Beyond the Win–Win Myth: A Labor Process Theory Account of Green Human Resource Management

Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) is often promoted as a “win–win” approach that aligns environmental goals with employee engagement. Yet mounting evidence shows that green practices can intensify work, expand surveillance, and displace costs onto vulnerable labor. Drawing on labor process theory, this paper explains these outcomes as patterned features of managerial control rather than anomalies of implementation. We theorize three mechanisms, namely, eco‐intensification, eco‐surveillance, and supplier cost‐shifting, that link sustainability agendas to hidden labor burdens. To move beyond critique, we propose Green HR Accountability and Redistribution Mechanisms (GHARM), grounded in Just Transition principles, which emphasize accountability for labor impacts, redistribution of eco‐efficiency gains, and worker voice in sustainability governance. This paper is a theory‐building conceptual study. It develops an explanatory framework grounded in labor process theory to show how GHRM can systematically reconfigure work and redistribute environmental burdens across employees and supply chains, and it advances GHARM as a normative corrective aligned with Just Transition principles.