Sustainability in People Management

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is not a new subject. Both society and business are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of a sustainable development “that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 8). Business performance now includes concerns for a triple bottom line: economic, environmental, and social. However, managers still need to comprehend how to deal with these challenges of achieving a triple balance (Clarke and Clegg, 2000).

Human resource management also plays an important role in searching for this triple balance. The sustainability debate involves challenges and changes in many organizational domains, which are impossible to achieve without the development of the necessary technical and administrative skills, as well as values and attitudes with a clear focus in long‐term direction (Dunphy et al., 2000). The Respect–Openness–Continuity model (ROC) deals with a number of issues that organizations should consider when pursuing sustainable HRM (De Prins et al. 2014). Respect for different stakeholders is a basic assumption, and the internal stakeholder, the employee, is often overlooked, as opposed to what happens to other, external stakeholders (Brunton. Openness or environmental awareness is in line with an outside-in perspective on HRM. Continuity is a long-term approach, both in terms of economic and societal sustainability terms and with regard to individual employability. Employees at all levels need to be equipped with the skills to not only nurture innovation and manage risk but also transform the economic systems within which they operate and deliver on broader societal goals in a responsible and sustainable way.

Therefore, sustainability in people management goes beyond HRM policies and practices, by including a broad and critical perspective of leading people in a responsible and ethical way. A primary prevention perspective involves the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development (Di Fabio, 2017). Achieving quality of life and wellbeing are sustainability goals as they allow positive organizational contexts which are key to mobilizing energy, coping with challenges, and innovation and sustainable development.

Furthermore, institutional and stakeholder theories may help to revisit the strategic fit and to search for a focus on long-term employment relations and performance (De Prins et al., 2014).

The overall focus of this Special Issue is on Sustainability and Human Resource Management (HRM) policies and practices. More specifically, the goal is to debate sustainable HRM as a new approach to managing people that goes beyond the traditional approach to strategic human resource management (SHRM). According to some authors (e.g., Ehnert, 2008; Kramar, 2014), by adopting a sustainable approach to HRM, we are not only concerned with the outcomes of managing an individual or a group within an organization. We are also focusing on health and wellbeing work contexts as primary levers for sustainable development (Di Fabio, 2017). Above all else, we are also attentive to the impacts of HRM policies and practices on groups of people and the relationship between multiple stakeholders within the wider community (e.g., social outcomes).

Relevant avenues for research concern the identification of the socioeconomic and strategic context in which sustainable HRM prospers best. For example, interesting research issues could involve identifying ways of advocating or excluding sustainable HRM strategies with cost-cutting or restructuring strategies.

Researchers could consider the extent to which organizations develop integrated or ad hoc approaches to the three dimensions of the ROC model and the roles played by vertical, horizontal, transactional, and transformational themes, practices, and processes within these approaches.

The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development is seen as a primary prevention perspective that can foster wellbeing in organizations at all the different levels going from the worker, to the group, to the organization, and also to interorganizational processes.

References:

• Brunton, M., Eweje, G., & Taskin, N. (2017). Communicating corporate social responsibility to internal stakeholders: Walking the walk or just talking the talk?. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(1), 31-48.
• De Prins, P., Stuer, D., & Gielens, T. (2018). Revitalizing social dialogue in the workplace: the impact of a cooperative industrial relations climate and sustainable HR practices on reducing employee harm. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-21.
• De Prins, P., Van Beirendonck, L., De Vos, A., & Segers, J. (2014). Sustainable HRM: Bridging theory and practice through the'Respect Openness Continuity (ROC)'-model. Management revue, 263-284.
• Di Fabio, A. (2017). The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development for well-being in organizations. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1534.
• Dunphy, D., Beneveniste, J., Griffiths, A. and Sutton, P. (2000) (Eds), Sustainability: The Corporate Challenge of the 21st Century, Allen Unwin, Sydney.
• Ehnert, I (2008). Sustainable Human Resource Management: A Conceptual and Exploratory Analysis from a Paradox Perspective. Berlin: Physica-Verlag/Springer.
• Kramar, R. (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: Is sustainable human resource management the next approach? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1069-1089, DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2013.816863
• Manuti, A., & Giancaspro, M. L. (2019). People make the difference: An explorative study on the relationship between organizational practices, employees’ resources, and organizational behavior enhancing the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development. Sustainability, 11(5), 1499.
• Sun, Y., Wang, T., & Gu, X. (2019). A Sustainable Development Perspective on Cooperative Culture, Knowledge Flow, and Innovation Network Governance Performance. Sustainability, 11(21), 6126.
• Wilkinson, A., Hill, M., & Gollan, P. (2001). The sustainability debate. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 21 (12), 1492 -1502.
• World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Prof. Teresa Proença
Dr. Gina Gaio Santos
Dr. Filomena Jordão
Guest Editors

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