Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Green employee empowerment: The missing linchpin between green HRM

and sustainable organizational performance
Muhammad Hamza Khan *, Syaharizatul Noorizwan Muktar
Faculty of Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Johor Bahru, 81310, Malaysia

ARTICLE INFO

Handling Editor: Cecilia Maria Villas Boas ˆ de Almeida.

Keywords:
Green human resource management Sustainable organizational performance Green
employee empowerment
Healthcare sector
Mixed method

harmful for the people and the environment. The waste contributes to
1. Introduction climate change by releasing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2016, the
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, environmental issues are gaining significant consider ation
from organizations, communities and government bodies (Michaelowa
Healthcare waste is one of the prime issues that occur all around the globe,
et al., 2022; Siyambalapitiya et al., 2018). Implementation of proper
including Pakistan. The waste generated from the hospitals degrades the
environment, spreads toxic diseases which impacts the employees as well as the
environmental plans is increasing and corporations are now being
hospital performance. To overcome this issue and to enhance hospital held answerable for the environmental issues generated by their
performance, this study draws attention towards the green side of human operations(Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour, 2013; Koberg and Lon
resource management to generate green behaviour among hospitals employees goni, 2019). These operations include unsustainable use of natural re
and to improve sustainable performance of the hospitals. The objective of this sources and improper waste disposal(R. L. Singh and Singh, 2017;
study was specifically to see how green HRM practices can contribute in Siyambalapitiya et al., 2018). Examples of environmental issues are
improving sustainable organizational performance of Pakistani hospitals. An global warming, the depletion of the ozone layers, air pollution and
important intervening factor green employee empowerment is suggested, the generation of toxic medical waste(Kaza and Yao, 2018; Neale et
connecting green HRM with sustainable organizational performance in the light al., 2021; Soutter and Mottus, ˜ 2020). According to (UNEP, 2015) the
of two lenses: Ability, Motivation, Opportunity (AMO) and Social Exchange gen eration of waste is a universal dilemma and its improper
Theory (SET). To determine the mass of the intervening factor, this study used
management is
mixed
method approach. The quantitative approach used to see potential intervening
mechanism and relationship between variables by structural equation modelling
technique. The qualitative approach (i.e., Interviews) used to have a richer view * Corresponding author.
of the data analyses. The qualitative data analysis provided additional support to E-mail address: hamza.buzdar@gmail.com (M.H. Khan).
the quantitative part. The quantitative data of 547 hospital managers through
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139812
questionnaires followed by 11 semi structured interviews from public sector
generation amount was 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide and is ex
hospitals of Pakistan were conducted. Quantitative data was analysed through
pected to increase 2.6 billion tons by 2050(WorldBankGroup, 2018).
SMART PLS 3.0.9 and qualitative data was analysed through NVIVO12. Thus, the
The awareness regarding environmental issues compelled various or
findings revealed that green HRM practices are positively related to sustainable
organizational performance and green employee empowerment mediates the
ganizations to strive for green management and production practices
relationship between green HRM and sop. Consequently, qualitative data findings and to become environmentally and socially responsible by integrating
revealed that themes of green HRM and green employee empowerment were environmental management into their organizational models(Malik et
explaining sustainable organiza al., 2020; Ren, Tang, & E. Jackson, 2018).Various approaches are used
tional performance. by organizations to address and mitigate environmental issues such as
green operations (Zhu et al., 2008), green supply chain (Charbel Jos´e
 Chiappetta Jabbour and de Sousa Jabbour, 2016), green accounting
and finance(Maama and Appiah, 2019), green marketing (Chan et al.,
2012). However among various approaches that firms are using, green
Received 27 December 2022; Received in revised form 7 May 2023; Accepted 16 November 2023
Available online 30 November 2023
0959-6526/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
execution of green strategies and environmental management
practices, this is because it is the HR that hires, selects and trains
employees regarding green issues (Charbel Jose Chiapetta Jabbour and
Renwick, 2018; Malik et al., 2021; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013) and the
fact is that to go green lies in the behaviour of individuals and
changing employee’s behaviour to green behaviour to aim for greener
organizational per
formance is not an easy task (see Table 10).
The concept of triple bottom line measures organizational perfor
mance beyond the conventional performance measures like profit
maximization, return on equity and indicates other two performance
measures such as environmental performance and social performance
(N. Hussain et al., 2018). The main function of triple bottom line
concept is to make organizations aware of the social and
environmental values (Elkington, 1997; Henriques and Richardson,
2013). To measure sus tainable organizational performance based on
social performance and environmental performance the triple bottom
line concept can be applied(Fauzi et al., 2010). This is because the
notion “sustainability” has become increasingly vital for organizational
operations, for example (Jackson and Seo, 2010) insisted on need for
the involvement of green human resource management in
sustainability. Similar concept has been assisted from multiple
researchers(Jonker and Karapetrovic, 2004; Nejati et al., 2017; Van
Marrewijk and Werre, 2003) suggesting that the goal of an
organization is to create harmony between social, environ mental and
economic domains, which finally improve sustainable organizational
performance(Rasi et al., 2014). Without doubt, the effect of
organizations activities on the environment is a viable issue and
require green practices to enhance the economic, environmental and
social performance. Today, corporations perform their operations in
highly competitive international markets, and striving for modern sus
tainable practices and solutions(Bombiak and Marciniuk-Kluska, 2018;
Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, Jabbour, Teixeira and Freitas, 2012).
It is also a necessity for the organizations to make greater efforts in
creating an equilibrium in their social environmental and economic
performance. Sustainability is now a necessary agenda for the policy
makers and managers to protect the natural environment and its
ecological systems. But managing the organizational environmental is
sues is a relatively multifaceted job therefore for the corporations it
can be considered as a challenge(R. Dubey et al., 2015; Islam et al.,
2020). For the corporations to overcome this challenge and to attain
sustain ability it is necessary for them to organize their human
resources in chasing green goals. This can be achieved by intersecting
environment management with the human resource
management(Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour et al., 2012; Charbel
Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour, Santos and Nagano, 2010; Moraes Silvana
de et al., 2019; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013). Green HRM has arisen as
modern HRM systems that in tegrates environmental management with
HRM functions to enhance organizational performance(Mousa and
Othman, 2020). Environmental issues are the most significant
management challenge where the orga nizations looking to find ways
to decrease the environmental impact of their operations and to
enhance sustainable performance.
The term green human resource management is a modern approach to
understand the human resource functions and to intersect environ
mental management in the sub zones of the human resource manage
ment, that is hiring, selecting, developing and evaluating, hence
environment friendly human resource functions(Bombiak and
Marciniuk-Kluska, 2018; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013). The firms need
human resource management is seen as bottom line for effective
successful
green human resource management in order to preserve the environ
ment and to make environment friendly working place(Jackson et al.,
2011; Ren et al., 2018). According to (Jackson, 2012; Jackson et al.,
2011; D. Renwick et al., 2008) the principal aim of green HRM is to
boost organizational environmental performance. Environmental per
formance is the commitment of the corporation to care the
environment in such a way that its business processes are aligned with
in the given boundaries of the environmental protection and reduction
in the harmful substances and diminution of the solid wastes(Daily
Bonnie, 2012; S. Roscoe, N. Subramanian, C. J. C. Jabbour, & T.
Chong, 2019b)
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
and it is also considered to be one of the most important performance
gages apart from financial perspectives(Schaltegger and Wagner, 2006)
whereas social performance tells us about sustaining and enlightening
the current state of the people and the coming generations by
improved quality of life and minimizing the social gap(Sayyadi
Tooranloo, Azadi and Sayyahpoor, 2017). The roots of green HRM lies
in the idea of merging sustainability in firm activities and decision
making (Howard-Grenville et al., 2014). Sustainability concept
emerged first in 1987 in Brundtland Report which defined
sustainability as “develop
ment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs” In addition to
this, an Agenda 2030 is given which strives for 17 sustainable
development goals to inspire societies, institutions and countries
towards the concept of sustainability(Oliveira et al., 2020; SDG,
2018). Out of these 17 sus
tainable development goals, goal 3 draw attention towards the impor
tance of healthcare sector which includes the increase in budget in
healthcare sector, recruitment, training, development and retention of
healthcare staff in developing countries to reduce environmental risks,
better hospital performance and managing global health risks(Brundt
landReport, 1988; SDG, 2018). The core aim of the sustainable devel
opment goals 2018 is to put efforts in reducing waste generated from
the heath sector and to enhance the sustainability performance of the
hos pitals. The environmental initiatives now cover a vast range of
business operations like green marketing, green accounting, green
supply chain (Ren et al., 2018) but all this begins with firms HR who
engage hire, select and develop people in relation to green initiatives,
therefore green
HRM arise as a leading novel concept (D. Renwick et al., 2008).
Pakistan generates a total of 71000 tons of solid waste per day and
waste is not properly handled and disposed(Khatri et al., 2021), more
over as far as hospital waste is concerned Pakistan generate about
450000 tons of waste/year (W. Hameed et al., 2022)which is
impacting the sustainable performance of the hospitals and it is a
threat to envi ronment and local community in Pakistan, and proper
maintenance and environmental training of hospital staff is needed(W.
Hameed et al., 2022). Accidents while handling and due to less
knowledge about green practices and conventional training among the
healthcare staff is a serious problem in Pakistan healthcare sector. The
environment degra dation due to low hospital performance is
spreading different kinds of environmental pollution like degrading air
quality, effects on water quality and land pollution(W. Hameed et al.,
2022; Khatri et al., 2021). The sustainable performance issue in the
healthcare sector of Pakistan can be mitigated through the
implementation of green HRM practices. Since the healthcare sector in
Pakistan is still developing and the present government is committed
to ensure sustainable development goals to uplift the health care
 sector Pakistan needs to take further step to consider environmental
criteria apart from economic criteria. Majority of the authors and their
studies considers the potential of green HRM concept to positively
influence sustainable performance. A plethora of works have been
conducted on constructs like organization citizenship behavior for the
environment, employee green behavior, green employee engagement,
environmental orientation, environmental knowledge (Benn et al.,
2015; Iqbal et al., 2018; Pham et al., 2019; Safari et al., 2018) and
most recent works like of Davis et al. (2020) linking green HRM with
ecological behaviour, S. K. Singh et al. (2020) worked on green
innovation and environmental performance and the role of green
leaderships, Anwar et al. (2020) targeted university employees and
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
Buonomo, 2020; Macke and Genari, 2019; Ren et al., 2018; D. W.
Renwick et al., 2013; Tariq et al., 2016; J. Yong et al., 2019) identified
potential intervening mechanism, employee empowerment to green
initiatives as a major theoretical gap in explaining how green HRM
impacts sustainable organizational performance. Therefore, this study
theoretically and empirically contributes to the green HRM in such a
way that it incorporates green employee empowerment as potential
intervening mechanism between green HRM and performance based on
these calls. Beside this, the current study links green HRM and perfor
mance grounded on two theoretical lenses. The ability, motivation,
opportunity lens which say that developing green abilities, motivations
and opportunities provided to employees lead to performance, and
system of green HR reflects the vision, goals and the strategic impor
tance of environment to all employees working in the organization
therefore green HRM practices will also influence sustainable perfor
mance of the organization. Social exchange paradigm, that provides
the importance of reciprocal behaviors and helps in explaining the phe
nomena of green employee empowerment in understating green HRM
and performance link, thus this study empirically tests relationships
and theories from the green context moving a step forward by
integrating two lenses which previous works lacked in a developing
country like Pakistan and in an important sector. Based on the gap the
study has the following research objectives.
1. To investigate the relationship of green HRM practices and sustain
able organizational performance among public sector hospitals in
Pakistan.
2. To determine the relationship of green HRM practices and green
employee empowerment among public sector hospitals in Pakistan. 3.
To investigate the relationship of green employee empowerment and
sustainable organizational performance among public sector hospi
tals in Pakistan
4. To determine the mediating effect of green employee empowerment
on relationship between green HRM practices and sustainable
organizational performance in public sector hospitals in Pakistan.
2. Literature review
Concepts relating to green human resource management exists in
the literature. Various scholars have defined this novel paradigm by
relating it to environmental management, green management,
sustainable HRM (E. Cohen et al., 2012; Ehnert et al., 2016) and
corporate social re
sponsibility(Susan E. Jackson, Randall S. Schuler and Kaifeng Jiang,
2014; Kramar, 2014). Shah (2019) considers that greening every func
tion of HR encompass green job design, green induction and selection,
green training and development, green premiums and compensation,
and motivational aspects to boost green behaviour of employees. Shah
(2019) further supported the claims of D. W. Renwick et al. (2013)
who considered this concept as integrating the environmental
management and HRM functions to combat environmental issues, for
example hiring and selecting employees based on environmental
knowledge, designing green jobs that consider environmental issues,
green/environmental training of staff, evaluating the performance of
employees based on their fulfilment of green tasks and giving financial
and non-financial grants to employees related to environmental
studied green HRM with Organizational citizenship behavior to
environment, Song et al. (2020) worked on determining the effects of
GHRM and environmental concerns in relation to green innovation
Yes¸iltas¸ et al. (2022) worked the green organizational culture and
employee green behavior between green and non-green hotels and
concluded that green organizational culture impact green employee
behavior through green HRM and no doubt these works provided
useful insights, however to identify potential links between green
HRM and performance that how and why the process of green HRM
influences green performance remains unclear. The reviews by
(Benevene and
2
performance.
Similarly, Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour (2013) also share the
same idea and stress on the importance of planned and systematic
amalgamation of basic HRM functions with the environmental targets
of the organization. However in contrast to the above arguments
scholars like H. H. D. N. P. Opatha and Hewapathirana (2019) and
Mazur (2014) considers green HRM to part of sustainable HRM. For
example, H. H. D. N. P. Opatha and Hewapathirana (2019) pointed
out that GHRM is that dimension of sustainable HRM which deals with
planet related phe
nomena, people related phenomena, and revenue related phenomena
and it desires to boost environmental, social and economic
performance of the organization by managing employees though
policies, practices
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
and procedures related to sustainability. Mazur (2014) also proposed
that GHRM is the domain of sustainable HRM which focuses on saving
planet by hiring potential employees through green branding. Besides,
these definitions there is a common clause in both the domains that is
safeguarding and protecting the nearby physical environment through
effective HR practices from green lens.
The study of Kramar (2014) indicates that the concept of
sustainable HRM includes multiple terms that associate human
resource with sus tainability. These terms consist of green leadership,
work systems that are sustainability centered, managing the human
resource with sus tainable management and to make a corporation
inclined towards building social and human capital(Kramar, 2014). In
view of all that has been mentioned so far, the major difference
between both the concepts is that GHRM exclusively looks for
developing employee green behavior and attitude, giving voice to
employees in performing green tasks, strives for green organizational
performance as D. W. Renwick et al. (2013) and Charbel Jos´e
Chiappetta Jabbour and Santos (2008) high lighted and sustainable
HRM looks for retaining employees, emphasize more on economic
performance of the organization, employees sus tainability goals
achievement and revenue related works. This section has attempted to
provide a brief summary of the literature relating to green HRM.
In the light of these point of views, the study describes green HRM
as those potential practices that are believed to reduce the
environmental issues in the organization like green recruitment and
selection, green training and development and green performance
appraisals and there is growing need to combine HRM with
environmental management to achieve environmental objectives(Ren
et al., 2018; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013). This is because all HRM
functions have the ability of becoming green HRM functions, resulting
in an ecologically friendly employees and green organizational
structure, both of which are fundamental to an organization’s
environmental performance. Green HRM transforms an organization’s
personnel into eco-friendly individuals who help mini mize waste,
lowering the organization’s total expenditures. They also have a
proclivity for developing ecologically friendly products or ser
vices. As a consequence, the organization’s efficiency, recruitment,
employee satisfaction, image, customer commitment, and market
growth are improved, resulting in increased organizational success.
Without a structure or processes, firms cannot practise green HRM.
HRM functions provide proper mechanisms and methods for
implementing green HRM in an organization.
 The following section will elaborate the three most important di
mensions of the GHRM which are green recruitment and selection,
green training and selection and green performance appraisal and
rewards. Based on a comprehensive literature review the current study
is using three important GHRM practices such as green recruitment
and selec tion, green training and development, green performance
appraisal and rewards. On the other hand, some of studies were also
related to green employee commitment, green employee behaviour
but the current study uses those green practices which are were used
by prominent scholars in green HRM scholarship and these practices
have the efficacy in dispersing green ideologies and generating
environmental centered culture within the organizations.
2.1. Green recruitment and selection
3
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
in green HRM practices(Yusoff and Nejati, 2019) and these practices
desire to recruit potential employees with environmental awareness
and environmental knowledge, engaging candidates using green
branding and preferring a pool of those candidates who wish to join
organizations on the basics of green criteria and creating awareness in
the employees during the recruitment process about organizational
environmental goals(G. Tang et al., 2018). To have an enhanced
environmental per
formance, organization may lift their vision and attract green
candidates and future study requires to address the problems on
attracting green employees in achieving organizational environmental
objectives (Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, 2011; D. W. Renwick et al.,
2016; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013).
2.2. Green training and development
Traditional training equips the employees with enhanced skills and
knowledge and inspires them to be innovative(Liebowitz, 2010). How
ever, due to increase in environmental issues, organizations are now
willing to groom employees by providing them green training which
will enable them to obtain certain skills in improving environmental
profile and goals of the firms(Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, 2011; D. W.
Renwick et al., 2013; Silva Marco Antonio Batista, Costa Priscila
Rezende and Kniess Claudia, 2019; G. Tang et al., 2018). Green
training is the most powerful practice which enables an organization
to accomplish its environmental goals and transform towards a more
sustainable corpo ration(Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour, 2013;
Teixeira et al., 2012). Benefit from green training and development
results in refined infor mation about environmental problems and way
of tackling thus leading to improved environmental performance(Daily
Bonnie, 2012; Had dock-Millar et al., 2015; Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta
Jabbour, 2013; Raw ashdeh, 2018; D. W. Renwick et al., 2016).
This is because merely innovation in the technology is not enough
to raise environmental performance, environmental training is
imperative in greening the organizations in various
segments(Venselaar, 1995) and these segments comprises
manufacturing, service, and mining etc (Bonnie F Daily et al., 2007;
Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, 2011; Sammalisto and Brorson, 2008). Green
training and development aim to train, educate employees in the
management of environment, knowledge management programs
regarding the environment, arrangement of workshops and training
sessions for recycling, disposal and management of toxic waste and to
engage employees in solving environmental problems (Charbel Jos´e
Chiappetta Jabbour, 2013; Masri and Jaaron, 2017; Mousa and
Othman, 2020; D. Renwick et al., 2008; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013; G.
Tang et al., 2018; Zoogah, 2011).
2.3. Green performance appraisal and rewards
Conventional measure of performance appraisal method was based on
maximization of revenue and profits but future demands green per
formance appraisal which potentially focus on firms and its employees
to fulfil green tasks(Ramasamy, 2017). Human resource professionals
can audit employees behavior and performance based on rating their
Generally, recruitment and selection in any organization target
candidates who can well perform job duties and have the potential to
contribute to performance among pool of candidates(Ramasamy,
2017). However, to create and sustain a workplace that is
environmentally sound, the organizations require to select and hire
candidates who cares and are concerned about the environment and
shows higher environ
mental commitment in solving environmental problems and accom
plishing environmental objectives of the corporation(Charbel Jos´e
Chiappetta Jabbour and Santos, 2008; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013).
Green recruitment and selection is considered as an influential element
work such as balancing metrics and feedback related to environment as
gauge to appraise employees performance which allows the organiza
tions to achieve its environmental objectives and environmental per
formance(Jackson et al., 2011; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013; Zibarras
and Coan, 2015). Because past studies have emphasized the scope of
research on green appraisal and environmental policies(D. W. Renwick
et al., 2013). Basically, green performance management generates
green performance indicators to evaluate all staff in relation to green
criteria which includes environmental accidents and incidents,
reducing of waste and Co2 emissions, communicating to
environmental issues, pro-environment policies, setting a framework
and green targets for employees as well as for managers, assessment of
employees after environmental training and consistent feedback to all
staffs to accom plish environmental objectives(Arulrajah and Opatha,
2016; Jackson
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
et al., 2011; Jackson and Seo, 2010; Masri and Jaaron, 2017; Nejati et
al., 2017; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013; Saeed et al., 2019; G. Tang et al.,
2018).
Based on regular audit the employees who accomplish green tasks
are awarded with monetary and non-monetary inducements and these
green rewards appeal, inspire and encourage employees to contribute
more towards environmental objectives (Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jab
bour, 2013). According to Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour and
Santos (2008) and D. W. Renwick et al. (2013) compensations and
incentives are the most dominant tools to align the interest of
employees with that of organization’s than other HRM practices.
Sustainable organizations use this tool to reward employees for the
ecological performance (D. W. Renwick et al., 2013). Some of the
rewards include, monetary incentives and tax cut (Arulrajah and
Opatha, 2016; Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour and Santos, 2008; G.
Tang et al., 2018), travelling allowances (Jackson et al., 2011; D. W.
Renwick et al., 2013), extra bonus wage for the workers meeting
ecological targets(Nejati et al., 2017), and rewards and gifts on
suggesting the environmental innovation methods(Shoeb Ahmad,
2015; Masri and Jaaron, 2017). In this way employees working in the
organization are motivated to perform green tasks more effec tively
and passionately(Shoaib et al., 2022).
2.4. The need of empowerment concept
In today’s world, the firm’s outcome is contingent upon how it
deals with the environmental issues(Jackson et al., 2011; Jackson and
Seo, 2010). Scholars like (Z. Hameed et al., 2020; D. W. Renwick et
al., 2013; Tariq et al., 2016) argue that organizations must encourage,
empower employees to entwine green tasks and in this regard
managing employee for green tasks is crucial. The involvement of
employee is necessary for corporate social responsibility and it reflects
employee commitment (Ramachandran, 2011; Tariq et al., 2016).
Monetary rewards increases employee commitment(Tariq et al.,
2016). However only financial in
centives are not the solution but individual level dealing with
employee is needed meaning thereby empowerment is the perfect
practice for the organizations(Tariq et al., 2016; Zhu and Sarkis,
2004). This is because the financial incentive decreases the job strains
 but empowerment is a resourceful move to have noteworthy gains for
the organization and as the concept of green HR revolves around
dealing with the environmental issues and greening HR functions
(Tariq et al., 2016). Both elements require green employee
empowerment and due to the multifaceted na
ture of greening the firms for accomplishing performance, there is to
need study green employee empowerment (Andersson et al., 2013;
Dutta, 2012; Z. Hameed et al., 2020; Tariq et al., 2016).
2.5. Green employee empowerment
Employee empowerment deals with worker level of freedom in
making decisions beyond formative regulations(Srinivasan and Kurey,
2014). According to Sashkin (1984) the concept of employee empow
erment is not new in the field of management and has a span of 50
years and when this concept is practised accurately it resulted in
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
and propose improvements if they are appointed to take action for
enhancement. According to (Tariq et al., 2016) from the employee
perspective the empowerment deals with by some level of autonomy
and giving them responsibility in decision making because they view
prob
lems faced by an organization in a unique way but from an organiza
tional point of view the employee empowerment is an administrative
strategy which desires to provide employees the necessary tools and
useful resources to make certain decisions in the workplace. For
example, repairing and fixing equipment’s at the earliest, enhancement
in the existing technology to perform their daily tasks more effectivity.
The employees working in an organization should be inspired, sup
ported, and empowered to pursue environmental functions(Z. Hameed
et al., 2020; Matthews et al., 2003). This is because environmental
issue have deep effects on organizations outcome(Jackson et al., 2011;
Susan E Jackson, Randall S Schuler and Kaifeng Jiang, 2014). In order
to meet the organizational objectives employee empowerment is
compulsory and when this empowerment is pursued to accomplish
green objectives it is termed as green employee empowerment(Tariq et
al., 2014; Tariq et al., 2016). The firms can make use of this concept,
green employee empowerment as a strategic mechanism to encourage
staff to increase their competency level and meaningfulness(Z.
Hameed et al., 2020; Laschinger et al., 2004; Tariq et al., 2016).
Giving opportunities and empowering them to engage in
environmental management tasks cre
ates a sense of pollution preservation behavior among them (D. W.
Renwick et al., 2013; Tariq et al., 2016).
According to Tariq et al. (2016) the greening of human resource
functions with employee empowerment from the green perspectives is
getting attention because in an organizational outcome the employees
perform a major role. To solve organizational environmental problems,
green employee empowerment has gained notable attention among
scholars(Daily Bonnie, 2012; Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour and
Santos, 2008; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013; Tariq et al., 2016).
According to G. Tang et al. (2018) and D. W. Renwick et al. (2013)
giving em
ployees an environmental vision which comprises of values and sym
bols, incorporating green learning culture about environmental
problems at workplace, enabling informal communication channels
about green tasks and setting green teams in solving environmental is
sues in the organization is an effective way of motivating, involving
and empowering employees. It is the responsibility of the human
resource managers to inspire employees to take part in green
initiatives and encourage them in developing environmentally friendly
ideas(Shoeb Ahmad, 2015; Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour and
Santos, 2008; Shoaib et al., 2022; Tariq et al., 2016). This can be
achieved by constructive work environment where workers can
acknowledge as well as contradict with the view of the management
and offer their view towards environmental problems(Liebowitz,
2010; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013). Corporations also need to
concentrate in enforcing green prac tices and these practices are
contingent on motivated and competent manpower who can enforce
improved performance, enhanced productivity and job satisfaction.
Since 1940s and 1950s the worker empowerment has been a famous
subject under the paradigm of organizational behaviour, however
academics had diminutive success in studying management in this
approach. Brymer (1991) describes empowerment as the practice of
decision-making ability, where CEOs give responsibility to managers
and they further give responsibility and freedom to the front-line
employees thus it works as a chain. Bowen and Lawler (1992)
presented a more transformed approach towards employee
empowerment. They called empowerment as information sharing with
the front-line workers about compensation and rewards based on the
organizational performance, emphasized on knowledge and giving
power to workers to make choices that impact organizational
performance. Consequently, Wilkinson (1998) also pro
posed that employees working in the organizations acknowledge issue
4
successfully environmental management plans and moreover this
motivated workforce can be acquired by providing them authority to
perform green tasks(Tariq et al., 2016). For instance, the work of
Christmann (2000) acknowledged that a compe tent work force with
environmental knowledge and empowerment to perform green tasks
results in gaining an edge over other firms. The study of Lee (2009)
also supported the claims of Christmann (2000). Moreover the work of
(Carmona-Moreno, C´espedes-Lorente, and Martinez-del-Rio (2012)
indicated and supported the above claims that organizations who
cooperate and assist their staff in achieving their
environmental goals are likely to get enhanced performance. Haden et
al. (2009) research found out that empowered employees are more
committed to execute green tasks. Massoud et al. (2008) study showed
that participative work environment for employees, proper co
ordination and incentive system enhances green performance. Mandip
(2012) study proposed that management should motivate employees
for environmental performance, involve and participate them in green
tasks and waste reduction mechanisms. The study of Harvey et al.
(2013)
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
performed online survey in airline companies on green HRM and per
formance through pro-environmental behaviors and concluded that
both direct and indirect effects contribute to performance. The direct
effects include green selection, green training and giving rewards
based on achievement of green goals, whereas the indirect effects
include allowing employees to involve in green tasks and
environmental ini tiatives. Wagner (2013) called for more works on
the development of causal models that integrate the green HRM and
OB domains to explore on green employee motivations. Similarly(D.
W. Renwick et al., 2013) also supported the claim of Wagner (2013)
to see the possible inter vening mechanism of employee empowerment
from the green aspects. Tariq et al. (2016) performed a comprehensive
review on the notion of green employee empowerment and supported
the claims of D. W. Ren wick et al. (2013) and Wagner (2013) that
more studies are required to see the potential intervening effect of
green employee empowerment between green HRM and performance.
According to Charbel Jose Chiapetta Jabbour and Renwick (2018) and
Jackson et al. (2011) there is no doubt that there has been
tremendous growth in the field of green human resource management
in the last two decades, yet this field is in the growing stages and still
many areas of green HRM remain blur. Therefore it is imperative to
explore the intervening mechanism of green employee empowerment
in gaining environmental excellence(Charbel Jose Chiapetta Jabbour
and Renwick, 2018; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013). In gaining
environmental excellence the studies of Paill´e et al. (2014), Tariq et
al. (2016) and Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour and Santos (2008)
suggested that green HRM practices likely to impact organiza tional
performance through pro environmental behaviors and to achieve
sustainable advantage over rival organizations, however in contrast to
these claims the work of Lo et al. (2012) claimed that pro
environmental HR practices and sustainable performance is not yet
understood and there exists some insignificant results in regards to the
above works.

2.6. Sustainable organizational performance
According to Schaltegger and Wagner (2006), p.2 “sustainability
performance can be defined as the performance of a company in all
dimensions and for all drivers of corporate sustainability” it broadens
beyond the limits of the organization’s single economic performance
dimension. Mostly authors have classified organizational sustainability
on three aspects that is economic, environmental and social (Chan et
al., 2012; Shoaib et al., 2022). The emerging concept of organizational
sustainability significantly effects the nature of firm’s
operations(Anwar et al., 2020). Green firms must go beyond economic
performance(Hart, 2005) and should focus on environmental and
social dimension also (Figge and Hahn, 2004) to increase
organizational sustainability and sustainable development initiatives
(Gou et al., 2008; Kumar and Put nam, 2008). Moreover, green firms
and their management takes orga
nizational sustainability as an opportunity rather than burden(Ludema
et al., 2012).
5
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
“social performance” appeared as a necessary performance measures in
recent times, due to stakeholder need in relation to social and
ecological matters(Husted and de Sousa-Filho, 2017; Le Van, Viet
Nguyen and Nguyen, 2019). Therefore, the academic work has
mentioned that it is necessary for the safety and development of the
natural environment (Masri and Jaaron, 2017; Sayyadi Tooranloo et
al., 2017). In order to safeguard the ecological environment, firms
must undergo vital mea
sures in order to meet the stakeholder claim regarding environmental
issues(Z. Tang and Tang, 2018). Similar concept has been assisted from
multiple researchers (Jonker and Karapetrovic, 2004; Van Marrewijk
and Werre, 2003) suggesting that the goal of an organization is to
create harmony between social, environmental and economic
domains, which finally improve sustainable organizational
performance(Rasi et al., 2014). The relationship between
organizational sustainability and financial performance has been
studied in theoretical and empirical works by scholars on corporate
social responsibility, environmental performance and sustainability
performance (Bangwal et al., 2017; Wagner, 2010). Researchers are
deliberately realizing the connection among human resource
components and ecological sustainability (Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta
Jabbour, 2013), therefore merging traditional human resource
practices with environmental management (Had dock-Millar et al.,
2016).
Moreover, social performance intend to see the green practices in
relation to social dimensions, and is associated with organizations
image, their services and products based on the claims of stakeholders
(Newman et al., 2016). According to N. Hussain et al. (2018) green
initiatives help human resource in developing a sense of social re
sponsibility between employees, therefore HRM impacts in developing
green employee behavior and boosting social performance. Whereas
the environmental performance deals with the organizational ability
to re duces the wastes it generates, as well as its atmospheric
discharge, restraining the usage of toxic materials and minimizing the
occurrence of environmental accidents(Zhu et al., 2008). Notably, for
an organi zation to embrace sustainability, there is need to accept
environmental practices and such as reusing and waste
management(Mousa and Oth man, 2020). Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta
Jabbour and Santos (2008) said that organizations in today’s era need
a bench mark that not only fa vours the economic dimension of the
organizations but also the envi ronmental and social domain. In this
regard sustainability can be used a bench mark in solving
environmental and social problems(Wagner, 2010). Human Resource
Management has been recognized as a major player in developing
firms’ capabilities, strategies and competencies that are needed to help
an organization to achieve environmental and social goals. HRM
system has the top most capability for assimilating the concept of
sustainability into organizational domain in gaining envi ronmental
and social capabilities.
N. Hussain et al. (2018) claimed that the concept of triple bottom line
measures organizational performance beyond the conventional perfor
mance measures like profit maximization, return on equity and
indicates other two performance measures such as environmental
performance and social performance. The main function of triple
bottom line concept is to make organizations aware of the social and
environmental values (Elkington, 1997; Henriques and Richardson,
2013). To measure sus tainable organizational performance based on
social performance and environmental performance the triple bottom
line concept can be applied(Fauzi et al., 2010; Mousa and Othman,
2020). This is because the notion “sustainability” has become
increasingly vital for organiza tional operations, for example (Pinzone
et al., 2016; Zaid et al., 2018) insisted on need for the involvement of
green human resource man agement in sustainability. For smooth
running of organizational oper ations at the current moment and in the
future, there is a need to accept the concept of sustainability, more
importantly the triple bottom line(N. Hussain et al., 2018). The terms
“environmental performance” and
To sum up, service sectors especially healthcare is thought of as a
well-known service provider but it is also a concern with regard to
environmental problems due to the waste generation(Mousa and Oth
man, 2020; Romero and Carnero, 2019). According to Health
careClimateFootprints (2019) the healthcare industry is also a major
contributor of carbon footprints and climate crisis because it generates
4.4% of the global net emissions which is tantamount to 514 coal
power plants. Similarly, healthcare services produce solid and liquid
wastes like blood, body parts, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and
radioactive materials. Improper management of healthcare waste
poses a threat to waste handlers, healthcare workers and to the
community therefore perfect handling and sound management is very
important for envi ronmental health protection. The managers in
healthcare industry dealing with distress from the people regarding
environmental prob lems, thus their job is not confined to give superior
services but should be extended in solving environmental matters such
as green initiatives, recycling waste and energy efficiency(McGain and
Naylor, 2014; Pin zone et al., 2016). The condition of the sustainable
performance in healthcare system of Pakistan is also not up to the
standards. The hos pitals in Pakistan contribute to the wellbeing of the
people and
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
contributes to economy but on the other hand they are also responsible
for environmental pollution especially hospital waste which is a major
issue. There are rules and regulation to handle these issues. According
to GovernmentofPakistan (2019), to ensure commitment to
sustainable development, healthcare employees need transformation
in skills and training and reengineering of human resource is
necessary. Therefore, green human resource management can play a
role to overcome hospital performances issues.
Current study bridges the gap in the literature in various ways.
Firstly, this study answers to the dearth of empirical work on Green
HRM in the service sector especially hospitals, as indicated by (M.
Hussain et al., 2016; Raut et al., 2020; J. Y. Yong et al., 2019).
Secondly this study uses mixed methodology to look how impact of
green human resource management practices can impact sustainable
organizational performance, as indicated by(Malik et al., 2020; Pham
et al., 2019; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013; Zaid et al., 2018). Thirdly
this study examines the mediating variable green employee
empowerment, as indicated by (Malik et al., 2020; Tariq et al., 2016;
J. Y. Yong et al., 2019) on the relationship between green human
resource management practices and sustainable organizational
performance. Finally, this study is one of the pioneers in Pakistan as
per researcher knowledge to be conducted in the hospital sector. This
study operationalizes and measures sustainable organizational
performance that reflects on three components (envi ronmental
performance, economic performance and social perfor
mance). Measures that can be related to sustainable organizational
performance includes, the reduction in the toxic direct and indirect
emissions, reducing waste and increasing the amount of recycled sup
 plies, separation of medical garbage from the public sewerage lines,
increasing the rate of purchase of ecological goods for example medi
cines, preserving the green areas in the institutions, reducing the dan
gers associated with ecological accidents such as medical waste
exposure, emission from radiation and leakage of poisoning, increasing
awareness among employees when using dangerous substances and ra
diation based on health and safety rules. Increased commitment
towards infection control and antibiotic control policy (Al Kerdawy,
2019; Lon goni et al., 2018; Mousa and Othman, 2020; Paille et al.,
2014; Zaid et al., 2018). In summary, green HRM strives on hiring
staff on green criteria, environmental training and environmental
development of the existing employees, environmental champion
reward titles and mone tary benefits to staff who meet the
environmental objectives and pro motions of managers who show
commitment to environmental sustainability. Moreover, green
empowerment includes the creating the awareness among employees
for dealing with environmental issues, empowering them to make
decisions regarding sustainability practices, educating them on how to
deal with the waste generated as a result of organization processes,
commitment for green programs and orientation to the newly hired
employees, sustainability presentations to create a green culture.
6
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
Fig. 1. Model of the study.
2.7. Theoretical framework
Based on the literature review, the present study tests a theoretical
model (Fig. 1) that demonstrates that green HRM practices impacts
sustainable organizational performance through green employee
empowerment. Research which is not based on theoretical foundations
is considered imprecise(Gürlek and Çemberci, 2020). D. W. Renwick
et al. (2013) ability, motivation, and opportunity lens, which claims
that developing green abilities, motivations, and opportunities offered
to employees lead to performance, and system of green HR, reflect the
organization’s vision, goals, and the strategic importance of the envi
ronment to all of its employees. As a result, green HRM practises will
also have an impact on the organization’s sustainability performance.
Therefore, it is expected that green HRM practices increase the sus
tainability performance of the organizations. Along with green HRM
practices there is another factor that is crucial for improving sustain
ability performance is reciprocity norm of social exchange theory that
is
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812

green employee empowerment(Tariq et al., 2016). Green HRM cannot
be effective and fruitful without considering the role of green employee
empowerment in which employees are empowered to perform green
tasks effectively and efficiently. Therefore, we expect that
sustainability performance of organizations is contingent upon both
theoretical foundations AMO theory and Social exchange theory.
3. Hypothesis development and theoretical support
3.1. Green HRM and sustainable organizational performance
The AMO theory presented by Appelbaum et al. (2000) is generally
used in green HRM and Performance research (Bos-Nehles, Van
Riemsdijk and Kees Looise, 2013; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013).
According to Boxall and Purcell (2003) and Appelbaum et al. (2000),
the AMO theory accentuates that human resource practices may have
a link to organizational performance through initiating the ability of
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
very important. H. H. P. Opatha and Arulrajah (2014) contributed that
functions of Green HRM leads to green attitude among the employees
and this attitude leads to organizational performance. Obaid and Alias
(2015) proved that recruitment of employees and selecting them on
environmental criteria, providing them green training and enabling
green learning culture is positively related to firm performance. Masri
and Jaaron (2017) examined the consequences of green HR practices
on environmental performance in the context of manufacturing
organiza
tions and concluded positive association with environmental perfor
mance. Yusoff et al. (2018) investigated Green HRM practices such as
green recruitment and selection, green training and development,
green awards and green performance management on the
organizational performance and the study pointed out that only green
performance appraisal is statistically insignificant to organizational
performance. S. Roscoe, N. Subramanian, C. J. Jabbour, and T. Chong
the em
ployees for example, recruitment, selection, training and development,
improving the motivation of employees for example rewards and per
formance management and giving the employees opportunity to
participate in suggestions. D. W. Renwick et al. (2013) claimed that
under AMO theory green HRM practices like green recruitment and
selection, green training and development(ability), green performance
appraisals and rewards(motivation) and green opportunities (green
employee empowerment) can affect directly and indirectly to sustain
able organizational performance. AMO lens explains that organizations
through its green recruitment and selection can hire potential green
candidates, train them and motivate them in initiating green tasks
through green training and development, provide them incentives
based on green performance management. Enhancing employees’
abilities and skills, motivating them, providing opportunities to engage
in green tasks and giving them incentives are those determinants that
defines the
performance of an organization such as reduced waste, better
employee health and safety and increased profit.
Green HRM has appeared as new style of triumphant management and
assimilates environmental management to contribute in organiza tional
performance (Al Kerdawy, 2019). Nowadays, managing the
environmental issues depict critical managerial challenges (H. H. P.
Opatha and Arulrajah, 2014) where organizations strive to cutdown
their negative effect on the environment and to improve sustainable
organizational performance(S Ahmad, 2015a,b). Researchers are now
slowly understanding the link between human resources and environ
mental sustainability (Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour, 2013) and ac
cording to Haddock-Millar et al. (2016) for environmental
sustainability HR practices are crucial. Paille et al. (2014) examined
the association among GHRM and environmental performance and the
study revealed a positive connection between GHRM practices and
organizational per formance. S. Dubey and Gupta (2018) investigated
the role of green HRM in boosting environmental sustainability which
not only included the financial aspects of performance but also the
social aspects of per formance and concluded that green initiatives can
enhance employee awareness towards sustainability issues. According
to(Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour et al., 2010) organizations should
merge HRM practices with green management to gain sustainable
organizational performance. Moreover, GHRM practices like green
recruitment and selection, green training and development, green
performance man agement and rewards are essential for gaining
performance(Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour and Santos, 2008; D.
W. Renwick et al., 2013; G. Tang et al., 2018). According to G. Tang et
al. (2018) conventional HRM practices strives for economic outcomes
while green HRM prac tices strives for environmental performance.
Moreover Cherian and Jacob (2012) gave the direction on how todays
organizations can adopt green HRM in promoting environmental
management and proposed that HR role in environmental
management in improving performance is
7
(2019a) empiri cally test green HRM practices to enhance
environmental performance and mediating role of green
organizational culture. The study of (Mar tins et al., 2021) in the
healthcare also confirmed that green HRM practices also enhances the
economic, environmental and social performance.
A review of literature on GHRM, clears that green human resource
management practices are positively related with sustainable organi
zational performance. Therefore, the following hypothesis are
proposed:
H1. There exists a positive relationship between GHRM practices and
sustainable organizational performance. (Main Hypothesis)
H1a. There exists a positive relationship between green recruitment
and selection and sustainable organizational performance (Sub
Hypothesis)
H1b. There exists a positive relationship between green training and
development and sustainable organizational performance (Sub
Hypothesis)
H1c. There exists a positive relationship between green performance
appraisal and reward and sustainable organizational performance (Sub
Hypothesis)
3.2. Green HRM practices and green employee empowerment
According to Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005) and Cook et al.
(2013) social exchange is the most prominent paradigm in perceiving
the workplace behaviour. Almost sixty years ago, Homans (1958) gave
the idea of social behaviour based on mutual exchange. Homans in
1961, p.13 defined social exchange as “an exchange of activity,
tangible or intangible, and more or less rewarding or incurring a cost
between at least two persons”. Specifically Homans and Behavior
(1961) empha
sized that social behaviour is the process of mutual cooperation over
the time, moreover the relationship can be effected due to lack of
mutual cooperation and unevenness in rewards and costs. According
to Blau (1964) “Social exchange refers to voluntary actions of
individuals that are motivated by the returns they are expected to
bring and typically do in fact bring from others.” However Emerson
(1976) gave a more transformed idea that positive behaviour is
reciprocated and rewarded. When employees receive what they feel as
encouraging treatment from their organization, the employees will
return more positives outcomes that will impact positive
organizational outcomes(Kim and Ko, 2014). Green HRM from the
lens of social exchange theory suggests that when an organization
implements green policies, green training sessions, green rewards
systems for the employees it enables a conducive pro environmental
behavior among employees. Green empowerment and support from
the managers, environmental rewards, green training sessions, giving
voice to employees to perform green tasks, providing an environment
to employees where they can exchange their ideas with the
management in solving environmental issues of the organization
creates a sense of corporate social responsibility and motivates the
employees to perform their green tasks more effectively which in turn
enhances the
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
green performance of the organization therefore this theory explains
the linkage between green human resource management practices and
green employee empowerment in anticipating sustainable organiza
tional performance.
Consequently, Jose Chiappetta Jabbour (2011) and D. W. Renwick
et al. (2013) based on the AMO paradigm argued that use of green
HRM practices may have a link to environmental performance. But to
have in depth investigation that how the connection among green
HRM prac
tices and sustainable organizational performance works, the researcher
is trying to examine role of green empowerment which further lead to
performance. Therefore, by examining the green empowerment, the
researcher is trying to give an improved test of the theory and
prediction.
Green employee empowerment serves as a key to enhance organi
zational outcomes where employees are encouraged to initiate green
8
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
empowerment in executing tasks related to environmental
management, and giving rewards for environmental tasks on perceived
environmental performance. Daily Bonnie (2012) revealed that
environmental training and environmental empowerment has positive
effect on environmental performance and the effect was mediated by
green teams.
Tariq et al. (2016) conducted a review analysis on employee
empowerment and introduced the term green employee empowerment
and studies the role of GHRM and employee empowerment and found
that empowered employees are more interested in GHRM initiatives.
Further, D. W. Renwick et al. (2016) pointed out that environmental
concerned questions during recruitment and showing them that em
ployees are empowered in green tasks will ultimately attract green
tasks more effectively (Tariq et al., 2016). Moreover, to overcome
environmental issues in the organizations, employee empowerment has
gained significant attention(Daily Bonnie, 2012; Tariq et al., 2016).
Research in green HRM scholarship suggests that the sustainability
performance of organizations is affected by the green HRM practices(Z.
Hameed et al., 2020; Malik et al., 2020) yet the mechanisms of how
green HR practices affect performance has not got much attention, and
this lack of understanding limits how green HR leads to performance.
The current study moves the field of green HRM to a step forward in
incorporating green employee empowerment as the potential inter
vening variable(Tariq et al., 2016) in understanding how green HRM
leads to performance based on the social exchange paradigm(Cook et
al., 2013; Emerson, 1976). Overall the study proposes that green HRM
practices influences positive organizational outcomes through green
employee empowerment from social exchange perspectives. The
current study model uses SET paradigm and proposes that green
employee empowerment serves as link between green HRM practices
and sus
tainable organizational performance and to explain the bond between
green human resource management practices with sustainable organi
zational performance green empowerment of employees is needed. The
researcher expects that the green HRM practices may influence
employee empowerment towards green initiatives this is because the
application of green HRM practices will help employees to identify
organizational environmental issues and how to solve these issues
which further will impact the performance. In doing so the employee
empowerment to green initiatives will provide them an opportunity to
realize their green goals as well as the broader picture of the work
processes. Processes that can support how green HRM practices lead to
performance is still a black-box(Paill´e et al., 2014; Ren et al., 2020)
therefore the researcher is proposing the green empowerment of em
ployees as central to such processes. Moreover, this study will be the
early attempts to empirically examine the green employee empower
ment between green HR practices and performance. To have a partici
pative work environment in pursuit of green and eco-friendly
initiatives, human resource managers have to encourage employees
through empowering them (S Ahmad, 2015a,b; Charbel Jos´e
Chiappetta Jabbour and Santos, 2008). Digalwar et al. (2013) said
that employee empow erment is a mean that allows workers to be
committed and motivated in pursuing excellent environmental
practices and when employees are empowered to initiate and perform
green job in the organization then it is termed as “green employee
empowerment” (Tariq et al., 2016). Tariq et al. (2016) further said
that the notion of combining green HR with green employee
empowerment is acquiring great attention because
employee play important role in organizational issues. Various
Scholars amplify that green human resource practices de pends on
patterns of environmental decisions and behaviors in the or
ganizations(Jackson et al., 2011; Zibarras and Coan, 2015) and in
organizational environmental problems employee empowerment has
gained significant momentum in recent years(B. F. Daily and Huang,
2001; Daily Bonnie, 2012; Ramus, 2002). For Example, Bonnie F Daily
et al. (2007) empirically tested the support of management, training
and
talent and HR manager should consider the importance of developing
green skills. Yusliza et al. (2017) performed work on both industrial
and ser vice industry to check the role of electronic HRM, green
employee empowerment and Green HRM appeared an important and
significant contributor in GEE. Nejati et al. (2017) considered
manufacturing firm to examine the effect of GHRM on GSCM. In that
study green training and development, green pay and reward and
green employee empow erment were appeared as important
determinants from GHRM. Z. Hameed et al. (2020) empirically tested
the Green HRM practices and the role of green employee
empowerment on organizational citizenship behavior for environment.
Based on review of literature on GHRM and GEE, it is clear that green
human resource management practices are positively related with
green employee empowerment. Based on these the following
hypothesis are proposed.
H2. There exists a positive relationship between GHRM Practices and
Green Employee Empowerment. (Main Hypothesis)
H2a. There exists a positive relationship between green recruitment
and selection and green employee empowerment (Sub Hypothesis)
H2b. There exists a positive relationship between green training and
development and green employee empowerment (Sub Hypothesis)
H2c. There exists a positive relationship between green performance
appraisal and reward and green employee empowerment (Sub
Hypothesis)
3.3. Green employee empowerment and sustainable organizational
performance
In order to enhance environmental performance, human resource
managers must encourage employees to get involved in green programs
(S Ahmad, 2015a,b; Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour and Santos,
2008). In this regard HR staff can create a coordinative working
climate where employees can hold different opinion with the
management and can offer various ideas to highlight different
issues(Liebowitz, 2010). Participation of employees in green programs
helps to identify pollution sources, provides solutions in emergency
situations and allows em
ployees to further gave suggestions regarding preventive measures
(Boiral and Paill´e, 2012), resulting in improved performance (D. W.
Renwick et al., 2013). Study conducted by Rothenberg (2003) revealed
that when employees are allowed to participate and involve in envi
ronmental related projects then this contributes environmental
performance.
Massoud et al. (2008) showed that participative work environment
for employees, proper coordination and incentive system enhances
green performance. Manzoor et al. (2019) explored that green HRM
practices like selection, participation, empowerment have positive in
fluence on job performance of the employees whereas training moder
ates the relationship between sustainable HRM and performance. Daily
Bonnie (2012) concluded that environmental empowerment of em
ployees positively impacts organizational performance, moreover
scholars like (Govindarajulu, 2004; Z. Hameed et al., 2020; May and
Flannery, 1995; P. J. Singh and Sangwan, 2011) concluded positive
results of organizational performance with respect to green employee
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
empowerment. Based on review of literature on sustainable organiza
tional performance and GEE, it is clear that green employee empower
ment is positively related with sustainable performance.
H3. There exists a positive relationship between green employee
empowerment and sustainable organizational performance. (Main
Hypothesis)
H3a. There exists a positive relationship between green employee
empowerment and environmental performance (Sub Hypothesis)
H3b. There exists a positive relationship between green employee
empowerment and social performance (Sub Hypothesis)
H3c. There exists a positive relationship between green employee
9
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
empowerment and economic performance (Sub Hypothesis)
3.4. Green employee empowerment a potential mediator
Identify the mediating construct is very important, as it impacts the
relationship between dependent variable and independent variables
(Tariq et al., 2016). The system of green HRM that might possibly
accomplish the required persisting results, a better knowledge of the
mediation processes through which green HRM impacts specific green
and general outcomes is necessary. For example, (Harvey et al., 2013)
discovered that green performance was directed by HRM policies and
practises, but that the impact was mediated by employee attitudes like
dedication and engagement. Further how green empowerment can
mediate between green HRM and sustainable performance is still
needed. A review study of(Tariq et al., 2016) also proposed that green
HRM impact on performance is not direct rather but mediation is
needed to fully explain the mechanism. Employee activities that are
aligned with the organization’s goals and strategy will turn into
improved empowerment and engagement. This improved green
empowerment will provide a way to employees to carry out and
maintain goal-oriented actions. Despite recent progress, research on
how employees react to green human resource management is still in
its early stages. Even in firms with a well-designed green HRM system,
managers are likely to have differing perspectives, interpretations, and
attributions. Under standing how green empowerment processes
influence employee green behaviour is a crucial step in developing a
successful GHRM system. Guerci and Pedrini (2014) took a step in this
approach when they dis cussed managers’ cognitive views about green
HRM in respect to envi
ronmental challenges. Advancing the focus of green HRM research to
incorporate the consideration of mediating processes as well as consid
eration of a broader range of results is beneficial across all areas of the
organization. GHRM implementation might result in a cascade of ben
efits for both firms and employees. Embedding environmental man
agement with HRM systems in an organisation will impact both
organisational and employees’ outcomes(D. W. Renwick et al., 2013).
With this study green employee empowerment is considered as po
tential mediator between green human resource management practices
and sustainable organizational performance (see Fig. 3). The justifica
tion of green employee empowerment that why there is need to study
green employee empowerment as mediator based on recent studies and
these recent studies argued that green employee empowerment serves
as link between green HRM practices and performance and green
HRM enhances performance through green employee empowerment.
The study of (Bonnie F Daily et al., 2007) found significant mediating
rela tionship of empowerment between management support for
environ mental management system and perceived environmental
performance. (D. W. Renwick et al., 2013) called for research needs in
testing employee empowerment as mediator to understand its link to
organi zational outcomes. (Tariq et al., 2016) provided a
comprehensive overview on green employee empowerment as
potential mediator. (Almarzooqi et al., 2019) empirically tested the
mediating relationship of employee empowerment with sustainable
HRM and perceived orga nizational support and employee
empowerment mediated the
 Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812

Fig. 2. Explanatory mixed method approach.

 behavior for the environment, employee green behavior, green
employee engagement, environmental orientation, environmental
knowledge(Benn et al., 2015; Iqbal et al., 2018; Pham et al., 2019;
Safari et al., 2018) and most recent works like of Davis et al. (2020)
linking green HRM with ecological behaviour, S. K. Singh et al. (2020)
worked on green innovation and environmental performance and the
role of green leaderships, Anwar et al. (2020) targeted university
employees and studied green HRM with Organizational citizenship
behavior to environment, Song et al. (2020) worked on determining
the effects of GHRM and environmental concerns in relation to green
innovation, however to identify possible relations between green HRM
and perfor mance that how and why the process of green HRM
influences sus
tainable organizational performance. The reviews by (Benevene and
Buonomo, 2020; Macke and Genari, 2019; Ren et al., 2018; D. W.
Renwick et al., 2013; Tariq et al., 2016; J. Yong et al., 2019) identified
that, employee empowerment to green initiatives can serve as a medi
ator in explaining how green HRM impacts performance. Therefore,
this study based on the recent calls highlighted above
proposes that green employee empowerment is a potential mediator
between green HRM and performance. Moreover, the current study re
lates green HRM and performance based on two theories. The AMO
theory which say that developing green abilities, motivations and op
portunities provided to employees lead to green employee empower
ment and green employee empowerment lead to performance, and
structure of green HR reflects the vision, environmental goals and the
strategic importance of environment to all employees working in the
organization therefore green HRM practices will also influence sus
tainable performance of the organization. The social exchange theory
from the green lens that reflects the importance of exchange behaviors
and helps in explaining the phenomena of green employee empower
ment in understating green HRM and performance link, thus this study
tests theories from the green context in a developing country like
Pakistan. Based on review of literature on green employee empower
ment the following hypothesis is proposed.

H4. GEE mediates the relationship between green HRM practices and
sustainable organizational performance.

4. Methodology
relationship. Z. Hameed et al. (2020) empirically tested the green HRM
The current research used the explanatory mixed complementary
practices and mediating role of green employee empowerment on
approach and connected both quantitative and qualitative results at the
organizational citizenship behaviour for environment. The above
final stage. The quantitative segment which is the dominant method
studies are highlighting the importance of green employee empower
included data collection using questionnaires and then the data was
ment that why there is need to study green employee empowerment as
analysed through Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling.
mediator based on recent studies and the recent studies argued that
In
green employee empowerment serves as link between green HRM.
Moreover the works on constructs like organization citizenship

10
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812

Fig. 3. Full model, visualization results of embedded two stage approach, second
order, stage 2).
the same manner, qualitative data was collected using semi-structured
interviews and was analysed through thematic technique using quali
tative software NVIVO 12. The process followed in a sequential order
and at the final stage, the quantitative findings were complemented
with the qualitative findings. The current research made a
considerable effort and contributed to the body of literature using
mixed method design i.e. explanatory sequential design to address
research objectives at the findings stage using both quantitative and
11
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
above the study used explanatory sequential research design so for
quantitative segment, the unit of analysis for the current study were
public sector hospitals in Pakistan and the key targeting respondents
were the hospital managers of the public sector hospitals in Pakistan.
Data was obtained from organizations(hospitals) and the respondents
(hospital managers) in the respective hospitals who are responsible and
involve directly and have experience in HR policies, developing and
maintaining green policies, implementation environmental manage
ment plans, involved in the green training programs, providing support
services in order to ensure and solve environmental issues raised in the
hospitals were targeted. The criteria of being selected was that in
dividuals hold a management position and has the responsibility for
environmental management of the hospital. In addition, the effect of
GHRM practices, green employee empowerment was assessed at orga
nizational level.
4.2. Survey questionnaire
The current study used standard questionnaire as survey instrument
qualitative techniques in GHRM literature as directed by modern
scholars (Pham et al., 2019; J. Yong et al., 2019). This study adds the
qualitative approach by con necting with the respondents in the field
to obtain inside views as to how they perceive GHRM and green
employee empowerment at work. Thus, the quantitative approach was
used to examine relationships between the variables under this study
while the qualitative lens was used to help in identifying some
emergent factors of green HRM, sustainable per formance and green
employee empowerment that have not been studied in previous
studies. J. Yong et al. (2019) who argued that mixed
methods studies on Green HRM remains very few (see Fig. 2). In
addition, they argued that in order to overcome the weakness of one
method, mixed methods should be applied. Moreover J. Yong et al.
(2019) also claims that mixed method approach is difficult and takes
time and resources but this approach provides rich results that will
contribute heavily to the body of literature on GHRM. This argument
is also supported by (Anwar et al., 2020; Malik et al., 2020) that there
is need to focus on mixed method approach to investigate green HRM
and performance relationship and will help in providing more
insights.
Therefore, the current study filled this methodological gap pointed in
the green HRM literature and applied mixed method that is
explanatory sequential research design to investigate green human
resource man agement practices, green employee empowerment, in
predicting sus tainable organizational performance. Secondly, the
mixed method design is notably well suited in revealing the insights of
the relationships and uncover additional details in a particular field
especially GHRM (Masri and Jaaron, 2017). Moreover, using double
lens of quantitative data and then qualitative data in a sequential way
has significant posi tive effect on informing qualitative data as both
methods are perceived as complementary to each other. The use of
mixed method in the current study helped in improving the
confidence, validity of the results as well as data from both domains
gave better explanation as to why the subject under study was
significant or irrelevant. Pakistan is a multi-diversity country and a
developing nation and both quantitative and qualitative lens helped to
better understand the true nature that how green HRM can be
implemented to gain sustainable performance and how employee
empowerment can mediate in improving sustainable performance.
4.1. Target respondents and unit of analysis
The study used simple random sampling because as per Ministry of
Health Pakistan there were 141 hospitals that were engaged in green
HRM policies and based on Krejcie and Morgan formula for known
sample size the minimum sample was 104 public sector hospitals in
Pakistan and on the safer side 105 hospitals were visited. As discussed
which consisted of three variables, GHRM practices, green employee
empowerment, and sustainable organizational performance. GHRM
practices were based on 18 items survey instrument designed with 5-
point Likert scale adapted from previous work of (Mousa and Othman,
2020). Green Employee Empowerment was measured using 6 items
adapted from the work of (Saeed et al., 2019). Finally Sustainable
Organizational performance will be measured using 18 items and scale
is adapted from Mousa and Othman (2020) and (Abdul-Rashid et al.,
2017). The advantage of scale representing GHRM practices and Sus
tainable Organizational performance taken from Mousa and Othman
(2020) over other green HRM scales like (Gholami et al., 2016; Ran
garajan and Rahm, 2011) is that firstly its reported alpha values,
average variance extracted and item loadings are well established and
in the given ranges, secondly these items are more relevant of judging
envi ronmental aspects of green human resource management and
sustain able organizational performance from the aspect of hospital
industry. Thirdly, these items measure sustainable performance and
green HRM on each dimension and their respective cross-ponding
items. Similarly, the scales of variable, green employee empowerment
from (Saeed et al., 2019) because these scales are more comprehensive
and relevant to the concept in explaining green employee
empowerment in relation to green initiatives and lastly these scales
are from well reputed journals which reflects the credibility of these
scales.
4.3. Pretesting of the instrument (face and content validity)
Although the items of the questionnaire are well validated and well
established and taken from top impact factor journals, yet the
pretesting of the measurement instrument before the full-scale study
improves the quality of the instrument and data. The main purpose of
the content validity is to check that the measures perfectly reflect the
concept. The current study pre-tested the measurement instrument
based on expert’s opinion from four professors in the field of
management. The ques
tionnaire along with the Performa was sent the expert professors to
validate the questionnaire. The current study chooses four experts to
fully validate the questionnaire. During the pretesting process the ex
perts gave useful remarks on the validity of the questionnaire and some
very minor amendments were made. For example, the original item
was “The organization prefers to recruit employees that have
knowledge about environment” and the word organization was
replaced with the word “hospital”
4.4. Pilot scale study
The internal consistency of the data is determined through the
alpha value which is the measuring scale of the reliability(Jose
Chiappetta Jabbour, 2011; Hair et al., 2016) and it reflects stability
between items
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
that are used to measure a construct. The current study used
established scales but on the safer side the study conducted the pilot
testing of 35 hospital managers from Pakistani public hospitals
because (Saunders et al., 2007) directs that sample size for pilot
testing should be more than 30 participants. The alpha coefficients
value of green recruitment and selection was 0.834, green training
and development 0.815, green per
formance appraisal and rewards 0.781. For green employee empower
ment the alpha value was 0.807. The values of environmental
performance, social performance and economic performance were
0.827, 0.793 and 0.817. The purpose of the pilot study is normally to
validate the questionnaire according to the cultural context and as this
study is adapting items that had been previously used in other
countries so it needs to be validated in a developing country like
Pakistan. Therefore, before launching full scale study, first the
instrument was pretested, then pilot study was conducted and at later
stage, full-scale study was conducted.
105 hospitals were visited. Questionnaires among hospital managers
in public sector hospitals in Pakistan which were engaged in green
HRM initiatives were distributed through hospital official channel to
complete the questionnaire and to return in a timely manner. Upon
personal visits questionnaires were dropped to the administration
office and the hos
pital administration informed that approximately each hospital has 5
to 6 hospital managers. After 3–4 weeks another visit was made to
collect the responses. The researcher managed to acquire 564
responses out of 630 and 17 responses were removed due to outliers’
issues. The final sample size was 547.
The advantage of collecting greater sample than the required that it
provides cushion for missing values and outliers removal at later stage
through which the sample size is reduced. Moreover, semi-structured
interviews were administered for collecting the qualitative data. Face
to face interviews were conducted till saturation point. The collected
data was transcribed and was inserted into the qualitative software
NVIVO 12 for coding. NVIVO allows the qualitative scholars to manage
huge data, help researchers to classify, identify and determine themes
and very effectively creates relationships among the generated themes.
For the current study, the researcher designed the interview protocol
based on IPR framework system given by Castillo-Montoya (2016). In
the first step the researcher created the interview protocol matrix
aligning the interview questions with the research questions. In the
second step, the researcher conducted an inquiry with the qualitative
specialist to check the wordings of the questions and how to organize
questions in the best manner possible. The third step was to include
the response from the qualitative specialist. Lastly, the final protocol
was made. Finally, the researcher purposively selected hospital
managers working in the public sector hospitals of Pakistan for the
execution of semi structured interviews. Second the researcher first
visited to the hospital through hospital official channel to do the
interview and informed the administration office about interview
agenda. The administration officer then contacted the respective
hospital managers who were willing to give the interview. Upon their
approval, a day and timing of the interview was set. The researcher
then met the hospital manager and further gave him details about the
project and told him about the purpose of the research and complete
details of the study. As doctors (hospital managers) are busy people
therefore, first their will ingness to participate in interview was be
asked. The interview took place at the respondent organizations room.
Semi structured interviews were conducted with 11 hospital
managers. The sample size for the qualitative study should be between
5 and 50 respondents and it is also contingent upon research
objectives and methodology(Castillo- Montoya, 2016; Korstjens and
Moser, 2018). General rule in qualitative study is to apply the
saturation principle. The saturation principle deals with the collection
of data till a point comes where collecting more data

4.5. Data collection

The whole data collection took around 4 and a half months and

12
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812

does not produce new information and the research has provided the Table 1
maximum information about the phenomenon under study(Korstjens Research items.
and Moser, 2018) therefore, the researcher followed the Constructs Dimensions Items
saturation
principle. Each interview time was noted and seen in Table 2, majority of the hospital man by senior registrars (34%), followed by 17 %
roughly on average the interviews lasted 50–60 agers were male (76 %). In terms of age were medical officers and 13% were
min (see Table 1). specification majority of the hospital manager consultants. Finally, the experience section
were above 50 (36 %) followed by (25 %) were shows that 59% of the hos pital mangers were
4.6. Demographic information of hospital managers below 50 and above 45. Based on the highest having more than 15 years of experience
(quantitative) qualification achieved, 33 % managers followed 26% were having less than 15 years of
achieved the highest medical qualification FCPS experience.
This Section provides the demographic followed by 20 % were MRCP, 18 % have done
characteristics of the hospi tal’s managers. The doctorate and only 9 % were having master’s 4.7. Demographic information of hospital managers
managers details include gender, age, highest qualification. Moreover, as far as the (qualitative)
qualification achieved by the hospital managers, designation is concerned majority of the
their present designa tion and experience. As hospital managers were HODs (34%) followed In total 11 semi structured interviews were
conducted with hospital managers. Table 3
shows the demographic information of hospital
managers of the qualitative section.
5. Data analysis
To test hypothesis the SEM (Structural Equation
Modelling) was used. The utilization of
PLS-SEM, a major multivariate analysis is
nowadays very popular in various research
fields like marketing, human resource
management, accounting, knowledge
management, operations management and
other various business management fields (J.F. Green training and
Hair et al., 2013; Joseph F Hair et al., 2019). development
Moreover, various reasons of performing
PLS-SEM include that it does not desire for
normal distri
bution of the data, it can handle small sample
sizes effectively for both reflective and
formative constructs and is very useful for
analysing predictive research models where
theory is still in the early stages (J.F. Hair et
al., 2013). But the latest developments in PLS
and bootstrap procedures for overall model fit
enables PLS for causal models, i.e. confirmatory
and explanatory study and it can also work for
larger samples sizes as well(Joseph F Hair et
al., 2019). The most important ground is that
PLS is very flexible with regards to assumptions Green performance
and very less rigid as compared to AMOS
where distributional and normality, sample
sizes, homoscedasticity need to be fulfilled. In
addition to that it gives the researcher a room to test their knowledge about
to evaluate models without limitations as in
AMOS (J.F. Hair et al., 2013). The model of this In addition to other criteria, employees are selected based
study is a complex structure and two out of
four constructs are represented as reflective
second order constructs. The current study is
using both first order and
Green HRM practices Green recruitment and selection
appraisal and rewards
The hospital prefers to recruit employees that have
knowledge about environment
Applicants for jobs in the hospital are subject to interviews
Environment
on environmental standards
Job seekers are attracted by the environmental image and
policies of the hospital
The job description includes the job’s environmental
aspects The recruitment message includes hospital’s
environmental values in the job advertisement
Training programs about
environment are provided to large-scale individuals in the Introducing green whistle
hospital
In general, staff are satisfied with hospital’s green training Our hospital provides
Topics offered through green training are modern and
suitable for hospital’s activities
The hospital provides formal environmental training
programs for employees to increase their ability to
promote them
Environmental objectives contain green training and
development aspects
Evaluation of green training and development helps to
measure the employees’ level of green
knowledge and awareness Specific environmental goals are
adopted by every manager and employee in the hospital
When environmental programs are improved, employees in
our hospital are rewarded for their remarkable Ideas
Employees who have achieved or exceeded the
environmental objectives of the hospital are rewarded with
non-cash
equivalents or other cash prizes Section managers reward
staff in their departments when they improve
environmental programs One of the criteria employee
performance assessment is the achievement of
environmental objectives
There are adequate assessments of staff performance after
attending courses on environmental topics
second order constructs except green employee
empowerment which is unidimensional
construct.
The PLS SEM include two major steps, the
measurement model analysis and structural
model analysis. In this study GHRM and Sus
tainable Organizational Performance are
conceptualized as second order constructs. This
study used the embedded two stage as it is easy
to apply in the SMART PLS(Sarstedt et al.,
2019). The first stage of the embedded two
stage is similar to the repeated indicator
approach in which all the lower order items are
loaded to the second order construct(Sarstedt
et al., 2019). In the second stage, latent variable
scores from all the first order construct are
generated to further perform second order
analysis. To run model through Smart PLS first
CMB test was conducted. The presence of
Common method bias occurs in research when
the
Green employee empowerment
– Our hospital recognize employee as a key stakeholder in
the
environmental management
Our hospital provides
opportunities to negotiate with
management about green
workplace agreement
blowing and help-lines
opportunities to the employee to
involve and participate in green
suggestion schemes and joint
consultations for environmental
(continued on next page)

13
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar Table 1 (continued )
Table 2
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Demographic characteristics of hospital managers.
Constructs Dimensions Items
Our hospital offers workshops or Demographic Profile
issues problem solving Feature Frequency Percentage
organizational Gender Male 418 76.42 Female 129 23.58 Increase the volume of recycled
Environmental performance Total 547 100.0 Highest
forums for staff to improve environmental Age Above 35 and below 40 87 15.90 Medical Graduation only 95 17.36
behaviour and exchange their tacit Above 40 and below 45 122 22.30
knowledge Our hospital Involves employeeAbove 45 and Below 50 137 25.05
in formulating environmental strategy
Above 50 201 36.75
Direct and indirect toxic emissions are
Total 547 100.0
reduced in our hospital performance
Sustainable
materials and reduce waste sewage system Physicians and Surgeons Kingdom)
Our Hospital is committed to Qualification Pakistan) MRCP (Membership 176 32.17 112 20.48
the system of separating FCPS (Fellow of College of of Royal Colleges of
medical waste from the public Physicians of United
natural environment such as the
Increase the rate of purchase of presence of green areas in the hospital
environmentally friendly goods (e. g., Reduced the risk of environmental
medicines). accidents such as medical waste
Increase activities that protect our Present
 Designation Diploma in Public Health 12 2.19 Total 13.71 Head of Department 191 34.91
PhD 98 17.91 MPhil/MS 54 9.87 547 100.0 Medical Officer 93 17.00 Total 547 100.00
Senior Registrar 188 34.36 Consultant 75
leakage, poisoning or radiation Demographics profiles of hospital managers.
emissions
Social performance Increase attention in the rules of the health and safety of
employees, especially when using
hazardous materials and radiation
Improving community health and
safety, and infection control
Reducing the impact of the
Hospitals waste on the community
develop and design better service
and participation of staff
Demographic Profile Feature Frequency
initiatives in management
decisions Gender Male 9 Female 2
Increased commitment to Total 11
professional ethics, infection Age Above 35 and below 40 3 Above 40 and below 45 3
control and antibiotic control Above 45 and Below 50 1
policy Above 50 4
Experience Less than 10 years 76 13.89 10–15 years 147 26.87
More than 15 years 324 59.23
total 547 100.0

Table 3
Economic performance
Improved Hospital Image (i.e. Hospital is seen as a
green Hospital)
Decrease in hospital utility bills Decrease in
hospital waste treatment fees
Decrease in hospital waste discharge fees
Reduce the cost of energy use Decrease in hospital
material purchasing cost
instrument has similar scales and same number of response options
(Podsakoff et al., 2012). Common method bias can affect the relation
ship between variables and lead to wrong results. Therefore, the re
searchers before going for analyzing measurement and structural
model assessment must perform common method variance test.
Harman’s one factor test is the most common approach for detecting
common method bias. The test includes two conditions that, first more
than one factor with Eigenvalue greater than 1 and second no one
factor must account for more than 50 percent of the total variance
explained(Bozionelos and Simmering, 2022; Podsakoff et al., 2012).
The researcher conducted the herman test and results showed that 8
factors were having Eigenvalues greater than one therefore the first
condition was met. Secondly the principal factor was 28 percent of the
total variance (Principle Compo nent Analysis) explained hence the
second condition was met therefore the validity of the data is not
affected by common method bias.
et al., 2017; Park and Gupta, 2012). Problems of endogeneity are
Total 11
Experience Less than 10 years 2 10–15 years 4
The issues related to endogeneity has
More than 15 years 5
been broadly addressed in management
total 11
studies, particularly in regression-based
models(Papies
5.1. Robustness checks
related to various roots, such as variance of the common method,
measurement error problems, concurrent causality and latent
variables heterogeneity (Hult et al., 2018).
To prevent the existence of endogeneity issue, normally two main
methods are used, gaussian copula approach and the IV approach(Hult
et al., 2018). For the current study in relation to IV approach, the IV
related to green HRM and green employee empowerment needs to be
unassociated with the omitted determinants of sustainable organiza
tional performance. Table 4 shows the IV induction pointedly increases
the R2 value in the first step when we measured green HRM and GEE
as endogenous constructs. Moreover, the WeakID test values are also
greater than the threshold value of 10 and the Hausman test also shows
a p-value of 0.341. Table 5 of gaussian copula also shows that the
endo
geneity is not an issue in the current model and the effect of gaussian
copula is not a significant equation.

14
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar IV approach results.
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Table 4

Endogenous Variable Point estimation R2 Values WeakID test Wu-Hausman test Green HRM GEE Stage 1 without IV Stage 1 with IV F-value Significant p-value

Green HRM 0.089 0.489 0.488 0.638 67.894 yes 0.341 GEE 0.146 0.249 0.247 0.638 51.426 yes 0.341

Table 5
Result of gaussian copula approach.
variables: Green HRM) Gaussian copula Model 3(endogenous variables: Green
Original Model Gaussian copula Model 1(endogenous Gaussian copula Model 2(endogenous variables: GEE) HRM, GEE

Variable Value p- value Value p-value Value p-value Value p-value Green HRM 0.467 0.000 0.469 0.000 0.463 0.000 0.461 0.000 GEE 0.241 0.000
0.241 0.000 0.247 0.000 0.239 0.000 cGreen HRM – – 0.043 0.776 – – 0.031 0.248 cGEE – – 0.007 0.840 0.004 0.547
namely economic performance, environmental performance, social
performance, green recruitment and selection, green training and
5.2. First order measurement model analysis development, green performance appraisal and rewards and green
employee empowerment. This section put light in testing the
The first order measurement model is based 7 sub dimensions

Table 6
Convergent validity (first Order).
measurement model to determine reliability and validity of the first
order constructs. This includes convergent validity which further in
cludes factor loadings, Average Variance Extraction (AVE), Cronbach’s
Alpha values and composite reliability. It also includes discriminant
validity measurements like FLC (Fornell-Larcker Criterion), HTM ratio
and Cross loadings.
The convergent validity is one of the important criteria’s in the

Constructs Items Factor Loadings Cronbach Alpha Composite reliability Average Variance Extracted rho_A
Env5 0.910 0.629 0.885 0.911 0.931 0.693 0.916 0.897 0.921
Green Recruitment and Selection GRS1 GRS2
Env6
GRS3
Social Performance Soc1 Soc2
GRS4
Soc3
GRS5
Soc4
GRS6
Soc5
Green Training and Development GTD1 GTD2 0.662 0.900 0.886 0.913 0.638 0.893 0.904 0.926 0.676
Soc6
GTD3
Green Employee Empowerment Gee1 Gee2
GTD4
Gee3
GTD5
Gee4
GTD6
Gee5
Green performance Appraisal and Rewards GPA1 GPA2
Gee6
GPA3 0.921
0.719 0.859 0.812 0.720 0.729 0.767 0.706 0.857
GPA4 0.732 0.731 0.772 0.702 0.744 0.841 0.717 0.829
GPA5 0.886 0.726 0.885 0.853 0.840 0.847 0.808 0.775
GPA6 0.761 0.881 0.868 0.790 0.764 0.809 0.861 0.823
Economic Performance Eco1 Eco2 0.783 0.830 0.739 0.750 0.833 0.894 0.866 0.722
Eco3 0.757 0.848
Eco4 0.862 0.897 0.594 0.869 0.845 0.886 0.566 0.851 0.880
Eco5
Eco6
Environmental Performance Env1 Env2
Env3
Env4

15
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar

According to Sarstedt et al. (2019), while analyzing the second

measurement model assessment. It is the validity to which the individual order construct in embedded two stage approach, use the lower order
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
construct latent scores and include these scores as new variables in the
Table 8 datafile and then these scores are used as indicators of second order
items load onto their designated construct and the recommended value measurement model analysis.
for factor loadings is greater than or equal to 0.7 (Joseph F Hair et al., In this study green human resource Management practices and sus
2019). Second the average variance extracted which is the grand mean tainable organizational performance are second order construct with 3
value in relation to the square of loadings and is equal to the commu sub dimensions. Hence, it is necessary to assess the measurement
nality of the construct and the recommended value is greater than 0.5 model for the second order constructs as it will reflect the
or more. The internal consistency of the data is determined through confirmation of the sub dimensions that make up that construct. An
the alpha value which is the measuring scale of the reliability and as extra step was added in the PLS SEM analysis in which the latent
directed by (Joseph F Hair et al., 2019). An alpha coefficient of 70 % scores of the lower order constructs were generated from the first
and more demonstrates that the data is achieving sufficient reliability. order constructs. As stated above the first stage measurement model
Table 6 below shows that the convergent validity is met and up to the analysis was generated using embedded approach, in the second stage
recommended criteria by (Joseph F Hair et al., 2019). the latent variable scores for each lower order construct was used.
Discriminant validity means a construct measure what it intends to
measure and is the extent a construct is different from other construct 5.4. Structural model assessment (Sub hypothesis)
in a research model(Joseph F Hair et al., 2019). An important
criterion for measurement model assessment is the establishment of After establishing measurement model assessment of the first order
the discriminant validity. The discriminant validity is based three
criteria’s; fornell and lacker’s assessment which is the square root of Table 7
the average variance extracted, cross loadings and Discriminant validity (fornell and lacker’s criteria, first Order). EcoP EnvP
heterotrait-monotrait ratio. Fornell and lacker’s assessment implies GEE GPA GRS GTD SocP
that square root of average variance extracted must be greater than
EcoP 0.832
off-diagonal value with other constructs with respect to correlation.
EnvP 0.472 0.813
Moreover, the cross loadings mean that outer loadings of each items GEE 0.277 0.17 0.822
on the related construct must be higher than crossing loadings of the GPA 0.16 0.221 0.33 0.793
other constructs. Finally, HTMT ration refers to the ratio of GRS 0.409 0.532 0.172 0.483 0.771
correlation within the constructs to the correlation between the GTD 0.342 0.497 0.166 0.526 0.753 0.752 SocP 0.477 0.491 0.283 0.18 0.349
constructs and the threshold ratios for the assessment of HTMT is 0.253 0.799

0.90(Joseph F Hair et al., 2019). Table 7 and Table 8 show that the
discriminant validity based on the three criteria explained above is
achieved (see Table 9).
5.3. Second order measurement model analysis
Note: “EcoP = Economic Performance, EnvP = Environmental Performance GEE
= Green Employee Empowerment, GPA = Green performance Appraisal and
Rewards, GRS = Green Recruitment and Selection, GTD = Green Training and
Development, SocP= Social Performance”.
Discriminant validity (HTMT criteria, first Order).
EcoP EnvP GEE GPA GRS GTD SocP
 EcoP
EnvP 0.518
GEE 0.3 0.181
GPA 0.18 0.246 0.37
GRS 0.459 0.591 0.187 0.549
GTD 0.386 0.569 0.187 0.599 0.872
SocP 0.526 0.64 0.318 0.203 0.394 0.289
Note: “EcoP = Economic Performance, EnvP = Environmental Performance GEE
= Green Employee Empowerment, GPA = Green performance Appraisal and
Rewards, GRS = Green Recruitment and Selection, GTD = Green Training and
Development, SocP= Social Performance”.
and second order analysis, the study ran the structural model analysis
and as this study has used PLS-SEM, structural models were tested
through 4 main hypotheses and 9 sub-hypotheses. In this section 9 sub
hypothesis are discussed in which individual level green HRM
practices were tested with green employee empowerment and
sustainable orga
nizational performance (see Table 11).
5.5. Sub hypothesis, direct effects of green HRM practices on sop
The structural model bootstrapping results for path values are given
in Table 12. It was found that on individual level structural analysis,
green recruitment and selection significantly and positively influence
sustainable organization performance having beta value of (0.449), t
value of (8.210) and p value of (0.000). Green training and
development also significantly and positively influence sustainable
organizational performance having beta value of (0.145), t value of
(2.493) and p value (0.013). However, the influence of green
performance appraisal and rewards was statistically insignificant to
sustainable organizational performance having p value of (0.926), t
value (0.093) and beta value of (0.004).
Table 12 provides the structural model bootstrapping results for
path values for green HRM and green employee empowerment
relationship. Green recruitment and selection significantly and
positively influence green employee empowerment, with a beta value
of (0.414), a t value of (45.628), and p value of (0.000). With a beta
value of (0.393), t value of (49.179), and p value (0.000), green
training and development also significantly and positively affect green
employee empowerment. Similarly, the influence of green
performance appraisal and rewards also positively and significantly
related to green employee empowerment having beta value of (0.365),
t value of (44.130) and p value (0.000).
5.7. Sub hypothesis, direct effect of green employee empowerment on sop
Table 12 provides results of relationship of green employee
empowerment with sustainable organizational performance on indi
vidual level performance. Bootstrapping results for path values for
green employee empowerment on individual level performance shows
that green employee empowerment is positively and significantly
related to economic performance having beta value of (0.291), t value
(7.710) and p value (0.000). Moreover, the influence of green
employee empower ment on environmental and social performance is
also positive and statistically significant with beta value of (0.186)
and (0.294), t value (4.568) and (7.374) and p value (0.000)
respectively.
5.8. Structural model assessment, direct and mediation effects (main
hypothesis)
After assessment of measurement model and initial structural model,

5.6. Sub hypothesis, direct effect of green HRM practices on gee

16
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar Convergent validity (second Order).
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Table 9
Loadings
Cronbach Alpha
Composite reliability
Average Variance Extracted
Constructs Dimensions/Items Factor

Green HRM Practices Green Recruitment and Selection 0.908 0.810 0.887 0.726 Green Training and Development 0.907
Green performance 0.728
Appraisal and Rewards
0.842
Sustainable Organizational Performance Social Performance 0.782
Economic Performance 0.797 0.735 0.848 0.651 Environmental Performance
Green Employee Empowerment Gee1 Gee2 Gee5 0.904 0.926 0.676
Gee3 Gee6
Gee4 0.833 0.894 0.866 0.722 0.757 0.848
Discriminant validity (fornell and lacker’s criteria, second Order).
referred to as collinearity. It may result in the study outcomes
becoming more complicated for the interpretation of research. The
recommended values for variance inflation factor as per Hair et al.
(2016) criteria is less

Table 10
Sustainable Green Employee Empowerment values. It can be seen that VIF indicates that direct relationships
Organizational
values are clearly below the are positive and statistically
Performance
0.822 threshold limit of 5. Therefore, significant. Green HRM practices
Green HRM Practices
Green Employee collinearity is not an issue in the are positively related with
Empowerment than 5. Table 13 explains VIF structural model. Overall the model sustainable organizational perfor
Green HRM Practices 0.244 0.852

mance with beta value (0.461), t value of (10.866) and p value (0.000).
Sustainable organizational performance is also positive and
Organizational Performance Moreover, Green HRM practices are also positive statistically significant with beta value of
related to green employee empowerment having (0.181). t value
beta value of (0.244), t value (4.989) and p
Table 11 value (0.000). Similarly, the relationship of
0.294 0.505 0.807 green employee empowerment with sustainable
Discriminant validity (HTMT criteria, second Order).
Sustainable Green Employee Empowerment
Organizational Green HRM Practices
Performance
Table 13
Green Employee Constructs Predictor Constructs VIF(Outer)
VIF values of variables.
Empowerment <5
Green HRM Practices 0.295
Sustainable Organizational Economic Performance 1.433
Sustainable
Performance Environmental Performance 1.458 Social
Organizational Performance
Performance 1.467 GEE1 2.275 GEE2
0.359 0.614
Green Employee Empowerment 3.977
GEE3 2.902
this section discusses the evaluation of the full structural model and GEE4 1.602
testing of the main hypothesis of this study. This study assess the final GEE5 2.164
structural model and as the study have used SMART PLS therefore to GEE6 2.512
assess, Joseph F Hair et al. (2019) recommended five steps which in Green HRM Practices Green Recruitment and Selection 2.371 Green training
and Development 2.511
volves (1)collinearity assessment of construct(VIF), (2) Path co
Green Performance Appraisal and Rewards
efficients, (3) R2 Value, (4) effect size, f2 value, 1.416
2
(5) and predictive relevance Q . Strong Table 12
correlation between the exogenous variables is Sub hypothesis results summary.

Hypothesis No Effects Beta Value T Value P value BC 95 % Confidence

Results
Interval

2.5% 97.5%

H1a Effect of GRS on SOP 0.449 8.210 0.000 0.333 0.549 Accepted H1b Effect of GTD on SOP 0.145 2.493 0.013 0.034 0.258 Accepted H1c Effect of GPA on SOP 0.004 0.093
0.926 − 0.080 0.086 Rejected H2a Effect of GRS on GEE 0.414 45.628 0.000 0.397 0.433 Accepted H2b Effect of GTD on GEE 0.393 49.179 0.000 0.378 0.409 Accepted H2c
Effect of GPA on GEE 0.365 44.130 0.000 0.350 0.382 Accepted H3a Effect of GEE on EnvP 0.186 4.568 0.000 0.103 0.264 Accepted H3b Effect of GEE on SocP 0.294 7.374
0.000 0.211 0.370 Accepted H3c Effect of GEE on EcoP 0.291 7.710 0.000 0.208 0.365 Accepted

Note: GRS: green recruitment and selection, GTD: green training and development, GPA: green performance appraisal and rewards, SOP: sustainable organization
performance, GEE: green employee empowerment, EnvP: environmental performance, SocP: Social performance, EcoP: economic performance, BC: bias corrected,
P: probability value, Number of bootstraps samples for Bias bootstrap confidence intervals: 5000.

17
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar Confidence hypothesis is accepted. 5.9. Deciding the right re
Interval spondents in the qualitative
Table 14 Qualitative data analysis study is the most important
2.5% 97.5%
Mediation analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production 434 and this study employed
(2024) 139812
Hypothesis No Effect T Value As the study is following the purposive sampling because
H4 P
and p value (0.001), mixed method approach, this it is the well-suited for semi
Green employee value
section elaborates the structured interviews and
empowerment mediates the
relationship between green HRM therefore H4, the main qualitative data analysis to purposive sampling strives
practices and sustainable support the quantitative re for choosing re
organizational sults through
performance
BC 95 % complementarity approach.
Total effect of GHRMP on SOP 0.538 hospital managers through purposive sampling
Direct effect of GHRM on SOP technique. Interviews were recorded in MP3
0.505 13.543 0.000 0.424 0.573 0.461 10.866 0.000 0.371 spondents based on a specific goal rather than audio player and then transcribed into microsoft
randomly selecting par ticipants. Therefore, semi
structured interviews were conducted with 11
Effect of GHRM on GEE 0.244 4.989 0.000 0.141 0.333 Effect of GEE on SOP the NVIVO12 the most appropriate software for qualitative data anal
0.181 3.816 0.000 0.083 0.271 Indirect Effects – – – – –

word file and then theses microsoft word documents were installed in
GHRMP➝ GEE➝SOP 0.244x0.181 = 0.044 ysis. The thematic analysis is an appropriate various related concepts of the variable being
0.000
technique as it allows the researcher to identify
Total Indirect Effect 0.044 0.000 Moreover, green employee empowerment explained by green HRM
Note: GHRMP: green human resource management practices, SOP: sustainable practices by 5.8% (0.058). According to (J. Cohen, 1988; Hair et al.,
organization performance. 2016), f2 value of 0.02, 0.15 and 0.35 is considered small, moderate
GEE: green employee empowerment: bias corrected, P: probability value, and large respec tively. Green HRM practices have moderate effect size
Number of bootstraps samples for Bias bootstrap confidence intervals: 5000. on sustainable organizational performance having f2 value of 0.28 and
small effect size on green employee empowerment having f2 value of
(3.816) and p value (0.000). Thus, giving support to the hypothesis 0.063 and the effect of green employee empowerment on sustainable
proposed therefore all main direct hypothesis H1, H2, H3 are accepted organizational perfor mance is also small having value of f2 0.043. In
(see Table 14). addition to the coeffi cient of determination and effect size, the Smart
The value of R2 reflects that cumulative impact of independent PLS also enables to check the percentage of variance caused in the
variables on the dependent variables. R2 value of 0.283 which counted dependent variable by all independent variables. A Q2 value of larger
a significant amount (28.3%) of variance reflects that sustainable orga than zero for an endogenous variable indicates the predictive
nization performance in this study is explained by green HRM relevance of the path model results for the variable(Hair et al., 2016).
practices and green employee empowerment about 28.3% (0.283). Predictive relevance for green employee empowerment was 0.180 and
 for sustainable organizational perfor mance was 0.037. Values are
above zero which reflects that predictive relevance have achieved
with respect to the independent variable.
5.8.1. Mediation analysis (Indirect effect of green employee empowerment) screening of themes was based on the researcher judgment and the
The recent developments in determining the mediation effect is based
on the bootstrapping technique, in which the indirect effect and respondent’s views. The advan
standard deviations and bootstrap confidence interval is calculated. tage of using NVIVO 12 is that it allows the researcher to locate par
Joseph F Hair et al. (2019) explains the phenomena of the intervening
(mediation) mechanism. The Smart PLS measures indirect effects of the
variables using partial least square method. Moreover, the estimation
of references reflect that how much a particular theme is important in
the indirect effects is calculated using bootstrapping confidence in
tervals. In addition, the bootstrap is a nonparametric approach for
analysing hypothesis and estimates the effect sizes without considering
the assumptions of normality in the data(Joseph F Hair et al., 2019). In
the current study, the mediation type is the complementary mediation
as both direct and indirect effect are positive and statistically
significant and the product of all the path coefficient are positive and
statistically significant. This means that green employee
empowerment mediates the relationship between green HRM practices
and sustainable organiza tional performance having indirect effect of
(0.044) with t value 3.208
studied(Braun and Clarke, 2006). The study has used the thematic
analysis technique which includes, code the transcript, identify the
themes, develop networks among the themes, elaborate the themes,
summarize the themes and finally interpret the themes. Moreover, the
matic networks were created to explore themes from the interview
manuscripts and then these networks were given graphical representa
tion. To perform the thematic analysis this study used NVIVO12 and
the data was put into the software to do the analysis.
5.10. The thematic process for green HRM and performance
The term thematic coding in NVIVO 12 means generating nodes
and these nodes represent the concepts, ideas, thoughts and
viewpoints of respondents. Through the auto coding option in NVIVO
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
sustainable organizational performance. The matric coding query in
NVIVO 12 highlighted that green recruitment and selection with 9
sources and 18 coding references through content analysis. Green
training and development had 10 sources and 15 coding references.
Green performance appraisal and rewards represented 7 sources and 12
coding references. Childe nodes and Parent nodes in the see Fig. 4 are
representing themes of green HRM that were predicting the sustainable
organizational performance in public sector hospitals in Pakistan.
5.11. The thematic process for green employee empowerment and
performance
To answer the second “Is there any green employee empowerment in
your organization to improve the sustainable organizational performance?”
the thematic analysis showed that 9 child nodes see Fig. 5 were
emerged from the concept “green employee empowerment” that were
explaining benefits of green employee empowerment and how it
enhanced sus
tainable organizational performance. The matrix coding query repre
sented 8 sources and 24 coding references. For example, due to green
employee empowerment child nodes that were generated were the
environmental dedication of managers and employees contributed to
environmental performance of the hospital, free flow of green ideas
was generated to solve environmental problems of the organization,
devel opment of the environmental culture, circulation of green vision
across the organization and proper environmental management
systems. The
12, nodes were generated. Further, the researcher performed the axial
coding. Axial coding is a qualitative technique which enables to reveal
codes that are interrelated and to break down the themes(Buetow,
2010). The next step was to refine and further screen the themes. The
themes generated were accurately rechecked to represent the
ticipants who show more importance to a particular concept or theme,
the files option in NVIVO 12 means the participants and the references
means the number of coding for a particular node. The coding
the eyes of respondents and if the number is less it means that a
particular theme is less important or not related to the study. Finally,
the researcher coded the variables or themes reflecting green HRM,
green employee empowerment and sustainable organizational
performance. The the matic networks in NVIVO 12 allows the
researcher to make a tree like structure and the nodes which represent
the themes were developed in the current study that reflects a tree like
structure. Moreover, the NVIVO 12 automatically adopts the family
values concept in which the top code is parent code and lower code is
child code.
In the current study, thematic analysis was conducted to get
answers of the research questions from NVIVO 12 software. There
were three main questions that “(1) Does your organization use green
HRM practices like green recruitment and selection, green training and
development of em
ployees and green performance appraisal and rewards to improve
sustainable organizational performance”? (2) “Is there any green employee
empower ment in your organization to improve the sustainable
organizational perfor mance?” (3) “What performance improvements your
organization got from green HRM and green employee empowerment”?
In response to question (1) after running the thematic analysis in
NVIVO 12, green HRM initiatives that emerged were green recruitment
and selection(child), green training and development(child) and green
performance appraisal and rewards(child). Green HRM was the parent
theme and three child themes were emerged that were explaining
18
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Fig. 5 shows the tree of green employee empowerment themes.
5.12. Valuation of sustainable organizational performance in public
healthcare sector of Pakistan
To answer third question “What performance improvements your or
ganization got from green HRM and green employee empowerment”? the
thematic analysis was performed to investigate the parent and child of
sustainable organizational performance in public hospitals of Pakistan.
Child themes of sustainable organizational performance were environ
mental performance, economic performance and social performance.
Further, the child themes of environmental performance were low rate
of environmental accidents this is due to the fact that when employees
are properly trained the accidents ratio is decreased, less emissions
from hospital waste management reveals that waste is managed
properly and disposed of, proper system of separating medical waste
with general waste. Similarly, child themes of economic performance
that were emerged are reduction in electricity bill, less waste
treatment cost, material purchasing cost reduce etc. Themes of social
performance were community development initiatives, health and
safety rules commit ment, professional ethics and infection control
policy in hospitals. All these themes generated are highlighting the
importance of green HRM practices and green employee
empowerment in gaining sustainable organizational performance. The
matrix coding query highlighted that economic performance with 9
sources and 22 coding references,
 Fig. 4. Tree of green HRM themes.

19
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
 Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812

Fig. 5. Tree of green employee empowerment themes.

hospitals it is necessary that the healthcare human resource
management should be organized in a way that it should make greater
efforts in achieving sustainability. Therefore, the HRM systems should
be merged with environment management and this merging of HRM
with environment management is called as Green HRM(D. W. Renwick
et al., 2013). The roots of green HRM lies in the idea of merging
sustainability in firm activities and decision making. The 2030 agenda
out of 17 sustainable development goals draws attention to the
importance of healthcare sector to improve its green performance by
recruitment, training, development and retention of healthcare staff in
developing countries to reduce environmental risks and managing
global health risks. In other words, low sustainable performance of
hospitals is attributed to a dearth of green HRM practices. The term
green human resource management is a modern approach to
understand the human resource functions and merging environmental
management in the sub zones of the human resource management,
that is hiring, selecting, developing and evalu
ating, hence environment friendly human resource functions. The
major aim of Green HRM is to boost green organizational
performance. Another important factor mentioned by (Tariq et al.,
2016) is empow erment of the managers and staff. The greening of
human resource functions with employee empowerment from the
green perspectives is getting attention because in an organizational
outcome the employees perform a major role. To solve organizational
environmental problems, green employee empowerment has gained
notable attention among scholar like(Ren et al., 2018; Tariq et al.,
2016). The terms green employee empowerment in relation to the
context of this study means
that the managers empowers and allow their lower level managers and
staff in incorporating green learning environment, allowing them to
give suggestions on how to solve environmental issues in the hospital,
environmental performance had 11 sources and 22 coding references making green teams in the hospital that manage health and safety op
and social performance had 7 sources and 18 coding references. Childe erations in the hospitals, motivating employees to perform green tasks
nodes and Parent nodes in the see Fig. 6 are representing themes sus and involving them in meeting that are related to environmental
tainable organizational performance in public sector hospitals in agenda. Therefore, green HRM cannot be effective and fruitful without
Pakistan. consid ering the role of green employee empowerment and sustainable
per formance issue can be solved by green HRM practices along with
6. Discussion and conclusion the empowering employees to perform green tasks. Lastly
organizations should use green HRM practices and empower
To overcome the sustainable performance challenge in the health employees to improve sustainable organizational performance. Due to
care sector of Pakistan and to embrace the sustainability in the the sustainable perfor mance issue in the healthcare sector of
 Pakistan(Mukhtar et al., 2018), the objective of this study was to
investigate the influence of green HRM practices on sustainable
organizational performance along with the mediating role green
employee empowerment between green HRM and sustainable
organizational performance. The study was conducted through a
mixed method approach. The quantitative segment used quantitative
data to answer the research questions and then sequentially followed
by qualitative data of 11 hospital managers to support and
complement quantitative findings. The quantitative segment results
showed that green HRM practices influence sustainable organizational
performance in a positive way. In addition to this, the green HRM
practices also positively influenced green empowerment and green
employee empowerment mediated the relationship between green
20
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
Fig. 6. Tree of sustainable organizational performance
HRM practices and sustainable organizational performance. Similarly,
this study developed a mediation model based on previous gaps
identified in the literature and the model was empirically tested by
filling theory gaps. Moreover, the complementary qualitative findings
also supported the quantitative part and revealed that child themes of
green HRM practices were green recruitment and selection, green
training and development, green performance appraisal and rewards
and green employee empowerment is also an important theme in
predicting sus tainable performance of the hospitals.
The study proposed 13 hypothesis which included 4 main
hypothesis and 9 sub hypotheses. The main hypothesis H1 was
accepted and the
themes.
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812

two-sub hypothesis H1a and H1b were also accepted. The results of the
current study are in line with the findings of (Mousa and Othman,
2020; Ren et al., 2020; Rothenberg et al., 2016; G. Tang et al., 2018),
where Green HRM practices brought fruitful results in relation to
sustainable organizational performance. Particularly in the current
study, green training and development was considered the most
effective practice to boost sustainable organizational performance
apart from other green HRM practices this is due to the reason that
training equips the em
ployees with enhanced skills and knowledge and inspires them to be
innovative and due to increase in environmental issues, organizations
are now willing to groom employees by providing them green training
21
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
managers who shared their views regarding green performance
appraisal and reward system in their hospitals. hospital manager (D)
shared his views that “There are awards and certificates handed out for
excellent performance but no financial incentives for hospital staff members
that boost the environmental performance of the hospital. Despite the fact
that if our hospital provides its employees benefits such as certificates and
other perks of a similar nature, I am of the opinion that providing adequate
per
formance incentives in the form of money will improve the hospital’s ability
to maintain its success over the course of time”. Similar argument was
given by hospital manager (E) “I believe that culture of public
organizations is different from corporate world. The people who work at
our hospital get fewer perks than they used to. In the normal course of
things, we do give out cer
tificates and rewards for better performance. However, there are no grants
for the hospital staff who help make the facility greener. I think that giving
appropriate performance rewards in the form of money would help the hos
which will enable them to obtain certain skills in improving environ
mental profile and goals of the firms. Moreover, the qualitative
findings also complemented the quantitative findings where hospital
managers agreed that green training and development brought them
enhanced results. For example, hospital manager(A) revealed that
“Green training and involvement I believe is the most important part of our
HRM system in the hospital and is considered an essential priority for the
hospital, as it con
tributes to its sustainable development and sustainable performance, it is
essential for effecting successful activities related to environmental manage
ment. And adopting this green environmental approach in hospital improved
employees’ skills, awareness, and knowledge related to both hospital waste
management and green performance” Similarly hospital manager (C) also
responded in the same manner “I believe that the hospital’s human
resource management system would suffer greatly without the emphasis
placed on green training and participation. The hospital’s green
performance and the staff’s waste management skills and environmental
consciousness have both improved, thanks to this approach. Eco-friendly
education brought several
advantages, including the reduction of waste, the maximising of efficiency
in resource use, and the eradication of pollution.” Regarding the green
recruitment and selection hospital manager (C) replied “Our hospital’s
public image has improved, employee morale has gone up, green
performance has gone up, and the atmosphere is more empowered because
of this approach to recruitment”.
But on the other hand, the hypothesis H1c was not accepted and green
performance appraisals and rewards had no influence on sus tainable
organizational performance and the effect was statistically
insignificant. This study contradicts with the previous findings of(Zaid
et al., 2018) where green performance appraisals and rewards were
positively related to sustainable organizational performance. However,
this study is in line with the findings of(Malik et al., 2020; J. Y. Yong
et al., 2020; Yusoff et al., 2018) and this insignificant of green perfor
mance and rewards in relation to sustainable organizational perfor
mance is based on various factors that organizations sometime face
financial challenges and it is difficult to have a proper reward system
and to have a well-established appraisal system. Moreover, the
hospitals in this study were from the public sector and the availability
of funds is based on the government priority that where to utilize
funds properly. Another reason that this study contradicts with(Zaid et
al., 2018) because their study was conducted in the manufacturing
sector which has a corporate culture therefore rewards system in
corporate entities is better than in public entities. Lastly,(Zaid et al.,
2018) research was conducted in Palestine and this study was
conducted in Pakistan therefore cross-cultural variation also need to
be considered. Qualitative findings in this study do reveal that green
HRM practices brings better sustainable organizational performance
but there were hospital
pital keep up its good work over time but it depends upon the budget and the
government policies.
The main hypothesis H2 was accepted and the three-sub hypothesis
H2a and H2b and H2c were also accepted. Results of this hypothesis
are in line with the previous works of(Nejati et al., 2017; Saeed et al.,
2019; Yusliza et al., 2017) and reflects the importance of green HRM
in initi
ating green empowerment which serves as key for green behaviour
among employees. The study identified that green empowerment of
employees is a potential factor that is influenced by green HRM initia
tives and these green HRM initiatives have positive relationship with
green employee empowerment. Moreover, empowering employees to
initiate green tasks and giving them authority helps HR managers to
implement green initiatives in the organizations at higher level. Orga
nizations that foster more empowerment in terms of green tasks and
recognize their employees a key player in environmental sustainability
benefits organizations to achieve sustainable objectives which in turn
improve organizational performance. Similarly, providing a clear green
vision during the recruitment and selection stage by the hiring staff to
the employees being recruited creates a sense of responsibility among
employees for green initiatives. It also symbols that organization is
supportive for environmental initiatives and employees also feel proud
to be a part of that organization. Hence H2a was accepted. Moreover,
H2b stated that the green training and development was also positively
related to green employee empowerment. This reflects that ensuring a
green learning climate, offering workshops for green development,
providing proper training to pursue green tasks enhances the will of
employees to respond to environmental management initiatives and
this is also supported by (Nejati et al., 2017; Tariq et al., 2016) that
green training and development greatly influence green empowerment
of employees. As far as the impact of green performance appraisal and
rewards is concerned it also have positive relationship with green
employee empowerment and it reflects that not only green training is
essential for empowerment but green empowerment need to be sup
ported by incentives and green rewards should be given to those em
ployees who show a better performance for fulfilling green objectives
and this finding is in line with the(Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour
et al., 2010; Nejati et al., 2017) which confirms that employees in
those organization that have proper appraisal and rewards system are
more empowered than others.
The qualitative findings regarding green employee empowerment
reflected that it is an important component that gives fruitful benefits.
The hospital manager (A) on a question regarding green employee
empowerment responded that “As hospital manager, we provide oppor
tunities to employees and provide voice in environment management and get
their suggestions on solution for environmental problems in the hospital.
Managers support empowering employees in decision making for environ
ment management which enhances the problem-solving skills of an employee
and improve organizational performance. My superiors also support me
through various formal and informal communication channels and I
emphasize articulating a clear environmental vision for employees to work
together, share knowledge, and propose new solutions for complex problems
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
and to improve green performance thus green human resource management
is the key to initiate green empowerment”.
The hospital manager(F) speaking about green employee empower
ment responded that “I can say that we provide employees opportunities,
give them a say in environmental management, and propose a solution for
environmental problems that develop within an organisation. The capacity
of an employee to solve issues and the performance of the company as a
whole is improved. We do provide chances for participation, and by
promoting open discussion, the free exchange of ideas, and the presenting
of many points of view on topics relating to environmental concerns, these
opportunities help to establish an environmental culture inside the medical
centre. One of my main duties as a Manager to get input from my seniors
and is to make sure that an environmental vision is clearly stated and that
personnel is informed about environmental actions via a number of formal
and informal communication channels”
The hospital manager(K) replied “. I believe that green HRM helped
the medical centre build a culture that cares about the environment by
22
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
psychological mechanisms in a green manner which further lead to
performance. In the current research, the researcher made a
proposition that green HRM practices affect green employee
empowerment and green employee empowerment positively impacts
the sustainable organizational performance, thus it is then logical that
GEE Mediates the Relationship between Green HRM practices and
Sustainable Organiza
tional Performance(H4). Based on the results H4 was accepted. The
GEE is a potential mediator between Green HRM and sustainable
perfor mance because employees tend to inclined towards green
initiatives and feel green empowerment through green HRM initiatives
and then they are more engaged and involved to meet green goals of
the organization. This enhanced feeling of green empowerment in
them towards green goals improves sustainable performance for
example, environmental pollution generated as a result of
organization activities is properly managed when employees are
allowing open conversation, the free flow of ideas, and the presentation of
different points of view on issues related to the environment” Therefore
based on the above findings green HRM practices have a positive link
with green empowerment of employee.
The main hypothesis H3 was accepted and the three-sub hypothesis
H3a and H3b and H3c were also accepted. No doubt an empowered
green workforce impacts green performance of the organizations and it
has implications for improved performance. For example, employees
feel motivated and perform green tasks assigned to them. The process
of giving them a chance to negotiate with managers in dealing with
envi
ronmental issues of the organization influences the sustainable organi
zational performance. The results are in correspondence with previous
works of(Daily Bonnie, 2012; Govindarajulu, 2004; Z. Hameed et al.,
2020; Islam et al., 2020) where green empowerment impacts overall
performance of organizations. Moreover, this green approach to
empowerment also impacts economic performance of organization like
it enhances profitability and make organization very efficient in the
consumptions of its own resources. This notion that green
empowerment leads to positive economic impacts are also supported
by(Nejati et al., 2017; Tariq et al., 2016) therefore H3c was accepted.
Similarly, envi ronmental performance is also enhanced by
empowering employees to perform green tasks and the importance of
green empowerment in the environmental issues of the organization
has been highlighted by various scholars like (Bonnie F Daily et al.,
2007; Govindarajulu, 2004; D. W. Renwick et al., 2013) Benefits of
green employee empowerment results in reduction in waste
generation, emissions control, reduction in environmental accidents
thus ultimately improving environmental performance of the
organization hence H3a was accepted. The green employee
empowerment also fosters social performance like better commitment
to health and safety rules, sustainable initiatives for com munity
development and helping management to have decision that reflect
social responsibility initiatives and this is in line with(Daily Bonnie,
2012; Tariq et al., 2016). The qualitative findings also high lighted the
importance of green employee empowerment for instance, hospital
manager (E) “It is a top priority for the hospital because it con tributes to
the hospital’s long-term growth and performance and is needed to do
environmental management activities well and by putting this green strategy
into place improved hospital performance, the staff’s skills, knowl edge and
understanding of how to handle hospital waste” hospital manager (C)
responded “Green employee empowerment is essential to boosting green
performance because it fosters a work environment where employees are
more likely to work together, share knowledge, and develop novel
approaches to solve problems” Therefore based on the above findings
green employee empowerment has positive link with sustainable
organizational performance.
The main objective of this study was to see the mediating role of
green employee empowerment. The previous research on green HRM
literature (D. W. Renwick et al., 2013; Roscoe et al., 2019b) suggested
that green HRM initiatives affect the employee’s behaviour and
empowered to perform green tasks freely, implementation of health
and safety rules are followed actively, energy efficiency is gained,
organization becomes corporate social organization and less impact of
organization activities on the local community, innovate green ideas
are discussed by the employees and managers in meetings with top
management, ultimately improving organizational performance. The
results of this study reflect the importance of the mediating variable
green employee empowerment which was high
lighted in previous conceptual studies(D. W. Renwick et al., 2013;
Tariq et al., 2016). Moreover, the findings also reflect a
correspondence with the previous works of(Z. Hameed et al., 2020;
Shen et al., 2018) where green employee empowerment emerged as a
potential intervening mechanism between green HRM practices and
employees’ psychological processes that lead to sustainable
performance.
The qualitative findings also reflected the strategic importance of
green employee empowerment in the organizations. Hospital managers
agreed that green employee empowerment is a powerful initiative to
deal with organizational environmental issues and employees feel free
to make decision on how to manage and perform green tasks assigned
to them. Previous works have confirmed the influential role green
employee empowerment in improving sustainable performance(Daily
Bonnie, 2012; Z. Hameed et al., 2020). Green HRM practices along
with strong employee empowerment for green tasks drives
organizations to have enhanced green performance and become
socially responsible. Hospital manager (A) responded on green
employee empowerment “In my opinion green employee empowerment
has brought us many benefits, hospital image is improved, the staff is
happier, reduction in environmental accidents and waste leakages, less
usage of paper and both managers and staff have become socially
responsible “hospital manager (B) reflected on green employee
empowerment that “By practising green HRM, our HR system is more
structured and work in a systematic way. We offer platforms and
workshops for our staff on the adopting green culture in the hospital. The
staff is allowed to highlight the environmental issues, give feedbacks and in
formation on environmental plans” Likewise the hospital manager (F)
response on green employee empowerment revealed that “I have got full
support from the director HR to discuss key things on how to keep hospital
environment clean and to further communicate with the staff working under
me to implement green practices in the hospital. This has led our employees
to actively participate in green campaigns, environmental programs such as
tree planting and hospital waste disposal seminars.” The hospital manager
(D) responded that “Our hospital performance has improved, based on the
environmental impact assessment report of our hospital, we have reduced
the emissions resulting from hospital solid waste, low rate of environmental
ac cidents. We have environmentally friendly packaging for medicines, envi
ronmental banners in the hospital to stop spreading the waste. From an HR
perspective I believe that both green HR and environmental empowerment
has inspired our staff to present their ideas about environmental protection
and to promote green initiatives in the hospitals. The findings of the
results are consistent with the previous works of(Daily Bonnie, 2012;
Z. Hameed et al., 2020; Moraes Silvana de et al., 2019). In general, the
quantitative and qualitative findings have revealed that organizations
have now recognized the value the of employees and considered them
as an asset
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
in gaining not only economic performance but also the social and
environmental performance. The knowledge and experience of em
ployees about performing green tasks promote organizations to become
socially responsible. Hospital managers stressed on the importance
green HRM and GEE in enhancing the sustainable organizational per
formance. In sum, it is found that sustainable organizational perfor
mance is influenced green HRM. In addition, all Hospital Managers
highlighted the leading role of GEE as a decisive driver of the
sustainable performance. Hospital Managers agreed that committed
staff in terms of green initiatives plan and establishes environmental
policies and execute them in a refined manner.
7. Implications of the study
7.1. Theoretical implications
From the theoretical point of view, the current study contributes by
23
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
two perspectives, environmental management and Human resource
management and according to Whetten (1989) cross-disciplinary study
adds to theory building. This study shows that researchers from the
domain of environmental management can also take HR factors crucial
for environmental planning in the light of AMO and SET paradigm. By
combining the two domains HR and environmental management for
improving sustainable performance, this study contributes on green
HRM literature(D. W. Renwick et al., 2013) and environmental man
agement literature(Charbel Jos´e Chiappetta Jabbour et al., 2010) that
HR collaboration with environmental management supports employees
to perform green tasks and creates a win-win scenario for
organizations.
progressing knowledge in green management literature that has
emerged due to the global environmental problems. An increasing
number of academics have supported the implementation of green
HRM initiatives for achieving environmental sustainability in the
organiza
tion, but very little has been done to identify potential links between
green HRM and performance that how and why the process of green
HRM influences environmental, economic and social performance. This
study advances research on the green HRM literature by integrating
two theories AMO theory and SET theory to clarify green
HRM-sustainable organizational performance via green employee
empowerment. The study responds to the call of testing the
application of AMO and SET theory by(D. W. Renwick et al., 2016;
Tariq et al., 2016) and showed that recruitment and selection from
green perspectives and green training and development provides
(Ability) to employees to increase their awareness and knowledge on
environmental issues and to execute green ideas in the organization.
Moreover, green rewards to employees provides them (Motivation) to
perform green tasks in a more refined way and providing employees
(Opportunity) to participate in imple mentation of green agendas
reduces environmental issues and improves sustainable performance.
Despite this, only green HRM initiatives may not always produce
better performance results for reducing environ
mental impacts(D. W. Renwick et al., 2013) employees must be
empowered(Tariq et al., 2016) and encouraged to drive new green ini
tiatives and based on social exchange theory that when employees are
empowered to perform green tasks, in return they show positive
commitment which further impacts performance. Therefore, the effec
tiveness of green HRM system cannot be ensured without simulta
neously empowering employees for green tasks and green HRM and
performance relationship via the mediating role of green employee
empowerment from the SET perspective is a key step towards more
deep theoretical understanding.
Second, the current study applied AMO theory and SET paradigm
in the context of healthcare industry as compared to previous studies
in education sector(Anwar et al., 2020) and manufacturing
organizations (Zaid et al., 2018). The previous works on green HRM
was limited to corporate organizations, thus this study extends green
HRM and OB research (green employee empowerment) in public
healthcare organi
zations in Pakistan. It also reflects and contributes to literature on hos
pital management that how to make hospitals green from the
behavioural perspectives and the role of green HRM practices in
improving hospital performance. Moreover, this study showed that
GEE of the healthcare staff has significant impact on all the triple
bottom line parameters of performance. Further, more this study also
supported the theoretical stance of(Tariq et al., 2016) who made a
proposition of the mediating role of green employee empowerment
and revealed the pos itive role of GEE in improving sustainable
organizational performance therefore, this study adds to the literature
by revealing less-researched
mediating role of GEE between green HRM and performance. Third,
the current study is cross-disciplinary as the study is merging
Lastly, to overcome the limitation of one method, the study con
tributes to the literature by advancing knowledge on green HRM and
Performance relationship by deploying mixed method. Previous studies
in green HRM and performance literature either used quantitative
(Shoaib et al., 2022)or qualitative examination(Islam et al., 2020).
However, mixed method studies were ignored and to address this gap,
this study utilized mixed method approach. By deploying mixed
method approach, this study draws attention towards importance of
one factor that is green performance appraisal and rewards which
have been found to have insignificant relationship with sustainable
organizational per formance in the quantitative segment of the study
and during the interview sessions, the hospital managers highlighted
that public orga nizations have different mindset for rewarding
employees and still change management is required to overcome the
issues of proper per formance appraisals and rewards. In addition to
this, no financial in centives were provided to employees due to lack of
funds by the government. However, hospital managers agreed that
providing money rewards can brings benefits.
7.2. Practical implications
The findings of the current research provide evidence-based
practical implications to healthcare industry about the significance
and contri butions of different green HRM practices towards green
employee empowerment and sustainable organizational performance.
The results will provide direction to the policy makers in the
healthcare industry to shape and transform healthcare staff towards
green behaviour and to improve hospital performance. Recruitment
and selection from the green perspectives will enable hospitals to hire
employees having environmental mindset. In addition to this green
training and develop ment programs to solve environmental issues will
provide them up to date knowledge and they will be more likely
engaged in green initiatives and hospital staff will put extra effort for
the environmental manage ment of the hospital. Similarly, green
performance appraisal and re wards, particularly in the form of
financial incentives will motivate the employee to present their full
effort in performing green tasks. The green employee empowerment
initiatives in the hospitals can help policy makers and top
management of the hospital to take suggestion from the managers and
lower staff in solving the environmental issues of the hospital
particularly healthcare waste which is causing serious envi ronmental
damages in Pakistan. Through this study, hospital managers are
suggested to finance more in green initiatives to take benefits and to
improve hospital performance. Examples of these green initiatives are
healthcare waste reduction, improvement in the healthcare emissions
rate. The mediation model developed in this study will help hospital
managers and the healthcare sector to promote green initiatives as well
as it will also guide to those hospitals to improve their hospital perfor
mance that are not following the green HRM practices and green
empowerment initiatives. Moreover, it will also direct hospitals to
facilitate green organizational culture, preventing the generation of
waste and improving service quality of hospitals.
7.3. Implications for cleaner production and business sustainability With
empirical evidence, the present study endorsed that to improve
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
sustainable organizational performance, green HRM practices should
be implemented. The study showed that green employee
empowerment is a powerful initiative that can be taken by
organizations to solve envi ronmental problems and when employees
are empowered to do green tasks it helps an organization to achieve
sustainability objectives and accidents can be prevented. As the
healthcare waste is considered as toxic waste and recent pandemic of
Covid-19 impacted the human and environmental health so badly that
there is need to improve healthcare waste management systems and
need of new digital technologies such as artificial intelligence for
detecting healthcare waste, its processing and safe disposal using
geographical analysis. Cleaner production tech niques must be
incorporated for green healthcare systems, design of digital healthcare
24
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgement
systems is needed for waste reduction. There is also a need for social
transition initiatives and healthcare professionals such as doctors,
nurses, paramedical staff can play a role in reducing environ mental
and climate related risks in healthcare. Innovative measures are
required to reduce the carbon emission generated from the healthcare
and to further improve the sustainability performance of the hospitals,
there is need of artificial intelligence supported green HRM systems.
8. Study limitations and future avenues
This study also has limitations which gives room for future works.
First, the current study is based on self-report subjective data for pre
dicting sustainable organizational performance this is due to the
missing of publicly available objective data. Second, this study was
conducted among only public healthcare hospitals in Pakistan and it
cannot be generalized to private hospitals or other service and
manufacturing or ganizations therefore validity of the current study is
only limited public hospitals in Pakistan listed in the Ministry of
Health Pakistan. Future studies can be done on HRM and performance
relationship in other sectors to see the potential of green HRM
practices. Although the data was collected from the Asian country
Pakistan, but the results cannot be applicable to other Asian states
located nearby due to cross country and cultural variations. Future
researchers can collaborate to have more in depth understating of
cross-country variations in relation to green HRM practices. Third the
data was collected from only hospital managers working in the public
healthcare sector of Pakistan and as there are also other individuals in
the hospitals therefore it is also a limitation of the study. Future
research can consider non-managerial staff in hospitals to see how
they respond to green HRM and green employee empowerment
initiatives. Fourth, data that was collected at specific point of time
(cross sectional), so future studies can collect longitudinal data to
improve the validity of results. Finally, the current study only relied
three green HRM practices and one mediating variable green
employee empowerment in predicting sustainable organizational
performance. Future studies can use other green HRM practices like
green work life balance and other mediating variables like green
knowledge sharing behaviour, green commitment, green
organizational culture in predicting sustainable organizational
performance. Despite all these limitations that have been addressed
above, the current study has made an important contribution to the
body of literature by highlighting gaps and this study not cover the
gaps but also provides a future avenue in the field of green HRM, OB
and sustainable organizational performance.
Funding
The author received funding for his PhD from Higher Education
Commission Pakistan.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Muhammad Hamza Khan: Conceptualization, Design of Work,
Data Collection, Formal analysis, Interpretation, Writing – original
draft. Syaharizatul Noorizwan Muktar: Critical revision and
improvement, final approval of the version to be published.
This Study is a PhD Project conducted by Muhammad Hamza Khan
at Faculty of Management Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The author
wants to thank Dr Syaharizatul Noorizwan Muktar for supervising PhD
study. The author declares no conflict of Interest.
References
Abdul-Rashid, S.H., Sakundarini, N., Raja Ghazilla, R.A., Thurasamy, R., 2017. The
impact of sustainable manufacturing practices on sustainability performance. Int. J.
Oper. Prod. Manag. 37 (2), 182–204. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-04-2015-
0223.
Ahmad, S., 2015a. Green human resource management: policies and practices. Cogent
 Bus. Manag. 2 (1). https://doi:10.1080/23311975.2015.1030817.
Ahmad, S., 2015b. Green human resource management: policies and practices. Cogent
Bus. Manag. 2 (1), 1–13.
Al Kerdawy, M.M.A., 2019. The role of corporate support for employee volunteering in
strengthening the impact of green human resource management practices on
corporate social responsibility in the Egyptian firms. Eur. Manag. Rev. 16 (4),
1079–1095. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12310.
Almarzooqi, A.H., Khan, M., Khalid, K., 2019. The role of sustainable HRM in sustaining
positive organizational outcomes. Int. J. Prod. Perform. Manag. https://doi.org/
10.1108/IJPPM-04-2018-0165.
Andersson, L., Jackson, S.E., Russell, S.V., 2013. Greening organizational behavior: an
introduction to the special issue. J. Organ. Behav. 34 (2), 151–155. https://doi.org/
10.1002/job.1854.
Anwar, N., Nik Mahmood, N.H., Yusliza, M.Y., Ramayah, T., Noor Faezah, J., Khalid,
W., 2020. Green Human Resource Management for organisational citizenship behaviour
towards the environment and environmental performance on a university campus. J.
Clean. Prod. 256, 120401 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120401.
Appelbaum, E., Bailey, T., Berg, P., Kalleberg, A.L., Bailey, T.A., 2000. Manufacturing
Advantage: Why High-Performance Work Systems Pay off. Cornell University Press.
Arulrajah, A.A., Opatha, H.H.D.N.P., 2016. Analytical and theoretical perspectives on
green human resource management: a simplified underpinning. Int. Bus. Res. 9 (12),
153. https://10.5539/ibr.v9n12p153.
Bangwal, D., Tiwari, P., Chamola, P., 2017. Green HRM, work-life and environment
performance. Int. J. Environ. Workplace Employ. 4 (3), 244. https://doi.org/
10.1504/IJEWE.2017.087808.
Benevene, P., Buonomo, I., 2020. Green human resource management: an evidence
based systematic literature review. Sustainability 12 (15), 5974. https://doi.org/
10.3390/su12155974.
Benn, S., Teo, S.T.T., Martin, A., 2015. Employee participation and engagement in
working for the environment. Person. Rev. 44 (4), 492–510. https://doi.org/
10.1108/PR-10-2013-0179.
Blau, P.M., 1964. Social Exchange Theory, p. 62. Retrieved September, 3(2007). https://
DOI:10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_3.
Boiral, O., Paill´e, P., 2012. Organizational citizenship behaviour for the environment:
measurement and validation. J. Bus. Ethics 109 (4), 431–445. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s10551-011-1138-9.
Bombiak, E., Marciniuk-Kluska, A., 2018. Green human resource management as a tool
for the sustainable development of enterprises: polish young company experience.
Sustainability 10 (6), 1739. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061739.
Bos-Nehles, A.C., Van Riemsdijk, M.J., Kees Looise, J., 2013. Employee perceptions of
line management performance: applying the AMO theory to explain the
effectiveness of line managers’ HRM implementation. Hum. Resour. Manag. 52 (6),
861–877. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21578.
Bowen, D.E., Lawler III, E.E., 1992. Total quality-oriented human resources
management. Organ. Dynam. 20 (4), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616
(92)90073-V.
Boxall, P., Purcell, J., 2003. Strategy and human resource management. ILR Rev. 57 (1),
84. https://10.1108/00251740310479368.
Bozionelos, N., Simmering, M.J., 2022. Methodological threat or myth? Evaluating the
current state of evidence on common method variance in human resource
management research. Hum. Resour. Manag. J. 32 (1), 194–215. https://doi.org/
10.1111/1748-8583.12398.
Braun, V., Clarke, V., 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 3
(2), 77–101. http://DOI:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
BrundtlandReport, 1988. The Brundtland report: our common future. Med. War 4 (1),
17–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/07488008808408783.
Brymer, R.A., 1991. Employee empowerment: a guest-driven leadership strategy.
Cornell Hotel Restaur. Adm. Q. 32 (1), 58–68. https://www.proquest.com/docview
/209723377?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true.
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Buetow, S., 2010. Thematic analysis and its reconceptualization as ‘saliency analysis’.
J. Health Serv. Res. Pol. 15 (2), 123–125. https://doi.org/10.1258/
jhsrp.2009.009081.
Carmona-Moreno, E., C´espedes-Lorente, J., Martinez-del-Rio, J., 2012. Environmental
human resource management and competitive advantage. Manag. Res. J. Iberoam.
Acad. Manag. 10 (2), 125–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/1536-541211251607.
Castillo-Montoya, M., 2016. Preparing for interview research: the interview protocol
refinement framework. Qual. Rep. 21 (5). https://10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2337.
Chan, H.K., He, H., Wang, W.Y.C., 2012. Green marketing and its impact on supply
chain management in industrial markets. Ind. Market. Manag. 41 (4), 557–562.
https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2012.04.002.
Cherian, J., Jacob, J., 2012. A study of green HR practices and its effective
implementation in the organization: a review. https://10.5539/ijbm.v7n21p25.
25
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
corporation. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 27 (2), 192–211.
https://doi.org/10.1080/ 09585192.2015.1052087.
Haddock-Millar, J., Sanyal, C., Müller-Camen, M., 2016. Green human resource
management: a comparative qualitative case study of a United States multinational
corporation. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 27 (2), 192–211.
https://doi.org/10.1080/ 09585192.2015.1052087.
Haden, S.S.P., Oyler, J.D., Humphreys, J.H., 2009. Historical, practical, and theoretical
perspectives on green management: an exploratory analysis. Manag. Decis. 47 (7),
1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740910978287.
Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., 2013. Multivariate Data Analysis.
Pearson Education Limited.
Hair, J.F., Risher, J.J., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C.M., 2019. When to use and how to report
Christmann, P., 2000. Effects of “best practices” of environmental management on cost
advantage: the role of complementary assets. Acad. Manag. J. 43 (4), 663–680.
https://doi.org/10.5465/1556360.
Cohen, E., Taylor, S., Muller-Camen, M., 2012. HRM’s role in corporate social and
environmental sustainability. SHRM Rep. 1, 1–16. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/
trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Corporate-Soc
ial-Environmental-Sustainability.pdf.
Cohen, J., 1988. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 20–26. https://doi.org/10.4324/
9780203771587.
Cook, K.S., Cheshire, C., Rice, E., Nakagawa, S., 2013. Social exchange theory. In:
Handbook of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Netherlands. Cropanzano, R.,
Mitchell, M.S., 2005. Social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. J. Manag. 31
(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602. Daily, B.F., Bishop, J.W.,
Steiner, R., 2007. The mediating role of EMS teamwork as it pertains to HR factors and
perceived environmental performance. J. Appl. Bus. Res. 23 (1)
https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v23i1.1411.
Daily, B.F., Huang, S.C., 2001. Achieving sustainability through attention to human
resource factors in environmental management. Int. J. Oper. Prod. Manag. 21 (12),
1539–1552. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570110410892.
Daily Bonnie, F., 2012. The role of training and empowerment in environmental
performance. Int. J. Oper. Prod. Manag. 32 (5), 631–647. https://doi.org/10.1108/
01443571211226524.
Davis, M.C., Unsworth, K.L., Russell, S.V., Galvan, J.J., 2020. Can green behaviors really
be increased for all employees? Trade-offs for “deep greens” in a goal-oriented green
human resource management intervention. Bus. Strat. Environ. 29 (2), 335–346.
https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2367.
Digalwar, A.K., Tagalpallewar, A.R., Sunnapwar, V.K., 2013. Green manufacturing
performance measures: an empirical investigation from Indian manufacturing
industries. Measur.Bus.Excellence. https://doi.org/10.1108/MBE-09-2012-0046.
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Childe, S.J., 2015. Green supply chain
management enablers: mixed methods research. Sustain. Prod. Consum. 4, 72–88.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2015.07.001.
Dubey, S., Gupta, B., 2018. Linking green HRM practices with organizational practices
for organizational and environmental sustainability. Int. J. Eng. Manag. Res.
(IJEMR) 8 (2), 149–153. https://10.31033/ijemr.v8i02.11603.
Dutta, D., 2012. Greening people: a strategic dimension. Zenith Int. J. Bus. Econ.
Manag. Res. 2 (2). https://ssrn.com/abstract=2382034.
Ehnert, I., Parsa, S., Roper, I., Wagner, M., Muller-Camen, M., 2016. Reporting on
sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by
the world’s largest companies. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 27 (1), 88–108. https://
doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1024157.
Elkington, J., 1997. The triple bottom line. Environ. Manag.: Readings Cases 2. https://
doi.org/10.1108/eb025539.
Emerson, R.M., 1976. Social exchange theory. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2 (1), 335–362.
https:// doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.02.080176.002003.
Fauzi, H., Svensson, G., Rahman, A.A., 2010. “Triple bottom line” as “Sustainable
corporate performance”: a proposition for the future. Sustainability 2 (5),
1345–1360. https://doi.org/10.3390/su2051345.
Figge, F., Hahn, T., 2004. Sustainable Value Added—measuring corporate contributions
to sustainability beyond eco-efficiency. Ecol. Econ. 48 (2), 173–187.
https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2003.08.005.
Gholami, H., Rezaei, G., Saman, M.Z.M., Sharif, S., Zakuan, N., 2016. State-of-the-art
Green HRM System: sustainability in the sports center in Malaysia using a multi
methods approach and opportunities for future research. J. Clean. Prod. 124,
142–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.105.
Gou, Q., Liang, L., Huang, Z., Xu, C., 2008. A joint inventory model for an open-loop
reverse supply chain. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 116 (1), 28–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ijpe.2008.07.009.
GovernmentofPakistan, F.d., 2019. Economic Survey of Pakistan.
Govindarajulu, N., 2004. Motivating employees for environmental improvement. Ind.
Manag. Data Syst. 104 (4), 364–372. https://doi.org/10.1108/
02635570410530775.
Guerci, M., Pedrini, M., 2014. The consensus between Italian HR and sustainability
managers on HR management for sustainability-driven change–towards a
‘strong’HR management system. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 25 (13), 1787–1814.
https://doi. org/10.1080/09585192.2013.860388.
Gürlek, M., Çemberci, M., 2020. Understanding the relationships among knowledge
oriented leadership, knowledge management capacity, innovation performance and
organizational performance. Kybernetes 49 (11), 2819–2846. https://doi.org/
10.1108/K-09-2019-0632.
Haddock-Millar, J., Sanyal, C., Müller-Camen, M., 2015. Green human resource
management: a comparative qualitative case study of a United States multinational
the results of PLS-SEM. Eur. Bus. Rev. 31 (1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR
11-2018-0203.
Hair Jr., J.F., Hult, G.T.M., Ringle, C., Sarstedt, M., 2016. A Primer on Partial Least
Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Sage publications. Hameed, W.,
Yaqoob, A., Sarwar, H., Khan, S., 2022. Effect of world health organization based
guidelines on biomedical waste management knowledge and practices among nurses in
a tertiary care hospital. Pakistan J.Med. Health Sci. 16 (3) https://doi.org/
10.53350/pjmhs22163323, 323-323.
Hameed, Z., Khan, I.U., Islam, T., Sheikh, Z., Naeem, R.M., 2020. Do green HRM
practices influence employees’ environmental performance? Int. J. Manpow.
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-08-2019-0407.
Hart, S.L., 2005. Innovation, creative destruction and sustainability. Res. Technol.
Manag. 48 (5), 21–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2005.11657334. Harvey, G.,
Williams, K., Probert, J., 2013. Greening the airline pilot: HRM and the green
performance of airlines in the UK. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 24 (1), 152–166.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.669783.
HealthcareClimateFootprints, G.r. o., 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ck
aa165.843.
Henriques, A., Richardson, J., 2013. The Triple Bottom Line: Does it All Add up.
Routledge.
Homans, G.C., 1958. Social behavior as exchange. Am. J. Sociol. 63 (6), 597–606.
https://doi/10.1086/222355.
Homans, G.C., Behavior, S., 1961. Its elementary forms. Soc. Behav. 119 (3), 488–531.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1962-06277-000.
Howard-Grenville, J., Buckle, S.J., Hoskins, B.J., George, G., 2014. Climate change and
management. Acad. Manag. J. 57 (3), 615–623. https://doi.org/10.5465/
amj.2014.4003.
Hult, G.T.M., Hair, J.F., Proksch, D., Sarstedt, M., Pinkwart, A., Ringle, C.M., 2018.
Addressing endogeneity in international marketing applications of partial least
squares structural equation modeling. J. Int. Market. 26 (3), 1–21. https://doi.org/
10.1509/jim.17.0151.
Hussain, M., Malik, M., Al Neyadi, H.S., 2016. AHP framework to assist lean deployment
in Abu Dhabi public healthcare delivery system. Bus. Process Manag. J. 22 (3),
546–565. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-08-2014-0074.
Hussain, N., Rigoni, U., Orij, R.P., 2018. Corporate governance and sustainability
performance: analysis of triple bottom line performance. J. Bus. Ethics 149 (2),
411–432. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3099-5.
Husted, B.W., de Sousa-Filho, J.M., 2017. The impact of sustainability governance,
country stakeholder orientation, and country risk on environmental, social, and
governance performance. J. Clean. Prod. 155, 93–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2016.10.025.
Iqbal, Q., Hassan, S.H., Akhtar, S., Khan, S., 2018. Employee’s green behavior for
environmental sustainability: a case of banking sector in Pakistan. World J. Sci.
Technol.Sustain. Dev. 15 (2), 118–130. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-08-2017-
0025.
Islam, M.A., Hunt, A., Jantan, A.H., Hashim, H., Chong, C.W., 2020. Exploring
challenges and solutions in applying green human resource management practices
for the sustainable workplace in the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh.
Business Strat.Dev. 3 (3), 332–343. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsd2.99.
Jabbour, C.J.C., 2013. Environmental training in organisations: from a literature review
to a framework for future research. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 74, 144–155. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2012.12.017.
Jabbour, C.J.C., de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L., 2016. Green human resource management
and green supply chain management: linking two emerging agendas. J. Clean.
Prod. 112, 1824–1833. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.01.052.
Jabbour, C.J.C., Jabbour, A.B.L., Teixeira, A.A., Freitas, W.R.S., 2012. Environmental
development in Brazilian companies: the role of human resource management.
Environ.Dev. 3, 137–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2012.05.004.
Jabbour, C.J.C., Renwick, D.W.S., 2018. The soft side of environmentally-sustainable
organizations. RAUSP Manag.J. https://doi.org/10.1108/RAUSP-07-2018-0044.
Jabbour, C.J.C., Santos, F.C.A., 2008. Relationships between human resource
dimensions and environmental management in companies: proposal of a model. J.
Clean. Prod. 16 (1), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.07.025.
Jabbour, C.J.C., Santos, F.C.A., Nagano, M.S., 2010. Contributions of HRM throughout
the stages of environmental management: methodological triangulation applied to
companies in Brazil. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 21 (7), 1049–1089. https://doi.
org/10.1080/09585191003783512.
Jackson, S.E., 2012. Portrait of a slow revolution toward environmental sustainability.
https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Faculty-Staff-Docs/jackso
n_Ch01_PortraitofSlow.pdf.
Jackson, S.E., Renwick, D.W., Jabbour, C.J., Muller-Camen, M., 2011. State-of-the-art
and future directions for green human resource management: introduction to the
special issue. German J.Human Resour.Manag. 25 (2), 99–116. https://doi.org/
10.1177/239700221102500203.
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S., Jiang, K., 2014a. An aspirational framework for strategic
human resource management. Acad. Manag. Ann. 8 (1), 1–56. https://doi.org/
10.5465/19416520.2014.872335.
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S., Jiang, K., 2014b. An aspirational framework for strategic
human resource management. Acad. Manag. Ann. 8 (1), 1–56.
https://journals.aom. org/doi/abs/10.5465/19416520.2014.872335.
Jackson, S.E., Seo, J., 2010. The greening of strategic HRM scholarship. Organ.
Manag.J. 7 (4), 278–290. https://doi.org/10.1057/omj.2010.37.
Jonker, J., Karapetrovic, S., 2004. Systems thinking for the integration of management
systems. Bus. Process Manag. J. https://doi.org/10.1108/14637150410567839. Jose
Chiappetta Jabbour, C., 2011. How green are HRM practices, organizational culture,
learning and teamwork? A Brazilian study. Ind. Commerc. Train. 43 (2), 98–105.
26
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
Massoud, J.A., Daily, B.F., Bishop, J.W., 2008. Reward for environmental performance:
using the Scanlon Plan as catalyst to green organisations. Int. J. Environ. Workplace
Employ. 4 (1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEWE.2008.022255.
Matthews, R.A., Diaz, W.M., Cole, S.G., 2003. The organizational empowerment scale.
Person. Rev. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480310467624.
May, D.R., Flannery, B.L., 1995. Cutting waste with employee involvement teams. Bus.
Horiz. 38 (5), 28–39.
Mazur, B., 2014. Sustainable Human Resource Management in Theory and Practice. htt
ps://10.12846/u.m.2014.01.09.
McGain, F., Naylor, C., 2014. Environmental sustainability in hospitals - a systematic
review and research agenda. J. Health Serv. Res. Policy 19 (4), 245–252.
https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851111108926.
Kaza, S., Yao, L., 2018. At a Glance: A Global Picture of Solid Waste Management what
a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050, pp. 17–38. Khatri,
K.L., Muhammad, A.R., Soomro, S.A., Tunio, N.A., Ali, M.M., 2021. Investigation of
possible solid waste power potential for distributed generation development to
overcome the power crises of Karachi city. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 143, 110882
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110882.
Kim, Y.W., Ko, J., 2014. HR practices and knowledge sharing behavior: focusing on the
moderating effect of trust in supervisor. Publ. Person. Manag. 43 (4), 586–607.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026014542342.
Koberg, E., Longoni, A., 2019. A systematic review of sustainable supply chain
management in global supply chains. J. Clean. Prod. 207, 1084–1098. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.10.033.
Korstjens, I., Moser, A., 2018. Series: practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 4:
trustworthiness and publishing. Eur. J. Gen. Pract. 24 (1), 120–124.
https://doi.org/ 10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092.
Kramar, R., 2014. Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human
resource management the next approach? Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 25 (8),
1069–1089. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.816863.
Kumar, S., Putnam, V., 2008. Cradle to cradle: reverse logistics strategies and
opportunities across three industry sectors. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 115 (2), 305–315.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2007.11.015.
Laschinger, H.K.S., Finegan, J.E., Shamian, J., Wilk, P., 2004. A longitudinal analysis of
the impact of workplace empowerment on work satisfaction. J. Organ. Behav.: Int.
J. Ind. Occupation. Organ. Psychol. Behav. 25 (4), 527–545.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ job.256.
Le Van, Q., Viet Nguyen, T., Nguyen, M.H., 2019. Sustainable development and
environmental policy: the engagement of stakeholders in green products in
Vietnam. Bus. Strat. Environ. 28 (5), 675–687. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2272.
Lee, K.H., 2009. Why and how to adopt green management into business organizations?
The case study of Korean SMEs in manufacturing industry. Manag. Decis. 47 (7),
1101–1121. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740910978322.
Liebowitz, J., 2010. The role of HR in achieving a sustainability culture. J. Sustain. Dev.
3 (4), 50–57. https://10.5539/jsd.v3n4p50.
Lo, S.H., Peters, G.J.Y., Kok, G., 2012. A review of determinants of and interventions for
proenvironmental behaviors in organizations. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 42 (12),
2933–2967. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00969.x.
Longoni, A., Luzzini, D., Guerci, M., 2018. Deploying environmental management across
functions: the relationship between green human resource management and green
supply chain management. J. Bus. Ethics 151 (4), 1081–1095. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s10551-016-3228-1.
Ludema, J.D., Laszlo, C., Lynch, K.D., 2012. Embedding sustainability: how the field of
organization development and change can help companies harness the next big
competitive advantage. Res. Organ. Change Dev. 20, 265–299. https://doi.org/
10.1108/S0897-3016(2012)0000020011.
Maama, H., Appiah, K.O., 2019. Green accounting practices: lesson from an emerging
economy. Qualitat. Res. Financ.Mark. 11 (4), 456–478. https://doi.org/10.1108/
QRFM-02-2017-0013.
Macke, J., Genari, D., 2019. Systematic literature review on sustainable human resource
management. J. Clean. Prod. 208, 806–815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2018.10.091.
Malik, S.Y., Cao, Y., Mughal, Y.H., Kundi, G.M., Mughal, M.H., Ramayah, T., 2020.
Pathways towards sustainability in organizations: empirical evidence on the role of
green human resource management practices and green intellectual capital.
Sustainability 12 (8), 3228. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083228.
Malik, S.Y., Hayat Mughal, Y., Azam, T., Cao, Y., Wan, Z., Zhu, H., Thurasamy, R.,
2021. Corporate social responsibility, green human resources management, and
sustainable performance: is organizational citizenship behavior towards
environment the missing link? Sustainability 13 (3), 1044.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ su13031044.
Mandip, G., 2012. Green HRM: people management commitment to environmental
sustainability. Res. J. Recent Sci., ISSN 2277, 2502. https://doi.org/10.2139/
ssrn.3323800.
Manzoor, F., Wei, L., Banyai, ´ T., Nurunnabi, M., Subhan, Q.A., 2019. An examination
of sustainable HRM practices on job performance: an application of training as a
moderator. Sustainability 11 (8), 2263. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11082263.
Martins, J.M., Aftab, H., Mata, M.N., Majeed, M.U., Aslam, S., Correia, A.B., Mata, P.N.,
2021. Assessing the impact of green hiring on sustainable performance: mediating
role of green performance management and compensation. Int. J. Environ. Res.
Publ. Health 18 (11), 5654. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115654.
Masri, H.A., Jaaron, A.A.M., 2017. Assessing green human resources management
practices in Palestinian manufacturing context: an empirical study. J. Clean. Prod.
143, 474–489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.087.
https://doi. org/10.1177/1355819614534836.
Michaelowa, A., Sacherer, A.-K., Basak, R., Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, S., 2022. Handbook of
International Climate Finance. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Moraes Silvana de, S., Chiappetta Jabbour Charbel, J., Battistelle Rosane, A.G.,
Rodrigues Jonny, M., Renwick Douglas, S.W., Foropon, C., Roubaud, D., 2019.
When knowledge management matters: interplay between green human resources
and eco efficiency in the financial service industry. J. Knowl. Manag. 23 (9),
1691–1707. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-07-2018-0414.
Mousa, S.K., Othman, M., 2020. The impact of green human resource management
practices on sustainable performance in healthcare organisations: a conceptual
framework. J. Clean. Prod. 243, 118595 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2019.118595.
Mukhtar, S., Khan, H., Kiani, Z., Nawaz, S., Zulfiqar, S., Tabassum, N., 2018. Hospital
 waste management: execution in Pakistan and environmental concerns – a review.
Environ. Contamin. Rev. 1 (1), 18–23. http://10.26480/ecr.01.2018.18.23.
Neale, R.E., Barnes, P.W., Robson, T.M., Neale, P.J., Williamson, C.E., Zepp, R.G., Zhu,
M., 2021. Environmental effects of stratospheric ozone depletion, UV radiation, and
interactions with climate change: UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel,
Update 2020. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 20 (1), 1–67. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s43630-020-00001-x.
Nejati, M., Rabiei, S., Chiappetta Jabbour, C.J., 2017. Envisioning the invisible:
understanding the synergy between green human resource management and green
supply chain management in manufacturing firms in Iran in light of the moderating
effect of employees’ resistance to change. J. Clean. Prod. 168, 163–172. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.213.
Newman, A., Miao, Q., Hofman, P.S., Zhu, C.J., 2016. The impact of socially responsible
human resource management on employees’ organizational citizenship behaviour:
the mediating role of organizational identification. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 27
(4), 440–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1042895.
Obaid, T.F., Alias, R.B., 2015. The impact of green recruitment, green training and green
learning on the firm performance: conceptual paper. Int.J.Appl. Res. 1 (12),
951–953. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3682078.
Oliveira, G.M., Vidal, D.G., Maia, R.L., 2020. Monitoring Portuguese living conditions at
local scale: a case study based on sustainable development indicators. Int. J.
Sustain. Dev. World Ecol. 27 (2), 140–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/
13504509.2019.1678204.
Opatha, H.H.D.N.P., Hewapathirana, R.A., 2019. Defining green and green human
resource management: a conceptual study. Int. J. Arts Commer. 8 (5). https://ssrn.
com/abstract=3813330.
Opatha, H.H.P., Arulrajah, A.A., 2014. Green human resource management: simplified
general reflections. Int. Bus. Res. 7 (8), 101. https://10.5539/ibr.v7n8p101. Paille, P.,
Chen, Y., Boiral, O., Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource management on
environmental performance: an employee-level study. J. Bus. Ethics (121), 451–466.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1732-0.
Paill´e, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O., Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource
management on environmental performance: an employee-level study. J. Bus.
Ethics 121 (3), 451–466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1732-0.
Papies, D., Ebbes, P., Van Heerde, H.J., 2017. Addressing endogeneity in marketing
models. In: Leeflang, P.S.H., Wieringa, J.E., Bijmolt, T.H.A., Pauwels, K.H. (Eds.),
Advanced Methods for Modeling Markets. Springer International Publishing, Cham,
pp. 581–627.
Park, S., Gupta, S., 2012. Handling endogenous regressors by joint estimation using
copulas. Market. Sci. 31 (4), 567–586. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1120.0718.
Pham, N.T., Hoang, H.T., Phan, Q.P.T., 2019a. Green human resource management: a
comprehensive review and future research agenda. Int. J. Manpow. https://doi.org/
10.1108/IJM-07-2019-0350.
Pham, N.T., Tuˇckov´a, Z., Chiappetta Jabbour, C.J., 2019b. Greening the hospitality
industry: how do green human resource management practices influence
organizational citizenship behavior in hotels? A mixed-methods study. Tourism
Manag. 72, 386–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.12.008.
Pinzone, M., Guerci, M., Lettieri, E., Redman, T., 2016. Progressing in the change
journey towards sustainability in healthcare: the role of ‘Green’ HRM. J. Clean.
Prod. 122, 201–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.031.
Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Podsakoff, N.P., 2012. Sources of method bias in
social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annu. Rev.
Psychol. 63 (1), 539–569.
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-psych 120710-100452.
Ramachandran, V., 2011. Strategic corporate social responsibility: a ‘dynamic
capabilities’ perspective. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 18 (5), 285–293.
https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.251.
Ramasamy, A., 2017. A Study on Implications of Implementing Green HRM in the
Corporate Bodies with Special Reference to Developing Nations. https://10.
5539/ijbm.v12n9p117.
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Ramus, C.A., 2002. Encouraging innovative environmental actions: what companies and
managers must do. J. World Bus. 37 (2), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-
9516(02)00074-3.
Rangarajan, N., Rahm, D., 2011. Greening human resources:A survey of city-level
initiatives. Rev. Publ. Person. Adm. 31 (3), 227–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/
0734371X1140870.
Rasi, R.Z.R.M., Abdekhodaee, A., Nagarajah, R., 2014. Stakeholders’ involvements in
the implementation of proactive environmental practices. Manag. Environ. Qual.
Int. J. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-11-2011-0054.
Raut, R.D., Gardas, B., Luthra, S., Narkhede, B., Mangla, S.K., 2020. Analysing green
human resource management indicators of automotive service sector. Int. J.
Manpow. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-09-2019-0435.
27
M.H. Khan and S.N. Muktar
Silva Marco Antonio Batista, d., Costa Priscila Rezende, d., Kniess Claudia, T., 2019.
Environmental training and developing individual environmental sustainability
competences in Brazilian chemical sector companies. Ind. Commerc. Train. 51 (1),
40–51. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-12-2017-0105.
Singh, P.J., Sangwan, K., 2011. Management Commitment and Employee Empowerment
in Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing Implementation. Proceedings of the
World Congress on Engineering, UK LONDON. Paper presented at the.
Singh, R.L., Singh, P.K., 2017. Global environmental problems. In: Singh, R.L. (Ed.),
Principles and Applications of Environmental Biotechnology for a Sustainable
Future. Springer Singapore, Singapore, pp. 13–41.
Singh, S.K., Giudice, M.D., Chierici, R., Graziano, D., 2020. Green innovation and
Rawashdeh, A.M., 2018. The impact of green human resource management on
organizational environmental performance in Jordanian health service
organizations. Manag. Sci. Lett. 1049–1058. https://10.5267/j.msl.2018.7.006.
Ren, S., Tang, G., Jackson, S.E., 2018. Green human resource management research in
emergence: a review and future directions. Asia Pac. J. Manag. 35 (3), 769–803.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-017-9532-1.
Ren, S., Tang, G., Jackson, S.E., 2020. Effects of Green HRM and CEO ethical leadership
on organizations’ environmental performance. Int. J. Manpow. https://doi.org/
10.1108/IJM-09-2019-0414.
Renwick, D., Redman, T., Maguire, S., 2008. Green HRM: A Review, Process Model, and
Research Agenda. University of Sheffield Management School Discussion Paper, pp.
1–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00328.x, 1.
Renwick, D.W., Jabbour, C.J., Muller-Camen, M., Redman, T., Wilkinson, A., 2016.
Contemporary Developments in Green (Environmental) HRM Scholarship. Taylor &
Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1105844.
Renwick, D.W., Redman, T., Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: a
review and research agenda. Int. J. Manag. Rev. 15 (1), 1–14. https://doi.org/
10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00328.x.
Romero, I., Carnero, M.C., 2019. Environmental assessment in health care
organizations. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. Int. 26 (4), 3196–3207.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356- 017-1016-9.
Roscoe, S., Subramanian, N., Jabbour, C.J., Chong, T., 2019a. Green human resource
management and the enablers of green organisational culture: enhancing a firm’s
environmental performance for sustainable development. Bus. Strat. Environ.
https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2277.
Roscoe, S., Subramanian, N., Jabbour, C.J.C., Chong, T., 2019b. Green human resource
management and the enablers of green organisational culture: enhancing a firm’s
environmental performance for sustainable development. Bus. Strat. Environ. 28
(5), 737–749. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2277.
Rothenberg, S., 2003. Knowledge content and worker participation in environmental
management at NUMMI. J. Manag. Stud. 40 (7), 1783–1802. https://doi.org/
10.1111/1467-6486.00400.
Rothenberg, S., Hull, C.E., Tang, Z., 2016. The impact of human resource management
on corporate social performance strengths and concerns. Bus. Soc. 56 (3), 391–418.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650315586594.
Saeed, B.B., Afsar, B., Hafeez, S., Khan, I., Tahir, M., Afridi, M.A., 2019. Promoting
employee’s proenvironmental behavior through green human resource management
practices. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 26 (2), 424–438. https://doi.org/
10.1002/csr.1694.
Safari, A., Salehzadeh, R., Panahi, R., Abolghasemian, S., 2018. Multiple pathways
linking environmental knowledge and awareness to employees’ green behavior.
Corp. Govern.: Int. J.Business Soc. 18 (1), 81–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-08-
2016-0168.
Sammalisto, K., Brorson, T., 2008. Training and communication in the implementation
of environmental management systems (ISO 14001): a case study at the University
of Gavle, ¨ Sweden. J. Clean. Prod. 16 (3), 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2006.07.029.
Sarstedt, M., Hair Jr., J.F., Cheah, J.-H., Becker, J.-M., Ringle, C.M., 2019. How to
specify, estimate, and validate higher-order constructs in PLS-SEM. Australas.
Market J. 27 (3), 197–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2019.05.003.
Sashkin, M., 1984. Participative management is an ethical imperative. Organ. Dynam.
12 (4), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(84)90008-1.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A., 2007. Research methods. Business Students 4th
Ed. Pearson Ed. Limit. England 6 (3), 1–268.
Sayyadi Tooranloo, H., Azadi, M.H., Sayyahpoor, A., 2017. Analyzing factors affecting
implementation success of sustainable human resource management (SHRM) using
a hybrid approach of FAHP and Type-2 fuzzy DEMATEL. J. Clean. Prod. 162,
1252–1265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.109.
Schaltegger, S., Wagner, M., 2006. Integrative management of sustainability
performance, measurement and reporting. Int. J. Account. Audit. Perform. Eval. 3
(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJAAPE.2006.010098.
Sdg, U., 2018. Sustainable Development Goals. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
procir.2018.01.003.
Shah, M., 2019. Green human resource management: development of a valid
measurement scale. Bus. Strat. Environ. 28 (5), 771–785. https://doi.org/10.1002/
bse.2279.
Shen, J., Dumont, J., Deng, X., 2018. Employees’ perceptions of green HRM and non
green employee work outcomes: the social identity and stakeholder perspectives.
Group Organ. Manag. 43 (4), 594–622. https://doi.org/10.1177/
1059601116664610.
Shoaib, M., Nawal, A., Z´ameˇcník, R., Korsakiene, ˙ R., Rehman, A.U., 2022. Go green!
Measuring the factors that influence sustainable performance. J. Clean. Prod. 366,
132959 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132959.
environmental performance: the role of green transformational leadership and green
human resource management. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 150, 119762. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119762.
Siyambalapitiya, J., Zhang, X., Liu, X., 2018. Green human resource management: a
proposed model in the context of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. J. Clean. Prod. 201,
542–555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.305.
Song, W., Yu, H., Xu, H., 2020. Effects of green human resource management and
managerial environmental concern on green innovation. Eur. J. Innovat. Manag.
https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-11-2019-0315.
Soutter, A.R.B., Mottus, ˜ R., 2020. “Global warming” versus “climate change”: a
replication on the association between political self-identification, question
wording, and environmental beliefs. J. Environ. Psychol. 69, 101413
https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101413.
Srinivasan, A., Kurey, B., 2014. Creating a culture of quality. Harv. Bus. Rev. 92 (4),
23–25. https://hbr.org/2014/04/creating-a-culture-of-quality.
Tang, G., Chen, Y., Jiang, Y., Paille, P., Jia, J., 2018. Green human resource
management practices: scale development and validity. Asia Pac. J. Hum. Resour.
56 (1), 31–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12147.
Tang, Z., Tang, J., 2018. Stakeholder corporate social responsibility orientation
congruence, entrepreneurial orientation and environmental performance of Chinese
small and medium-sized enterprises. Br. J. Manag. 29 (4), 634–651.
https://doi.org/ 10.1111/1467-8551.12255.
Tariq, S., Jan, F.A., Ahmad, M.S., 2014. Green employee empowerment: a systematic
literature review on state-of-art in green human resource management. Qual.
Quantity 50 (1), 237–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-014-0146-0.
Tariq, S., Jan, F.A., Ahmad, M.S., 2016. Green employee empowerment: a systematic
literature review on state-of-art in green human resource management. Qual.
Quantity 50 (1), 237–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-014-0146-0.
Teixeira, A.A., Jabbour, C.J.C., de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L., 2012. Relationship between
green management and environmental training in companies located in Brazil: a
theoretical framework and case studies. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 140 (1), 318–329.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.01.009.
UNEP, 2015. https://www.unep.org/resources/annual-report/united-nations-environ
ment-programme-annual-report-2015https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/
20.500.11822/7544/-UNEP_2015_Annual_Report-2016UNEP-AnnualReport
-2015-EN.pdf.pdf?sequence=8&%3BisAllowed=y%2C%20Chinese%7C%7Chttps%
3A//wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/7544/-UNEP_Annual_Re
port_2015-2016cs6_UNEP.
Van Marrewijk, M., Werre, M., 2003. Multiple levels of corporate sustainability. J. Bus.
Ethics 44 (2–3), 107–119. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023383229086. Venselaar, J.,
1995. Environmental training: industrial needs. J. Clean. Prod. 3 (1–2), 9–12.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-6526(95)00030-I.
Journal of Cleaner Production 434 (2024) 139812
Wagner, M., 2010. The role of corporate sustainability performance for economic
performance: a firm-level analysis of moderation effects. Ecol. Econ. 69 (7),
1553–1560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.02.017.
Wagner, M., 2013. ‘Green’human resource benefits: do they matter as determinants of
environmental management system implementation? J. Bus. Ethics 114 (3),
443–456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1356-9.
Whetten, D.A., 1989. What constitutes a theoretical contribution? Acad. Manag. Rev. 14
(4), 490–495. https://doi.org/10.2307/258554.
Wilkinson, A., 1998. Empowerment: theory and practice. Person. Rev. https://doi.org/
10.1108/00483489810368549.
28
WorldBankGroup, 2018. What a Waste. https://doi.org/10.1596/30434. Yes¸iltas¸, M.,
Gürlek, M., Kenar, G., 2022. Organizational green culture and green employee
behavior: differences between green and non-green hotels. J. Clean. Prod. 343, 131051
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131051.
Yong, J., Yusliza, M., Fawehinmi, O., 2019. Green human resource management: a
systematic literature review from 2007 to 2019. Benchmark Int. J. 26 (5), 1–24.
https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-12-2018-0438.
Yong, J.Y., Yusliza, M.-Y., Jabbour, C.J.C., Ahmad, N.H., 2019. Exploratory cases on the
interplay between green human resource management and advanced green
manufacturing in light of the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity theory. J. Manag.
Dev. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-12-2018-0355.
Yong, J.Y., Yusliza, M.-Y., Ramayah, T., Chiappetta Jabbour, C.J., Sehnem, S., Mani, V.,
2020. Pathways towards sustainability in manufacturing organizations: empirical
evidence on the role of green human resource management. Bus. Strat. Environ. 29
(1), 212–228. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2359.
Yusliza, M.-Y., Othman, N.Z., Jabbour, C.J.C., 2017. Deciphering the implementation of
green human resource management in an emerging economy. J. Manag. Dev. 36
(10), 1230–1246. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-01-2017-0027.
Yusoff, Y.M., Nejati, M., 2019. A Conceptual Model of Green Hrm Adoption towards
Sustainability in Hospitality Industry Corporate Social Responsibility: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools, and Applications. IGI Global, pp. 400–421.
Yusoff, Y.M., Nejati, M., Kee, D.M.H., Amran, A., 2018. Linking green human resource
management practices to environmental performance in hotel industry. Global Bus.
Rev., 0972150918779294 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150918779294.
Zaid, A.A., Jaaron, A.A.M., Talib Bon, A., 2018. The impact of green human resource
management and green supply chain management practices on sustainable
performance: an empirical study. J. Clean. Prod. 204, 965–979. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.09.062.
Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J., 2004. Relationships between operational practices and performance
among early adopters of green supply chain management practices in Chinese
manufacturing enterprises. J. Oper. Manag. 22 (3), 265–289. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jom.2004.01.005.
Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J., Lai, K.-h., 2008. Confirmation of a measurement model for green
supply chain management practices implementation. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 111 (2),
261–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2006.11.029.
Zibarras, L.D., Coan, P., 2015. HRM practices used to promote pro-environmental
behavior: a UK survey. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 26 (16), 2121–2142.
https://doi. org/10.1080/09585192.2014.972429.
Zoogah, D.B., 2011. The dynamics of green HRM behaviors: a cognitive social
information processing approach. German J.Human Resour.Manag. 25 (2),
117–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/239700221102500204.