Green Work-Life Balance

Green HRM will only be able to achieve its fullest expectations by

focusing on the two fold role of their employees- i.e. their
professional role and personal role. These two roles of employees
are identified by Muster and Shrader (2011) as the role of
producer and consumer. Greening organizations need to not only
focus on introducing such policies not only to change the work related behaviors of the
employees but also the personal behaviors of employees. Otherwise one could perceive
that the organizations are focusing on green policies merely to develop their corporate
brand and thereby gain advantages in the customer market. Hence, organizations
should focus on facilitating environmentally friendly behavior from employees in their
personal as well as professional lives (Muster & Shrader, 2011). One of the challenges
that organizations will have to overcome in this facilitation is the opposition that would
come from employees when the organization attempts to influence the personal lives of
employees. This has to be carefully handled by the organization, as otherwise it would
lead to unexpected problems such as even trade union action, as the employees
perceive this as an invasion of personal space.

In the new millennium both organizations as well as academic scholars have

shown interest on this area of ‘green HRM’. According to Renwick (2008) one of the
ways that companies contribute to environmental management is by aligning their HR
policies with company’s environmental strategy. Accordingly they have focused their
recruitment, performance appraisal, training, employee relations and rewards policies
with green initiatives. But this has to done using a very careful approach as such policies
may be negatively perceived and would affect the ‘employer brand’ of the business.
Certain Multinational Companies (MNCs) have introduced an environmental friendly
dimension in their performance evaluation systems in certain parts of the world. But
one may perceive this as being bias, with the idea that whether it is something essential
in determining the promotions and rewards of employees when the MNC as an
organization cannot meet their environmental expectations in certain situations. This
would rally the employees also against the organization in addition to environmental
activists of 3rd World developing countries who protest against MNCs regarding their
corporate policies that damage the haunting beauty of flora and fauna of those
countries.

Prabhashini Wijewantha
Senior Lecturer
Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management
Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
prabha2274@gmail.com