Exploring the cornerstones of green, sustainable and socially responsible human resource management

Purpose - This study aims to delineate the fast-growing path of human resource management (HRM) research with a sustainable orientation and resolve confusion over the differences and interdependences of the various approaches that have emerged: green human resource management (GHRM), sustainable human resource management (Sustainable HRM), and socially responsible human resource management (SR-HRM). Design/methodology/approach - In this study, bibliometrics and science mapping were used to analyze the field's conceptual structure based on 587 related documents extracted from the ISI Web of Science database. Co-word analysis with SciMAT software enabled the authors to map the main themes studied and identify evolution, importance, and relevance. Findings - SR-HRM is the least developed of the three approaches analyzed and has been overlooked by the journals that publish the most work in the field of HR. The authors identify a lack of sustainability-related HRM studies on higher education and an ongoing need both to explore the role of culture in GHRM implementation and to explain further the potential non-green behavioral outcomes that can result from GHRM's use. Practical implications - This study demonstrates how human resource factors are key to managing challenges such as aging workforce, unstable employment relationships, implementation of green supply chain management, and Industry 4.0. Originality/value - This study explores in detail the interrelations among various emerging sustainable human resource approaches and subtopics derived from the interrelations to reveal hotspots, dilemmas, paradoxes, and research gaps.