Green Human Resources Management and Multilevel Environmental Performance: An Integrated Mediation Conceptual Model

Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) has emerged as an important managerial approach in response to the growing environmental, social, and economic challenges faced by contemporary organizations. While prior studies generally confirm a positive relationship between GHRM practices and environmental performance (EP), the existing body of literature remains fragmented. In particular, it tends to focus on selected levels of analysis—most often individual or organizational—and provides a limited explanation of the underlying mechanisms through which GHRM influences environmental outcomes. This paper presents a conceptualization of a research study and a structured research design aimed at addressing these limitations. Based on a review of the literature, key theoretical, empirical, and methodological gaps are identified, particularly regarding the lack of integrated, multilevel perspectives and insufficient attention to mediating mechanisms. In response, the paper develops an original, multilevel conceptual framework that explains how GHRM practices may affect environmental performance through mediators operating at individual, team, organizational, and interorganizational levels. Building on this framework, the study formulates a set of research hypotheses and proposes a two-stage mixed-method research design. The first stage involves qualitative multiple case studies to explore GHRM practices and identify context-specific mechanisms, while the second stage consists of a large-scale international survey aimed at testing the proposed relationships across organizations in selected European Union countries. The main contribution of the paper lies in designing a coherent and empirically testable research framework, rather than testing it directly. By integrating insights from prior literature and structuring a multilevel analytical approach, the study provides a foundation for future empirical research on the mechanisms linking GHRM and environmental performance and contributes to the further development of sustainable human resource management theory.