Aust et al

Common Good HRM

Content of the paper

• The paper introduces the notion of Common Good HRM and discuss it in light of three
other conceptions of Sustainable HRM
•

• The paper present a two-fold objective

•

• To examine how the sustainablity paradigm transforms the purpose of HRM from a single
economic purpose to multiple purposes
• To highlight dimensions through which Sustainable HRM approaches vary
From Hard HRM to Sustainable HRM

• Hard HRM focus on tight strategic control in terms of economic performance

• Soft HRM focus on high-involvement management but is still mainly concerned with
economic performance
• Sustainable HRM focus only multiple goals
Sociallly Responsible HRM

Organizational perspective (Why) Inside-out, i.e. economic and social purpose

(former most important)
Inputs (What) Creating an awarenes of the impact of doing
business beyond organizational boundraries

Sustainable HRM processes (How) Socially responsible HR behavior e.g. health

and well-being initiatives

Sustainable HRM outputs Economic and social values i.e. enhanced social
reputation
Green HRM

Organizational perspective (Why) Inside-out, i.e. economic and environmental

purpose (former most important)
Inputs (What) HRM implements Green workplace practices

Sustainable HRM processes (How) Green HR beviour e.g. Green recruitment

Sustainable HRM outputs Economic and ecological values i.e. reducing

employees carbon footprint
Triple Bottom Line HRM

Organizational perspective (Why) Inside-out, i.e. economic ,environmental and

social purpose (the later two has to serve the
economic purpose)
Inputs (What) Using HRM to create win-win-win situations

Sustainable HRM processes (How) Behaviour, practices etc. enabling to perform

HRM sustainably

Sustainable HRM outputs Triple bottom line

 Common Good HRM
Organizational perspective (Why)
Inputs (What)
Sustainable HRM processes (How)
Sustainable HRM outputs
Outside – in e.g. "How can business use
its resources, competencies, and experiences in
such a way as to make them useful for addressing
some of the big economic, social or
environmental challenges that society is
confronted with,
Using HRM to solve ‘grand challenges’
Behaviour, practices etc. enabling common good
values
Social and ecological sustainable development
impact e.g. decent working conditions in supply
chains and economic democracy
Examples of Common Good HRM
In-work poverty and
exploitative working
conditions in supply chains
Lack of labor voice
Unemployment and job
insecurity
Business human rights Create awareness, train and
pay suppliers for improving
working conditions
Workplace democracy and Teams are responsible for
self-management recruitment, traning,
evaluation etc.
Employment creation Money generated by the
company is used to generate
employment in the firm and
community
Agenda for future research on types

• Which effect to the different types have

• How has companies developed their Sustainable HRM over time
• Testing the types with current empirical findings
Future research in Common Good HRM

• A possible pathway for future research would be to explore empirically the attitudes of
board members, HR managers, employees, and external stakeholders toward a Common
Good HRM model. For example, research could investigate—ideally through action-
research and ethnographic methodology—the impact of this approach on issues of currently
shared meanings, organizational purpose, and role identity within a natural setting.
Future research in the context of Common
Good and Sustainable HRM
• future research could examine whether inside-out, competitive-oriented HR practices such
as rewards and compensation, training, and recruiting can be reframed in support of outside-
in, common-good goals.
Take aways

• HRM can move from economic goals to more broad goals

• We can talk about at least 4 types of sustainable HRM: Socially Responsible HRM, Green
HRM, Triple Bottom line HRM and Common Good HRM
• Each can be evaluated along four dimensions: purpose, what the HRM inputs are, how
HRM can achieve the purpose and what the are the outputs
• More research is need in Common Good HRM and Sustainable HRM