Green human resource management – the latest trend or strategic necessity?

Our dynamically developing market economy has, for some time now, been a witness to a growing interest in the concept of business management involving conscious activities oriented not only at financial profits and economic aspects but also at broadly understood social and ecological interests. Such an approach, termed sustainable development, is becoming an imperative in the contemporary world, hence the decision processes of entrepreneurs tend to be more and more often guided by the principles of environmental corporate responsibility. The author of the study reckons that the implementation of the above business model requires, most of all, the engagement of the human factor. Eco-oriented management is performed exclusively by employees with positive attitudes towards the environment, green competencies, and responsible for the environmental consequences of their actions. Therefore, human resource management oriented at supporting the implementation of the principles of ecological development and the development of environmentally-friendly attitudes of employees referred to as Green Human Resource Management plays an unprecedented role in environmental performance. Green Human Resource Management is a novel approach to the performance of the HR function within organizations – one where environmental contexts constitute the foundation of all initiatives. This involves the application of HR policies in order to promote the sustainable use of company resources, to support ecology and development of ecological sensitivity in workers. This is because ecological awareness of employees and managers is key to the operations of any company complying with the concept of sustainability. The purpose of the study is to present the relevance of Green Human Resource Management to the operations of contemporary companies and indicate practices which can be undertaken in the field to promote knowledge related to the subject matter and extend the scope of concept application as a tool for constructing sustainable companies. The theoretical part of the study, drafted on the basis of a world’s literature overview, identifies several environmental practices that can be employed in the field of human resource management at each stage of the personnel process, starting with work design, employee selection, work discipline shaping, to the development of “green” competencies and “green” working conditions. The empirical part of the research demonstrates the results of a questionnaire conducted at a random population of 300 Polish enterprises. The research approach used enabled the researcher to identify these initiatives in the field of Green HRM that, in the opinion of the study managers, play the key role in the process of shaping enterprise sustainable development.