Special Issue "Impact of Industry 4.0 Drivers on the Performance of the Service Sector: Human Resources Management Perspective"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2023.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Adnan ul Haque
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Business and Management, Yorkville University, Toronto, ON L4K 4N1, Canada
Interests: organizational behaviour; human resources management; Industry 4.0; knowledge hiding; occupational stress; supply chain management; innovative work behaviour; leadership styles
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue offers deeper insight into Industry 4.0 drivers on the performance of the service sector, from the lens of human resources management. The aim is to encourage authors and readers to discuss and question the existing trends in human resources management and its linkage to Industry 4.0 drivers and sustainable operations.

Human resources management contains 5 M’s (men, money, material, machinery, and manpower planning). However, how these five M’s are used to attain sustainable operations in the service sector using Industry 4.0 drivers is still not clearly visible from the existing body of knowledge.

The context, complexities, and connectedness encompassing the theories and practices related to various application domains within the social sciences especially related to Human resources management practices remain the focus of this Special Issue. The scope includes more practical solutions to services sector businesses facing issues of ethical human resources management practices and sustainable operations in the era of Industry 4.0.

With the rapid changes in the environment, there is continuous flux creating HR-related challenges and questions around employability. This intensifies competition, which further questions the approaches of human resources management to retaining psychological capital while not compromising on sustainability attributes within the service sector opting for Industry 4.0 drivers. A volatile environment is forcing HR practices to become more responsive and ethical in daily operations so that sustainability can be achieved.

This Special Issue covers the wide range of human resources management theories and practices under the sustainability umbrella, examining the relationship within the service sector opting for Industry 4.0 drivers. Theoretical and practical developments related to existing studies revised, revisited, and further exploring modernized methods are invited to fill the gap in existing HRM, Industry 4.0 drivers, and related knowledge by recommending sustainable approaches.

The existing literature has focused on the general notion of linkage between Industry 4.0 drivers and sustainable performance; however, it is still understudied from the lens of human resources management practices. Furthermore, there is little evidence regarding the causes and consequences of knowledge hiding affecting HRM practices and sustainable operations in the times of Industry 4.0 drives operating at a greater extent. There is still no conclusive evidence from a multinational perspective to find the most appropriate methods of improving sustainable operations from the lens of HRM.

The objective of this Special Issue is to promote path-breaking research on impact performance, optimized sustainable operations, human capital, and use of knowledge at the workplace in the service sector, perhaps dealing with various stressors and personal challenges to formulate a new body of knowledge to assist businesses, academics, practitioners, leaders, and top management in the creation of sustainable organizations.

Prof. Dr. Adnan ul Haque
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Industry 4.0
  • sustainable operations
  • performance of service sector
  • human resources management
  • knowledge hiding
  • occupations stress
  • decision-making
  • sustainable operational needs
  • strategic and tactical operations
  • drivers of Industry 4.0
  • case studies

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
Exploring Challenges and Solutions in Performing Employee Ecological Behaviour for a Sustainable Workplace
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9665; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179665 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Viewed by 160
Abstract
Organisations are a fundamental part of challenges and solutions to climate change issues. Therefore, the micro and macro factors influencing employee ecological behaviour (EEB) are a rising interest among researchers. The contemporary concept of EEB has been embraced by many organisations and attracted [...] Read more.
Organisations are a fundamental part of challenges and solutions to climate change issues. Therefore, the micro and macro factors influencing employee ecological behaviour (EEB) are a rising interest among researchers. The contemporary concept of EEB has been embraced by many organisations and attracted scholars’ attention worldwide. Nevertheless, studies that explored challenges and solutions for performing EEB at the workplace are scarce. This study explored challenges and solutions in performing EEB at the workplace and focused on qualitative research methodology. The researchers interviewed 24 academicians from five leading green research Malaysian universities. Valuable qualitative data and numerous challenges such as high costs of practising, lack of infrastructure, top management support, environmental attitude, green mindfulness, enforcement, and monitoring were identified as challenges in applying EEB from the interviews. Stringent rules and regulations, monitoring, training programmes, and monetary incentives might be efficient solutions to apply ecological behaviour at workplaces, specifically universities. In conclusion, this study has discovered the challenges and solutions in implementing EEB for a sustainable workplace by interviewing academicians from different departments of selected Malaysian higher educational institutes. Also, poor infrastructure, high cost, and the lack of top management support, environmental attitude, green mindfulness, enforcement, and monitoring were identified as the primary challenges in performing EEB. Additionally, the research also discovered significant suggestions to resolve the challenges when implementing EEB at the workplace, such as strict rules and regulations, training programmes, incentives, monitoring, and communicating change and campaigns. Therefore, the stakeholders related to the industry should be concerned with the challenges identified when applying EEB at the workplace to apply the solutions generated from the study. Full article
Back to TopTop