Green HRM Practices, Employee Engagement, and Sustainability Awareness

This assignment provides a theoretical framework for a master's thesis focusing on green human resource management (GHRM) and its impact on employee engagement and sustainability awareness, particularly within the context of the University of Bath. It includes an introduction outlining the research aim and objectives, which are to investigate GHRM practices, assess their impact on employee engagement and loyalty, analyze their role in developing environmental awareness, examine green recruitment and job design, and evaluate green training and development. The literature review explores various themes, including the concept of GHRM, its effect on worker engagement, its importance for sustainability awareness, green recruitment practices, and green training initiatives. The research methodology details the research type, approach, design, philosophy, data collection, sampling, and data analysis methods, with a justification for using quantitative research and a sample questionnaire. Ethical considerations and reliability/validity measures are also addressed, leading to a discussion of findings, recommendations, and a comprehensive list of references.

GREEN HUMAN
RESOURCE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Research aim:...............................................................................................................................3
Research objective:......................................................................................................................3
Research Questions:.....................................................................................................................4
Rationale of the study:.................................................................................................................4
Significance of the study:............................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................5
Theme 1: Understand the green HRM practices and its concept..........................................5
Theme 2: Assess the green HRM effect for maximum worker engagement........................6
Theme 3: Importance of GHRM for developing awareness towards sustainability and
environment................................................................................................................................8
Theme 4: Comprehending the Green recruitment and green job design practice..............9
Theme 5: Green Training and development for employee sustainable conduct................10
CHAPTER 3: RESERCH METHODOLOGY..............................................................................12
Research type:............................................................................................................................12
Research approach:....................................................................................................................13
Research design:........................................................................................................................13
Research philosophy:.................................................................................................................14
Data collection:..........................................................................................................................14
Sampling:...................................................................................................................................15
Data analysis:.............................................................................................................................15
Ethical consideration:................................................................................................................16
Reliability and validity:.............................................................................................................17
CHAPTER: DISCUSSION AND FINDING................................................................................17
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20

CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION
Background
Green human resource management is the recent field of the research which covers each
aspect of the HRM to follow the path of sustainability to reduce the environmental impact that
cause carbon footprints, pollution and other climatic change factors (Zaid, Bon and Jaaron,
2018). Its main purpose is to reconcile the goals of organisation and community without
compromising the business goals. GHRM aims to develop the system that stimulate the green or
environmental behaviours of organisational worker for developing the environmental sensitive
and socially responsible firm (Kastle and et.al 2019). As the growing role of the sustainability
development every organisation is aiming towards to reduce their environmental impact, as
customer in the market looks for the product for which the brand is committed to sustainability
(Jamal and et.al 2021). It also helps in developing the competitive edge that supports the
successful achievement of the goals. GHRM aims to implement the HR practices for creating the
awareness in employees so that they aim to utilise the resources in best manner which reduces
the environmental impact as well as meet the sustainability criteria (Molina-Azorin, and et.al
2021). Green HRM is becoming popular all over the world because of the rise of concern due to
climate change and other dangerous situation which lead to adapt the sustainability to promote
the healthy environment.
This concept is being chosen by many businesses in order to decreases their total cost as it if the
efficient approaching for concerning with the utilisation of the electricity, water and resources. It
leads to accomplish the greater worker employee job satisfaction that helps in focus on
productivity (Almad and Borges, 2018). This research basically aims to discuss the importance
of green HRM and its awareness among the staff to accomplish the green or sustainable
objectives. This study aims to analyse the green HRM practice and its impact in context with
university of bath employees. This research study carries out the research aim, objective for
accomplishing, it also discusses the rationale and significance of study. Furthermore, it
highlights the literature review, research methodologies for completing the study.
Research aim:
To investigate the green HR practices that creates the environment and sustainability
awareness among employees.
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Research objective:
 To understand the green HRM practices concept.
 To assess the impact of green HRM practices for employee engagement and their loyalty
with business.
 To analyse the green HRM approach for developing awareness in employees towards
environment and sustainability.
 To investigate the green HRM recruitment and green job design practices for organisation
 To evaluate the green training and development practice to enhance employee
environmental performance.
 To Recommend strategies to enhance awareness among employees related to GHRM
practices.
Research Questions:
 What is the meaning of green HRM?
 What is the possible effect of GHRM over employee engagement and loyalty?
 What are some GHRM approach for creating awareness in workers for environment and
sustainability?
 What are the concept of green HRM recruitment and job design practice?
 What effect does green T&D practice create on employee environmental performance?
 What are possible strategies that can be used to increase the awareness in workers for
GHRM?
Rationale of the study:
Reason behind conducting study on this topic is to bring the concern about GHRM as how
it is becoming a main demand of the business. It is for developing the understanding about the
topic and its importance to the businesses, as go green is the new slang word for the business to
approach towards the sustainability, as customer in the market look for the product and services
which meets the environmental requirement (Radwan, Gadelrab and Ela, 2021). As GHRM is
important topic for the business because of raising concern of climatic change condition as
increment of carbon footprints in the environment is mainly due to the operational activity of the
businesses (Tanskanen, Mäkelä and Viitala, 2019). Thus it is important for them to move
towards the sustainability and be socially responsible that will help in achieving the desired goals

and objectives. As study topic is to create the awareness of GHRM for employee engagement is
important to the businesses to become socially responsible and to create the environment where
the employees move towards the green goals so it helps in minimising the waste and also guides
in developing the alternative use of the resources so it minimise the pollution risk from
environment.
Hypothesis:
H0= Null hypothesis There is no relationship between the Green HR practices and employee
awareness towards the environmental sustainability
H1= Alternative hypothesis There is a relationship between the Green HR practices and employee
awareness towards the environmental sustainability
It has been analysed from the detail study that is based on the secondary research that
Alternative hypothesis is proved from study. There is a relationship between the GHRM and
employee awareness. Because of these employees are more careful about the waste management
as they part in volunteer work often use paper glass for drinks and also follow the recycle, reuse
culture.
Significance of the study:
GHRM is important concept as it is significant to conduct the study on this topic, as it the
new concept which implies no such research has been done on this topic. Thus this study aims to
help the peers or other scholars who are currently conducting research study on this topic. It will
also help the business to develop and implement the GHRM practices for their better employee
engagement and loyalty (Prasetiyo, Kamarudin and Dewantara, 2019). Sustainability and
environmental system is the new concept which is affecting the operating of any businesses, thus
this study will help in developing the understanding in green concepts. Research project also
aims to help the organisation which is university of bath employees so that they plan to
implement GHRM for better outcomes. Thus study will help in developing the good
understanding about the green HR concept so that it can be used in proper manner for making the
individual responsible and to understand their social responsibility towards sustainability.
Therefore, research is made on understanding the green human resources practices and its effect
on creating the employee environmentally responsible.
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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Understand the green HRM practices and its concept
According to the view of Rizvi and Garg, (2021) GHRM is the set of policies and practices
that helps company’s employees for go green and to make out the best utilisation of the resources
so it can help in achieving the sustainable goals. Increasing concern for the sustainability is the
creation of the modern organisation’ competitive edge for incorporating the ecological practices
in human resource field. As the challenge is raised for the climate it is threatening the whole
world for the resource scarcity or other reason, in such it is important for the businesses to
understand their social responsibility and to move towards the sustainability. In this GHRM the
main practices are selection, HR operation and on boarding experience, as in selection method
HR team analyse the green behaviour of the employees to understand the ecological awareness
of the candidate, they ask for the evidence of sustainability training to recruit such applicants. As
for the on boarding practice which is consider as main practice of the HRM, as to go with
sustainability also means to reduce the overuse of the resources, as GHRM mainly reduce the
paper work now a days CV can be easily transferred through the internet connectivity which is
also a good example for the green HRM practice. HR team already introduce the candidate with
organisational commitment and their sustainable work culture, so that candidate behaves
responsible and show their maximum contribution towards the organisational sustainable goals.
However, author Raj and Verma, (2019) said that because of implementing the green
HRM policies it requires the time, money and determination which helps in providing the better
outcome of such policies. As it is found that no managerial support and lack of knowledge in it
creates a barrier in which team are not assigned with their designated tasks and goals that affects
their working ability. It is also analysed that to move towards the sustainability also requires the
large amount of investment which affects the organisational financial capacity. Author
Chaudhary, (2020) said that Green HRMN helps the businesses to incorporate with the
sustainability as to make their employee aware of their social duty to help the society and to
utilise the resources in a manner, so it supports the sustainable organisational goals. HRM team
plays a significant role in developing the work culture where the sustainability can be easily
found and achievable, as it is found that greater the ability of GHRM then it implies the greater
the intensity for adopting the environmental management system and standards that helps the

business to reduce their environmental impact and often plays a responsible role for the
community. Zaki and Norazman, (2019) proposed As green HRM policy regarding training and
development for the employees, it covers the topic where the management team aims to develop
the knowledge regarding environmental system and train them to conserve the energy and reduce
waste and also to provide the opportunity to the employees to engage in solving the
environmental problems. Compensation is also a important practice of the HRM, thus in context
with the green organisations are adopting the approaches for providing eco-friendly rewarding
facilities for the employees. Although author Shoaib and et.al (2021) stated that compensation
and other rewarding activities are not cost effective and also not fully independent from
malpractices. As creating the monetary incentives is quite challenging because of equally and
fairly analysing the environmental behaviour and performance.
Theme 2: Assess the green HRM effect for maximum worker engagement
As per the view of Shahriari and et.al (2019) Employee engagement is the main demand of
the businesses for the better and profitable result. Thus, if the employee is well known to the
organisational resources then it helps in carrying out any complex task and also supports the easy
sharing of the knowledge that helps in task completion and maintaining the healthy and
supportive environment. As GHRM aims to recruit the candidate who have better approach for
achieving the sustainable values for the businesses, as they hire the candidate who are more
committed to the environment, in such they take out the best use of the available resources and
tries to reduce the waste. In such HRM mainly involves the employees to share their views and
opinions about the sustainability as to share the vision and develop the green team for the better
reach of goals. Although author Farooq and et.al (2022) stated that Most of the business
pressurise their employees to lay out the work in sustainable manner instead of engaging them
with other activities they try to impose on them to reduce the waste. In such they face the highest
turnover of the employees. Author further proposed that lack of interest by the managerial also
cause the hindrance in green HRM as mostly it is the new concept which assures that no one is
that familiar with this term, thus lack of support by employers also affects the employee
productivity and it minimise their interaction or engagement within the company.
Author Motyka, (2018) also said that businesses involves the employees in strategy
planning is the best practice for enhancing the employee engagement as to allow the staff to
formulate and test the green ideas. Author Farooq and et.al (2022) proposed that organisation
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educate their employees about environmental system so that they increase their focus to conserve
the energy and also encourages the staff to use the green transport system to fulfil their
sustainability commitment. Management team encourage the employees to interact and
communicate with the team and to work on sustainable goals, as encouragement boost the staff
morale that helps in responding effectively to the organisational goals. Also to enable the
feedback culture so that employers can easily provide the recommendations and feedbacks that
guides the employees to enhance their knowledge and to efficiently work towards accomplishing
the organisational sustainable goals. Moreover, author Ahmad and et.al (2021) said that
managerial department mainly makes the feedbacks too personal and they critically appraise the
employee performance and often talk in rude manner, that misguides the employee from their
goals. As green HRM aims towards the sustainability in context with this lack of knowledge and
determination negatively impacts over the work place functionalities, therefore in such employee
work productivity suffers the most.
Theme 3: Importance of GHRM for developing awareness towards sustainability and
environment
Author Ercantan and Eyupoglu, (2022) stated that Green and sustainability factor is most
important to address the environmental issues and concern, as because of environmental
pollution there have been lost in many earthly resources as well as it creating the global
warming, climate change and other factors that is big threat for the ecosystem. Main aim of
GHRM is to utilise the HRM policies for creating the sustainable use of the resources within the
organisation which helps in improvising the environmental sustainability. It concentrates on the
employee’s environmental behaviour that results in reduction of wastage and that also be carried
into their personal life as well. Therefore, it is important to have the sustainable workplace where
the work culture and work pattern aims to meet the sustainable goals. However, author Luu,
(2019) said that there is no such study about the sustainable workplace, moreover occupational
safety and health administration act can have proposed that sustainable work place generally
look for keeping the balance between the triple bottom line which is about the planet, humans
and profit for accomplishing the long term return. Thus it implies that workplace cannot be
sustainable until it provides the health and safety to workers. Therefore, author further said that
by implementing the health and safety act at workplace ensures the better security of the
employees it also reflects in their efficient work that helps in meeting the sustainability.

According to the view of Zaid, Bon and Jaaron, (2018) Green training and development
opportunities are best for creating an awareness as it enables the workers to learn and also
practice the environmental secured skills and to be more aware or cautious about the
sustainability issues. Thus all these will help in achieving the environmental goals and
objectives. Author Chams and García-Blandón, (2019) said that training in workplace mainly
helps in creating the awareness, knowledge and skills about the environment, therefore HR team
ensures for conducting such training activities for the employees so that they can learn to reduce
the carbon impact from their operational task and to deliver the services that encompasses the
sustainability factor. It is found that employers encourage the employees for using the
sustainable transportation additionally they also allow employees for remote work. By allowing
the employees into the waste audit and also to encouraging them for the gathering, arranging and
weighing of the trash is also beneficial aspect for making the eco-friendly work place so that it
helps in deploying the sustainable goal oriented work place. However, author Emel and Caliskan,
(2019) said sustainability is not come from implementing the green strategies it is also important
to be adopted at the senior level, thus if employers are not aiming for sustainability then
employees also do not care about such, that is why it is important for adopting environmental
system from top to bottom level and to timely conduct the volunteer work and to involve the
employees in decision making for strategies also helps in creating awareness about
environmental factors.
Theme 4: Comprehending the Green recruitment and green job design practice
As per perspective of Trinh, (2021) hiring the best talent is the main challenge for the
human resource team, firms are now initiating to identifying the fact that having a image of the
green employer is the efficient approach to attract the new talent. It is found that growing
demand for the sustainability it is increasing the green job description in the recruitment agenda
for the employee. Author Jehan and et.al (2020) stated that Green recruitment refers to the
process of hiring the candidate where the interview panel recognises the individual knowledge,
skills, creativity that analysed with the environmental management process in the organisation.
Recruitment practices can cooperate with the efficient environmental management to make sure
that new applicant are very well familiar with the company’s environmental sustainability culture
and also capable of maintaining it by their end. Author Jerónimo and et.al (2020) also said that
green recruitment is basically concern with the importance of environment and developing it an
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important aspect of the organisation. complementing this, recruiter team are also passionate
about their work for eco-friendly workstation. Recruiting applicant with the green mentality
enables the corporate to induct the professional who possess the sustainable awareness and are
familiar with the terms like recycling, conservation, waste and source reduction. On the other
hand, Author Ahmed, AlZgool and Shah, (2019) argued that having a green recruitment system
is somehow impact the financial capacity of the businesses. Initially it requires the great
investment which is like purchasing the new equipment and appliances that usually do not
creates much waste and also not take much energy to run, thus installing such can burden the
financial resource of the organisation. for an instance if the organisation is committed to go green
then for that it is essential to change the infrastructure and to switch to the optimal solution such
as to install the solar panel which mainly costs more, thus for the recruitment process in also
involves the on boarding experience to the consumer which means businesses approach for green
on board also requires a good amount of money investment.
From the view point of Karande and Bihade, (2018) green job design is the part of green
HRM where the job is design with the fact of environmental management, it mainly includes the
different environmental protection regarding tasks, duties that is associated with each job. Author
also said that involving the sustainability dimension as job responsibility in the job description
and simultaneously cooperating with the green competencies comes under the description of
green analysis. James and Derrick, (2020) stated that Now a business is moving forward to
achieve the sustainability in their business by limiting their environmental impact for that they
are also approaching with to add the green protection practice in every job description in order to
hire the candidate who are already aware of such green concept and there is no such required to
waste time and money to organise the training for them. Thus businesses are understanding the
green concept and they are seen as to invest in green strategies to become sustainable, they are
also looking forward to deploy the work culture where the employees are much aware of the
sustainability. Author Moktadir and et.al (2019) said that Green job design is the first approach
to move towards sustainability as to attract the candidate by adding the responsibilities regarding
environment as well, therefore it is the convenient approach to recruit the candidate and provide
them better green on boarding experience so that they understand the organisational
sustainability values and work for it.

Theme 5: Green Training and development for employee sustainable conduct
According to view point of author Bombiak and Marciniuk-Kluska (2018) training and
development is the major aspect to create the environmental awareness among the organisational
culture. As T&D mainly aims to enhance the knowledge of the employee which tends to develop
creativity skills in them to produce the better outcomes for the businesses. Therefore, the rising
concern for the sustainability, businesses are founding requirement of green training to enhance
the knowledge of the staff reading environmental aspect so that they also used to with the terms
like source reduction, waste prevention, recycling that makes the firm to reduce the cost and
achieve the productivity in their every operational task. Hence by providing the education about
the sustainability can helps in changing the behaviour and attitude of the staff so that they will
proceed to manage the environmental system and also it helps them to change their surrounding
as with this knowledge they can easily teach their family members to preserve the resources as to
not waste the water and other things. Author Yong and et.al 2019) said that over all green
training and development is the requirement of green workplaces, further green training staff can
create the green analysis of the work culture and energy efficiency also concerns with the job
rotations to educate the green managers for the better sustainable future and to develop the
sustainable personal skills can be an efficient measure for the green T&D practice.
However, author Khaleeli, Faisal and Anwar, (2021) said that conducting training requires
a lots of resource utilisation as to use the projectors and other equipment which is not
sustainable, also it requires the cost and additional time which results in cause the delays in
delivery of the work. author continues that organising green training requires proper planning
and suitable arrangement of the resources that can be used to educate the trainees about the green
concept. Thus it diverts the concentration from the work which also affects the project
performance as cause the delay and also run time hurry completely affects the project outcomes.
It is also found that organisations also hire the external to educate their employees about the
environmental concept thus it is not convenient as they must have to paid the external which is
not cost effective. Therefore, overall conducting T&D requires the utilisation of resources, time
and money instead organisations now are recruiting the candidate who already have the better
knowledge in environment and sustainability. Author Leidner, Baden and Ashleigh, (2019)
stated that having a green work force helps the businesses in achieving all their sustainable goals
and achievement with this they can easily able to lure the consumer towards their product and
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services. As it is often clears that consumer in the market are more concerning with the
environmental values and they only prefer those businesses who are committed to the
sustainability, therefore businesses are investing on training and other educational program to
completely go green and to meet the requirement of consumers in the market.
Author Gilal and et.al (2019) also argue that organising training and development processes
often gives the benefit but it is also important to add the environmental duties in each job profile,
then only those candidates will apply for the job post. It helps in saving the efforts and time
which is made in screening, and to provide the on boarding experience and trainings for
educating about such concepts. Businesses are adopting this approach to create an awareness
among their work system which ensures their achievement of goals and also ensures to have the
long term return. Author Westerman, Nafee and Westerman, (2021) proposed that approaching
with the T&D also helps in developing better relationship between the organisation and
employees, as for any successful firm it is important that their employees are more engaged with
the company’s resources it helps in increasing the productivity in work which leads to deliver the
efficient outcome for the business. In context with the green environment concept in such it is
important to have the better green rewards and other system which encourage the employee to do
volunteer work and to change their behaviour to adapt the sustainability in their work. Therefore,
for that it is also necessary that employers are also practicing the green approach as to part in the
green activities and set the example for their employees so that they follow to enable the firm to
move towards their sustainable goals.
CHAPTER 3: RESERCH METHODOLOGY
Research type:
Research refer as the systematic investigation on the study and sources for drawing the
new conclusion. It can be done in distinct ways which are qualitative and quantitative and mixed
research type. Where qualitative research does not involve the numeric terms and figures data are
collected from the open source communication, data surveys, questionnaires, interviews, this
type of research mainly avoid the use of positivism method and often prefers the interpretive
sociology (Luu, 2020). On the other hand, quantitative research involves the numeric data, it is
the effective process of analysing the numerical data and can be used for making the prediction
and to test the regular relationship and generalise the outcomes to the huge population. it mainly