History of Green HRM
Green HRM (GHRM) is an emerging topic in the current scenario. The Green movement across the world gave birth to Green HRM.
Green HRM is becoming a popular issue in the present world for many reasons such as excess consumption of natural resources and raw materials by different commercial organizations and industries.
Natural resources of the earth are in terrible pressure.
At present, issues like carbon credits, global warming, and pollution resulting from high profile industrial accidents and the changes in the climate are discussed with high importance.
These issues may result in earthquakes, frequent floods and vanishing of certain species and animals. M. W. Shaikh (2010) rightly argues in favor of green HRM. He points out, “The exploitations of natural resources globally has led to serious issues like global warming, depletion of ozone layers and increase of CFC and C02 in the atmosphere. The result is melting of ice/snow near the poles and the increase in the seawater levels.
Exploitations of natural resources had also affected the flora and fauna, results in reducing the forest animals, disturbing the food chains and the ecosystems. As a result, world environmentalist started discussing ecological issues globally”.
So far, very little research has been conducted on this topic even in the advanced countries.
In the management field, there is a growing research literature on Green marketing (Peattle, 1992),
Green accounting (Owen, 1992), Green retailing and Green management in general (McDonagh and Prothero, 1997). However, in comparison, research on green human resource management (GHRM) is relatively diverse and piecemeal.
Researchers argue that employees should be inspired, empowered, and environmentally aware of green in order to carry out green initiatives (Prasad, R. S.2013; Mathapati, 2013; Zoogah, 2010, Mandip, 2012).
There is a growing need for the integration of environmental management into Human Resource Management (HRM) practices.
Such effort is known as the Green HRM initiative. An organization’s human resource function can be influential in facilitating a comprehensive approach to creating a culture of sustainability.
The strategy involves implementing changes to the different functions of HR like recruitment, induction, training, and development, conducting performance appraisal, and also determining employee compensation.
Green HRM involves two essential elements: environment-friendly HRM practices and preservation of knowledge capital (Jain, 2009). Green initiatives should be a part of corporate social responsibility. Employees at all levels need to be involved in green initiatives.
