Leveraging green HRM for firm performance: The joint effects of CEO environmental belief and external pollution severity and the mediating role of employee environmental commitment

  • Shuang Ren
  • , Kaifeng Jiang
  • , Guiyao Tang*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

142 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The topic of green human resource management (HRM) has drawn increasing attention of HRM scholars in the past decade. Recent research has called for more studies to identify the antecedents of green HRM used in organizations and explore the mediating mechanisms through which green HRM is related to performance outcomes. This study represents an effort to address these research needs by examining the joint effects of chief executive officer (CEO) environmental belief and external pollution severity on the use of green HRM and testing the mediating role of employee environmental commitment in the relationship between green HRM and firm performance. Drawing upon data collected from multiple sources (i.e., survey data from chief executive officer (CEOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), HR managers and employees, and archival data from government statistics), we found that CEO's environmental belief is significantly related to the use of green HRM, especially for companies operating in locations with severer pollution. Green HRM in turn has a positive relationship with the firm's environmental and financial performances via employee commitment to the environment. The findings highlight the often-overlooked role of in the strategic HRM literature pertinent to environmental management and clarify the antecedents and influential mechanisms of green HRM at the firm level of analysis. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications in this study.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)75-90
Number of pages16
JournalHuman Resource Management
Volume61
Issue number1
Early online date12 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Applied Psychology
  • Strategy and Management
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Leveraging green HRM for firm performance: The joint effects of CEO environmental belief and external pollution severity and the mediating role of employee environmental commitment'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this