Sustainable Human Resource Management: December 2017
Sustainable Human Resource Management: December 2017
Sustainable Human Resource Management: December 2017
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Introduction:
The ever changing business world has confronted new challenges in operating activities
andbusiness organizationsrecognize that addressing sustainability issues delivers
benefits to society, the environment, and to the companies themselves, through
reduced costs and risks of doing business, increased brand reputation, increased
attractiveness to talent or increased competitiveness (UN Global Compact &Accenture,
2013). Many companies have started to manage the“triple bottom line of sustainability”
by seeking to simultaneously create economic, ecological and social valuein order to
ensure sustainability (Elkington 1994; Slaper and Hall 2011).The sustainability concept
has become a widespread idea and many organizations have included sustainability as
one of the key drivers of their business model. It is a process in which a business
manages its components and activities in such a way that the people, economy and the
environment is getting benefitted and by implementing such a business model ensures
the positive contribution to an organization to the environment, society and economy.
Human resource can play a critical role in an organization’s ability to build and sustain
competitive advantage (Wirtenberg et al 2007). The Human Resource Planning Society
defines five key knowledge areas for HR practitioners: HR strategy & planning,
leadership development, talent management, organizational effectiveness, and building
a strategic HR function (Wirtenberg et al 2007). Losey and colleagues (2005) saw many
opportunities in the realm of sustainability for HR to bring important operational
competencies and exert strategic leadership. Hitchcock and Willard (2006) took the
view that “Sustainability is at its core an issue requiring organizational change and
1
Assistant Profesor, Department of Business Administration, Manarat International University,
armaan.sm@gmail.com
Proceedings of 15thAsian Business Research Conference
22-23 December 2017, BIAM Foundation, 63 Eskaton, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISBN: 978-1-925488-59-3
cultural change.” Areas in which they saw HR professionals as potentially making a
strong contribution were in organization development, especially for their facilitation and
conflict management skills, change management, culture change, and alignment of
human resource and other systems and processes (Wirtenberg et al 2007). According
to Prins et al (2014), research in the area of Sustainable HRM is in emerging phase and
generating concepts on how sustainability can be used constructively for HRM, as well
as with regard to methods for use in practice.Sustainable HRM is thus considered a
field of research in order to develop concepts and ideas to establish sustainable
business establishments and operations.As a member of the UN, Bangladesh is also
considering for formulating and implementing strategies in implementing SDGs and in
line with this compliance, Bangladeshi business organizations, both local and foreign,
also think about sustainable practices in business.So, the study on sustainable HRM
and to investigate its impact in the day to day business operations is pragmatic.
Before this study, no prior studies have been found in sustainable HRM in Bangladeshi
context. Thus, this research could be a primary task in this area in Bangladeshi
context.Theresearch question of the study was to find out the actual impact of
sustainable HRM practices in the organizational performance. On the basis of the
research question, the objective of the studywas to assessthe extent of sustainable
HRM practices in Bangladeshi organizations on various factors or instruments of HRM
and its actual impact on the overall organizational performance by administering the
survey questionnaire and numerous quantitative analysis tools. This study focused on
the specific sustainable practices in various dimensions and its positive impact in the
organizational performance. The study conducted on the basis of this research question
and the research objective derived from it.
Literature Review:
The term “sustainability” can be used in different aspects which is concerned with
“meeting the needs of people today without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”(World Business Council for Sustainable
Development, 2005).Sustainability and sustainable development are synonymously
used for the notions ‘long-term’, ‘durable’, ‘sound’, and ‘systematic’ (Filho, 2000). Dyllick
and Hockerts (2002) noted that, the term ‘sustainability’ has been influenced mainly by
three different stakeholder groups; ecologists, business strategy scholars, and the
United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987),
called the ‘Brundtland Commission’. Some authors believe sustainability first appeared
as a concept in the forestry sector, before it was adapted by the ecological movement
concerned with the over-exploitation of natural and environmental resources (Leal Filho,
2000),. While ecologists focus on sustainability’s ecological dimension – the protection
of the natural environment – the traditional goal of business strategy scholars is
economic sustainability of organizations (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002). From a business
perspective, sustainability has been defined as a “company’s ability to achieve its
business goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic,
Proceedings of 15thAsian Business Research Conference
22-23 December 2017, BIAM Foundation, 63 Eskaton, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISBN: 978-1-925488-59-3
environmental and social opportunities into its business strategies” (Symposium on
Sustainability, 2001, Wirtenberg et al 2007). Evidence is accumulating rapidly that
corporate social-environmental performance may be strongly associated with financial
and marketplace success (Cusack, 2005; Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, 2006;
Wirtenberg et al 2007), and that the investment community and corporate people
appear to be focused increasingly on the degree to which firms are managed with the
compliance of sustainability (Dixon, 2003). The approach of triple bottom line in
sustainability focuses on both the external influences of an organization and the internal
influences as well. It also views sustainability in terms of short- and longer-term impacts
on a variety of stakeholders in a particular organization.
According to Kramar (2014), sustainable HRM refers to social and human outcomes
which contribute to the continuation of the organization in the long term, that is to a
sustainable organization. It has also been used to refer to HRM activities which
enhance positive environmental outcomes, and positive social and human outcomes for
their own sake, rather than just asmediating factors between financial outcomes and
strategy. Kramer (2014) mentioned some interchangeable terms of sustainable HRM
which include sustainable work systems (SWSs; Docherty et al 2002), HR sustainability
(Wirtenberg, et al 2007), sustainable management of HRs (Ehnert2006, 2009, 2011,
2012), sustainable leadership (Avery 2005; Avery and Bergsteiner2010) and
sustainable HRM (Marriappanadar 2003; 2012). In addition, the term sustainable
organization (Dunphy et al. 2007) has been used. Althoughthese terms differ in the
extent to which they attempt to reconcile the goals of economic competitiveness,
positive human/social outcomes and ecological outcomes, they are all concerned with
acknowledging either explicitly or implicitly human and social outcomes of the
organization, that is, the triple bottom line. Ehnert (2006; 2012) noted that, the
Sustainable Management perspective explores “what companies themselves have to do
with their environments to have durable access to skilled human resources (Sustainable
HRM)”. Her suggestions are twofold. One is, organizations should reduce negative side
effects of practices and strategies on the sources for resources. Another is,
organizations should ensure the survival of those sources for resources which provide
human resources with the skills and motivation required. In other words, sustainable
HRM is economically rational for companies to invest in the survival of their sources for
resources if the functioning of these is endangered (Ehnert 2006).Sustainable HRM is a
long-term oriented conceptual approaches and activities aimed at a socially responsible
and economically appropriate recruitment and selection, development, deployment, and
release of employees.” (Zaugg& Thom, 2004: 217). Sustainable HRM is interpreted as a
cross-functional task (Ehnert 2006). Sustainable HRM could help sustain employee
dignity in the case of staff reduction and warranting their employment on the job market
(Zaugg& Thom, 2001). Thom & Zaugg (2004) stated that, a sustainable HR policy
focuses on implementing proper, transparent procedures for recruitment and retention,
training and development, performance management and motivation and employee
engagement and it is a conceptual approach and long-term oriented activity in
developing socially viable and responsible policies for recruitment and retention,
employee engagement, deployment and motivation. Wirtenberg et al (2007) mentioned
Proceedings of 15thAsian Business Research Conference
22-23 December 2017, BIAM Foundation, 63 Eskaton, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISBN: 978-1-925488-59-3
that, implementing sustainable human resource policies help in creating more
productive and motivated workforce which eventually led to organizational success.
Ehnert (2009) mentioned that, sustainable HR model is that it anticipates on the short
term and long term effects of implementing a policy and measures organizational
success in social and environmental dimensions and not just by the financial aspect. It
also utilizes the power of human resource management to develop and empower
employees by building a conducive work environment.
The survey response had measured by using a 5 point Likert scale designed by Rensis
Likert (1932), where “Strongly Agree” considered the highest score, i.e., 5 and “Strongly
Disagree”was the lowest, denoted by 1. SPSS 25.0 software used for conducting
analysis.Numerous research papers by renowned researchers had been consulted in
developing and conducting research model.
On the basis of the research question and objective, the organizational performance
considered as the dependent variable. The sustainable HR instruments were the
independent variables. The study tested the following hypotheses,
Cronbach’s Alpha had calculated for testing the reliability of the study (Cronbach 1951).
Demographic information of the respondents had shown in graphs and descriptive
statistics had shown in a table.Regression analysis had conducted in order to find out
the impact of sustainable HRM in the organizational performance.
Proceedings of 15thAsian Business Research Conference
22-23 December 2017, BIAM Foundation, 63 Eskaton, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISBN: 978-1-925488-59-3
Next, Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to measure of the reliability and internal
consistency of the survey instrument. The study’s Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.734 of the
27 surveyed items on various aspects of sustainable HRM practices under 7 factors.
According to the standard value of 0.7 (Cronbach, 1951) which shows that the
questionnaire was reliable and had an internal consistency among the surveyed
question items. This test showed that all the questions under the seven variables had a
shared covariance which proved that they all help to understand and measure the same
concept of sustainable HR practices.
After getting the reliability and consistency score, the study moved to the calculation of
multiple regression analysis was used to understand the effect of the sustainable HRM
impact in the overall organizational performance. For this study, sustainable HR factors
or instruments (Zaugg and Thom 2001) like human resource recruitment and selection,
personnel deployment, human resource development, human resource marketing,
employee relations, disemployment, management and leadership were taken as the
independent variables because these were considered as the determinants of
sustainable HRM practices in an organization and the organizational performance was
taken as the dependent variable which actually depended on the sustainable HR
factors. The table 2 showed the value of R square,
The R square value of the model helps to understand if the research model undertaken
is a good fit for the research data and it also explains how much variability of the
dependent variable is explained by the independent variable (Gupta 2000). From table
2, it can be seen that the R square value of the study was 0.896, which means that
89.6% of the variability of the dependent variables, that is, the organizational
Proceedings of 15thAsian Business Research Conference
22-23 December 2017, BIAM Foundation, 63 Eskaton, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISBN: 978-1-925488-59-3
performance explained by the independent variables, that is, the factors of sustainable
HRM (Gupta 2000). The Adjusted R square denoted that 88.8% of the variance in the
organizational performance explained by the instruments of sustainable HRM(Gupta,
2000).
“F-ratio” represents the ratio of the advancement in the prediction that results from fitting
the model (Firdaus, 2005). A large value of F indicates that most of the variation in Y is
explained by the regression. The F value was 113.275, which was significant at p (sig.)
value <.005, i.e. 0.000< 0.005. This result indicates that there is less than a 0.05%
chance of F-ratio being this large. Therefore, the regression model significantly
improved the ability to predict the overall impact of sustainable HRM in organizational
performance.
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Std.
Model B Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) -.078 .210 -.371 .712
RS .245 .054 .226 4.537 .000
PD -.027 .027 -.034 -.989 .325
HRD .001 .028 .001 .018 .985
MKT .285 .050 .323 5.707 .000
ER -.040 .076 -.047 -.530 .597
DE .524 .060 .504 8.697 .000
ML .006 .066 .008 .093 .926
Dependent Variable: OP
Source: Survey data of the author.
Proceedings of 15thAsian Business Research Conference
22-23 December 2017, BIAM Foundation, 63 Eskaton, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISBN: 978-1-925488-59-3
Table 4 showed the regression test output. This helps to determine the significance and
the effect of sustainable human resource practices on organizational performance. It
also represented the relationship between sustainable human resource activities and
organizational performance. From table 4, it can be seen that the significant value of the
independent variables which were, human resource recruitment and selection, human
resource marketing and disemployment were lesser that the standard significance value
of 0.05 which depicted that all these factors were significant and had a significant effect
on organizational performance. The rest of the variables’ significant values were more
than 0.05. From table 4, it can also be seen that the beta values for the factors, that is,
human resource recruitment and selection (0.226), human resource development
(0.001), human resource marketing (0.323), disemployment (0.504) and management
and leadership (0.008) were positive.
In terms of testing the research hypotheses, the study accepted H1 (Human Resource
Recruitment and Selection has a positive impact on organizational performance.), H4
(man Resource Marketing has a positive impact on organizational performance.) and
H6 (Disemployment has a positive impact on organizational performance.) and rejected
the rest of the hypotheses. The implication is that, recruitment and selection, human
resource marketing and disemployment have positive influences as instruments of
sustainable human resource management in the performance of the organization. The
rest of the instruments have not any positive influence in organizational performance.
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