Environmental Sustainability Strategy, Creativity, Innovation and Organizational Performance: The Role of Green Human Resource Management

Abstract

This paper provides a theoretical explanation for the “black box” between “going green” and organizational performance and links individual-level behaviors with organizational-level outcomes. We argue that the adoption of an environmental sustainability strategy and high involvement green human resources management practices will have the intended impact of increasing employee green creativity and the unintended impact of increasing employee general creativity. As well, we suggest that employee green values moderate these relationships. Furthermore, the positive effects on employee creativity (green and general) are theorized to increase organizational innovation, which positively impacts organizational performance. This paper extends the research by providing a possible explanation for how the “black box” between “going green” and organizational performance is impacted by intended and unintended behaviors that are shaped by green human resources management practices.

Keywords

• green human resource management
• creativity
• innovation
• environmental sustainability strategy
• organizational performance