Background of the Study
The world is changing rapidly and every human aspect is currently relying on the emerging green techniques of supporting sustainable living and conduciveness in the environment. The use of green technologies and green approaches to support a comfortable human life has spurred communities to understand the need to embrace green survival techniques (Prasad 2013). Recently, the paradigm of human resource management has observed an increased awareness on the need to incorporate Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) to strengthen the management of workforce and provide an advanced control (Prasad 2013). When viewed from the perspective of quality management, GHRM is increasingly becoming an efficient practice of ensuring sustainability because the GHRM practice entails the use of policies and strategies that promote the efficient use of corporate resources to minimize resource misuse and thwart corruptive practices (Prasad 2013). What inspires this research is that GHRM is gradually becoming one of the essential human resource practices that support the reasonable use of business resources.
Problem Statement
It is eminent that corporate organizations are looking means to reduce losses and maximize profitability to continue surviving. Companies are losing billions of money through unscrupulous practices that drain the companies’ resources, expose them to financial crises, and risk their closure. According to Ahmad (2015), managing quality extends beyond the aspects of functional improvement of the corporate apparatus as efficient human resource management also plays an important role in ensuring that resources are serving the intended purposes. As a quality control initiative, GHRM is an efficient human resource practice that promotes philosophies, practices, and policies that enhance the sustainable use of corporate resources to promote economic and environmental wellbeing of organizations (Cherian & Jacob 2013). Although it is a magnificent HRM practice, the knowledge about its association with quality management is still lacking and most organizations are suspicious about its efficiency in enhancing quality in the firms. Based on this assumption, this study seeks to establish the essence of GHRM in quality management.
Research Question
What is the association between the use of Green Human Resource Management and the quality management practices of business organizations?
Research Objectives
- To identify the extent at which business organizations understand and incorporate the GHRM practice in the practice of quality management.
- To examine the manner in which the GHRM practices and policies influence quality management in the business organizations.
- To examine the strategies and policies that the GHRM practice uses to enhance the practice of quality management in business organizations.
- To analyze the existing initiatives of GHRM that business organization have tried to incorporate and suggest some green ideas for the HR paradigm.
Literature Review
The idea of GHRM represents some of the proactive approaches that the human resource management paradigm has designed to promote the proper use of business resources. According to Cherian and Jacob (2012), research estimates that over 5,000 corporate organizations suffer unaccounted losses that come through poor quality management in the use of business resources. Several of these organizations are among the business firms that suffered tremendously from the global financial crunches that marred numerous business organizations during the era of the 2008 global financial crises (Prasad 2013). As the efforts to make environmental management initiatives known to many people, GHRM has come up with efficient means of enhancing the proper use of business resources to promote economic stability and environmental sustainability. Prasad (2013) postulates that despite the growing significance of the GHRM, practices in improving the sustainable use of administrative and functional resources of business to enhance economic and environmental sustainability, many companies have not embraced corporate green management initiatives.
In a recent research conducted by Sudin (2011), concerning the models that companies are using to enhance Corporate Environmental Citizenship (CEC), it is clear that most organizations are still using the conventional laws and regulation strategies of promoting the sustainable use of business resources. In the research, Sudin (2011) assessed previous literature on environmental sustainability and noticed that several modern organization have denied the GHRM practices a chance to change the approaches used to enhance environmental stability. Nonetheless, the growing business environmental forces such as dynamic demands, consumer preferences, and new customer requirements seem to influence a slow adoption of the GHRM strategies (Sudin 2011). In a bid to develop an understanding of how the human resource management influences environmental performance, Paille, Chen, Boiral, and Jin (2013) conducted a quantitative research of the human resource managers from the Chinese manufacturing firms. The main intention was to examine the connection between Human Resource Management (HRM) and Environmental Management (EM).
The human resource management paradigm has fostered the GHRM strategies to support sustainable economic growth and environmental stability (Prasad 2013). While trying to help develop an understanding of how the GHRM practice influences quality management in organizations, Ahmad (2015) conducted a systematic review of the extant studies to analyze the secondary data that pertains to the concept of GHRM practice. In his study, Ahmad (2015) wanted to examine the elements of GHRM that influence quality management in business organizations and the manner in which these GHRM practices, policies, and philosophies improve economic wellbeing and environmental sustainability. Through the systematic review, Ahmad (2015) discovered that organizations use policies that control employee environmental actions towards the environment. The research of Ahmad (2015) unveiled that in promoting quality management, some companies use policies that promote the appropriate use of business resources such as the policies that promote the adoption and use of environmental-friendly HR practices in the daily practices of their workers.
The primary roles of the human resource management department involve attracting, employing, and retaining new competent workforce that is capable of meeting the corporate standards (Prasad 2013 & Sudin 2011). In a recent human resource study, Cherian and Jacob (2012) conducted a review study to examine the green HR practices and their efficient implementation in the business organizations. In a bid to ensure that organizations are getting the best out of the GHRM practice, Cherian and Jacob (2012) state that HR managers often reinforce their HR processes in the areas of recruiting, training, hiring, developing, and compensating. According to Cherian and Jacob (2013), these stringent HR practices help in improving the practice of quality management as workers often remain enlightened about the need to commit themselves to achieve environmental stability. Cherian and Jacob (2013) discovered that using green management principles such as the efficient selection, training, rewarding, and retaining of environmentally aware employees, helps to promote the sustainable use of business resources.
Research Approach: Methodology
The research will employ a quantitative case study approach that will involve an assessment of five well-established companies as the selected cases. Since the study will seek to get information from the specific companies that have incorporated some green HR initiatives in their human resource management practices, just as Castellan (2010) recommends, quantitative research will be suitable in collecting the views of the participants using the available theoretical assumptions. A quantitative method allows researchers to collect statistically reliable data that tells how people perceive about a research inquiry or a certain phenomenon (Castellan 2010). The study will target 100 experienced human resource managers who will then remain selected through a random sampling approach to get the most competent respondents. In scientific research, Castellan (2010) postulates that questionnaires designed in a closed-ended or structured manner are the most appropriate data collection instruments that produce statistically reliable data. Therefore, the research will use about 60 questionnaires depending on the achieved response rate.
Given the fact that the study requires HR managers who have enough knowledge in the field of green HRM initiatives, the research aims at investigating the GHRM concept in China, where campaigns for green strategies have intensified. In data collection, as recommended by Castellan (2010), the researcher will use surveys in which the participants will receive the required assistance in filling the questionnaires through an interview-supported approach. Based on the principles of quantitative research, the data analysis approach will follow a quantitative statistical approach in which the analysis software, SPSS will form the basis of data analysis (Castellan 2010). Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is an efficient data analysis tool that will help the research analyze the descriptive statistics and predict the numerical outcomes that may be useful in explaining the concept of GHRM in business organizations. In presentation and discussion, the study will use graphs, tables, and charts and use content analysis in discussing the data achieved in the research.
References
Ahmad, S 2015, ‘Green Human Resource Management: Policies and practices’, Cogent Business & Management, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-13.
Castellan, C 2010, ‘Quantitative and Qualitative Research: A View for Clarity’, International Journal of Education, vol. 2, no, 2, pp. 1-14.
Cherian, J & Jacob, J 2012, ‘A Study of Green HR Practices and Its Effective Implementation in the Organization: A Review’, International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 7, no. 21, pp. 25-33.
Paille, P, Chen, Y, Boiral, & Jin, J 2013, ‘The Impact of Human Resource Management on Environmental Performance: An Employee-Level Study’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 3-12.
Prasad, R 2013, ‘Green HRM – Partner in Sustainable Competitive Growth’, Journal of Management Sciences and Technology, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 15-18.
Sudin, S 2011, ‘Strategic Green HRM: A proposed model that supports Corporate Environmental Citizenship’, International Conference on Sociality and Economics Development , vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 79-83.