen the future HR perspective by including both internal and external stakeholders as well as more employee-oriented thinking [
11,
12]. Business should be conscientious not to exploit the most important asset of the company for the sole purpose of profit [
13] (p. 132).
1.1. Corporate Sustainability
The concept of CS is related to the broader concept of sustainable development, which has been defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” [
14] (p. 43). Therefore, sustainability transported to the business level is referred to as Corporate Sustainability [
15].
In reference to the concept of sustainable development (SD), Corporate Sustainability can be defined as meeting the needs of a firm’s direct and indirect stakeholders without compromising its ability to meet the needs of future stakeholders as well [
15]. At the organizational level, this concept of SD has been translated to CS, which “entails the preservation, regeneration, and development of the ecological, economic and social resources of a system” [
16] (p. 84). As such, CS can be considered as the process of organizational change, i.e., sustainability driven change. The purpose of this change is to move the organization to the state in which equally distributed attention to economic, social, and environmental concerns is incorporated into its strategy. Ultimately, sustainability-driven change has the purpose of transforming an organization into an active agent for sustainable development [
17]. Subject literature has recognized the central role of facilitating and supporting such change played by the HRM system. Therefore, companies engaging in the development of their CS at some point also invest in the development of a more Sustainable HRM.
There is a number of reasons why CS is closely related to Human Resource Management. HR could guide the organization’s leaders in the incorporation of sustainability in its strategy and help the realization of Corporate Sustainability-goals [
18,
19,
20]. Sustainable HRM is seen as ‘the’ opportunity for HR to prove its own legitimacy and strategic position. Ehnert [
19] regards sustainability as having a strategic potential for HRM.
1.2. Sustainable Management of Human Resources
Human Resource Management is an area which witnesses a constant evolution and change. The rationale behind relating the concept of human resource management with environmental issues is that it leads to sustainability and has become a new paradigm in this field [
21]. Moreover, the organization’s department of human resources plays a significant role in creating a culture of sustainable development for the enterprises [
22].
The concept of Sustainable HRM is the result of linking the concept of sustainable development with human resource management in an organization.
Sustainable HRM entails taking into account the economic as well as the social and ecological aspects of company objectives while implementing the human resource function. It is believed that “HRM is the best placed to provide leadership and drive innovation to influence individuals, groups, and all organizational actors toward embracing more sustainable attitudes and behaviors” [
23] (p. 813). According to Ehnert and Harry “HRM could play a vital role in implementing a sustainability mindset in business organizations” [
24] (p. 236). This turns out to be a “survival strategy” for organizations dependent on high quality employees. Therefore, it is logical for organizations to apply Sustainable HRM, as it allows them to take care of what the companies should sustain. Additionally, Sustainable HRM allows for implementing a manner in which it will do so without compromising the needs of future generations of the company employees [
13] (p. 136).
According to I. Ehnert [
19] sustainable management of human resources means undertaking such activities that enable achieving the organization’s goals in the long term and demonstrate care for the employees at the same time. R. Kramar extends this definition by adding the element of minimizing the negative impact of the company’s activities on the natural environment, employees, and the community [
25]. The author emphasizes the role of all employees of the organization in this process.
In Poland, the definition of Sustainable HRM was presented by A. Pabian, who claims “the essence of this concept is planning and recruiting employees and affecting them in such a way that they achieve economic, ecological and social goals in the enterprise, thus contributing to balancing inter-generational needs” [
26] (pp. 8–9).
Until recently, it was considered that Sustainable HRM as a concept was still undefined and has not yet received much attention from scholars [
27,
28,
29,
30,
31]. Despite the increasingly important role management plays, “the history of research on Sustainable HRM is still at the pioneering if not emerging phase. It is only in the past decade that we observe an increase in publications on sustainability and HRM (...)” [
24] (p. 225). However, in recent years there has been an increased interest in Sustainable HRM. The evidence of scholarly and academic interest in Corporate Sustainability and Human Resource Management are: The edited volume by Ehnert et al., together with the special issues in journals such as Human Resource Management 51 (6), Personnel Psychology 67 (4), Journal of Organizational Behavior 34 (2), Organization 20 (3), and Management Review 23 (3), have devoted attention to Corporate Sustainability and HRM [
17].
The issues raised in the research on Sustainable HRM focus on the question of whether the concept of sustainable human resource management is important in achieving sustainable development of an enterprise [
32] (p. 91). The results of this study have shown that enterprises in the West Pomeranian Province, Poland, actually use the concept of the sustainable management of human resources in business management to achieve sustainable development.
Other issues undertaken in the research concern the implementation of Sustainable HRM in a SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) context in Lithuania. The results of the research (case study) showed that despite the fact that the company’s owner tried to implement some Sustainable HRM practices that were mainly related to work-life balance and health management issues, these practices were not sufficient and did not solve crucial problems such as job burnouts, lack of expertise, retention of employees, limited career development, and weak leadership, which are the issues that many authors distinguish as challenges that stop SMEs form achieving a better performance in the long run [
33].
Noteworthy at this point is also a study conducted in Finnish companies on how Finnish top managers actually construct the meaning of Sustainable HRM. According to the results of the research, Sustainable HRM is organized into four (interconnected) main dimensions: Justice and equality, transparent HR practices, profitability, and employee well-being. The analysis also reveals how these dimensions are linked to different stakeholder groups. Thus, Sustainable HRM seems to bring the people and respect for humanity back to the human resource management and widen the future HR perspective to include both internal and external stakeholders. It also embraces more employee-oriented thinking in organizations, turning the leadership in a more responsible direction [
34].
Results of the literature review indicate that Sustainable Human Resource Management plays a significant and positive role in achieving organizational outcomes. Moreover, via the strength of the HRM system, it exerts an additional impact upon employees and external stakeholders [
35].
Sustainable HRM practices enhance profit maximization for the organization and at the same time reduce the negative harmful influence on employees, their families, and communities [
36]. The beneficial role of Sustainable HRM varies therefore with regards to the organization, the employees, and the society.
The positive influence Sustainable HRM has on the organization can be observed in the growth of the overall value of the organization’s worth [
37,
38,
39,
40], as well as in the increase of national and international competitiveness [
41]. Those improved results can be attributed to the impact Sustainable HRM has on the employees. It can be observed that Sustainable HRM leads to improved employee engagement [
42], increased employee satisfaction, and therefore higher organizational loyalty [
43], HR quality boost [
44], motivation growth [
40,
44], employee development, and enhanced work efficiency [
40].
Sustainable HRM is beneficial for the organization and for the employees, but it also positively affects other stakeholder groups. The general effect Sustainable HRM has on the society as a whole can be characterized as a contribution to the activities of the societies. Sustainable HRM incorporates activities directed towards improving communities and neighbourhoods. Additionally, it allows creating sustainable career pathways for the younger generations to become transitional on the job market and secure a better future [
45].
Sustainable HRM is at times considered a new humanistic paradigm in management, which, although sometimes recognized as an alternative to the economic one, does not separate itself from the necessity of generating profit by an enterprise [
5,
21,
32].
The direct effect of implementing the concept of Sustainable HRM is shaping sustainable human resources, i.e., highly qualified employees who understand and apply the principles of sustainable development in their work. This concept includes both: Managers setting directions at all levels of the company, as well as employees employed in non-managerial positions [
20,
46].
Sustainable Human Resource Management is assigned numerous functions in an organization. E. Cohen, S. Taylor, and M. Muller-Camen [
47] claim that it:
Supports the organization’s sustainable development strategy;
emphasizes fair treatment, development, and the well-being of employees;
contributes to building the skills, value, and trust of employees and increases their engagement in sustainable development;
focuses on the well-being of the internal (employees) and external (all entities interested in the functioning of the organization) stakeholders; and
supports environmentally-friendly organizational practices.
1.3. Sustainable Management Research Model
One of the first attempts to capture the complexity of the concept of Sustainable Human Resource Management is the holistic model by Peggy De Prins. According to De Prins [
19], Sustainable HRM focuses on the optimal use and respect of human capital in the organization in which the clear relationship between the organization’s strategic policies and the environment in which it operates is built. The model assumes four aspects of Sustainable HRM [
48] (pp. 15–17): Sociological, psychological, ecological, and strategic. On the basis of the De Prins model and the Sustainable HRM aspects included in it, a research model was built that indicates the double role of HR departments, consisting in carrying out activities in the area of the three mentioned aspects and introducing them into the company’s strategy. This model is the basis in the study.
The Sustainable HRM framework, including all of those aspects, is depicted in the figure below and developed next.
The psychological perspective focuses on the employee and, in particular, on what one deems important. If assumed that people play a key role in creating a lasting competitive advantage, then the knowledge about and promoting of what motivates them to work should be of significant importance for the organization [
18]. An important role in this aspect of Sustainable HRM is played by: Work–life balance, autonomy, self-development, and a balanced career. An example of the latter will be used to study the psychological aspect of Sustainable HRM. A balanced career is different from the traditional career path, as 20th century enterprises mostly applied the economic paradigm in management.
The new career model, based on the idea of careers as actions, as means of learning, and as boundary-less entities, has replaced the prior model of careers as structures, as means of earning, and as constrained entities. This new concept of career has gained the name of a balanced career. Its source lies in the more commonly used concept of human sustainability.
An exemplary definition was provided by Carl Holling, who defined human sustainability as:” the capacity to create, test and maintain adaptive capability” [
49] (p. 390). Holling’s definition is related to the operationalization of the concept of employability by Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden and reads:” The capacity of continuously fulfilling, acquiring or creating of work through the optimal use of competences” [
50] (p. 453). The latter suggests an important responsibility of the individual employee in creating, testing, and maintaining his or her own work capacity or ability. On a similar note, Oldham and Hackman [
51] stressed the increasing importance of personal initiative of workers to successfully progress or adjust one’s work capacity or ability across time by shaping or customizing their jobs in order to protect their sustainability at work (for example, via job crafting) [
52].
In the view of the above, the concept of sustainable careers could be perceived as ‘sequences of job opportunities that go beyond the boundaries of single employment settings’ [
53].
The sociological approach aims to make HRM activities more of a social practice. The interests and commitment of the three elements—the employee, the employer, and the society—are closely related in this perspective. Issues such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or social issues such as employee diversity, age, gender, nationality or ethnicity, disability, etc. are of great importance in this approach.
Socially responsible human resource management manifests itself in the treatment of employees as important stakeholders of the enterprise [
54]. Diversity management will be used to study the social aspect of Sustainable HRM.
Diversity is often defined as any significant difference that distinguishes one individual from another—a description that encompasses a broad range of overt and hidden qualities. Researchers classify diversity characteristics into four areas:
Personality (traits, skills and abilities),
internal (gender, race, ethnicity, IQ, sexual orientation),
external (culture, nationality, religion, marital or parental status), and
organizational (position, department, union/non-union) [
54].
Organizational policies formulated to manage diversity aim to implement initiatives, activities, and practices that recognize, promote, or encourage the differences between groups or people. These elements are seen as positive values that warrant development to achieve social integration, which can also boost productivity of the company and support the democratization of access to opportunities [
55].
Diversity means the dissimilarity, variety, and individuality that emerges from various differences between people. Diversity of individual abilities, experiences, competencies, and qualifications of human resources contributes to the success factor in organizations, which enables entrepreneurial strategies of increasing flexibility and continuous learning. Managing Diversity is more than a scheme. It is an attitude and a new understanding of how enterprises function and how to manage human resources in a sustainable way. Creating and applying effective diversity management concepts is one of the main challenges in modern organizations [
56].
Human resource management involves planning, integration, and actions to achieve effective management of all employees. Diversity can be included in the set of human management practices, guaranteeing an alignment between the strategies of human resources and diversity management goals.
The ecological perspective concerns those aspects of HRM that can help make an organization “greener” (environmentally-friendly). This includes activities such as employee training in sustainable development or stimulation of pro-environmental behaviours that create employee competences. The wide spectrum of the definition of “green” HRM is shown in
Table 1.
Employees, employers, customers, and regulatory stakeholders can be stimulants of green HRM.
The literature also indicates three strategies used by employers to stimulate green behaviour [
61]. They are as follows:
Mobilizing employees to implement sustainability in basic operations and at every stage and level of their business;
holding employees accountable for applying sustainable practices in their work and encouraging them to further such practices in pay incentives;
equipping employees with tools and training them to develop for further improvements.
The authors focusing on the issue of “green” HRM point to a number of ecological practices that can be applied in the area of human resource management at all individual stages of the human resource process [
62] as:
Including tasks related to environmental protection in job descriptions,
taking into account green competences as a component of the requirements profile at each workplace,
preference in the recruitment and selection process of candidates with competences and experience in implementing ecological projects,
encouraging the development of “green” competences and offering environmental training for employees and managers,
inclusion of ecological criteria in the periodic assessment of employees,
sharing knowledge in relation to environmental initiatives and programs and rewarding for their implementation, and
encouraging ecological behaviour during the performance of professional tasks (i.e., limiting the use of paper in the office, waste segregation).
An element of green HRM is also creating a green workplace called “green collars”. These are positions that help reduce the negative impact on the natural environment by improving the ecological quality of products, services, and technological processes [
61].
Green HR practices should be implemented in a precisely planned HR strategy as part of the overall strategy concept. It is also important to study the company’s strategy and culture, because they determine the effectiveness and efficiency of green HRM.
The strategic perspective of Sustainable HRM, explores the links between sustainable and strategic HRM. This approach highlights the impact that sustainable HRM has on traditional HR spheres, such as recruitment and selection, employee rotation, aspects of evaluation, and employment opportunities within the organization. The task of HR is to achieve organizational goals that not only bring monetary benefits [
19]. The main assumptions of this approach are the belief that people create a lasting competitive advantage and that achieving it enables sustainable management of human resources. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that related policies are still under review and analysis.
The Human Resource Planning Society defines five key knowledge areas for HR practitioners [
22]:
HR strategy and planning,
leadership development,
talent management,
organizational effectiveness, and
building a strategic HR function.
Losey et al. [
63] described numerous opportunities in the realm of sustainability for HR to bring important operational competencies and to exert strategic leadership.
The model presented in
Figure 1 will be verified in an empirical study relating to enterprises in Podlasie. To this end, the main hypothesis was formulated and adopted. It reads as follows: In enterprises operating in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, there is a relationship between the use of sustainable development practices by HR departments and their introduction to the company’s development strategy. The main hypothesis will be verified in a following empirical study.