The impact of green HR practices on employee proactive behaviour

Abstract

Pakistan’s manufacturing industry is under a lot of pressure to deal with environmental issues such as carbon monoxide emissions, poisonous compounds, and manufacturing waste. Green HR practices are considered to be fundamental pillars and are considered to be crucial in the development and optimization of environmentally sustainable initiatives. Hence, the objective of this research is to analyze the effects of green HR practices implemented in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan on employees’ proactivity with regard to environmental issues. The data was acquired through the distribution of a survey questionnaire to manufacturing firms. The data was analyzed using SMART-PLS. The findings demonstrated that green HR practices have a substantial effect on the proactive behavior of employees. Additionally, the results indicated that organizational identification acts as a complementary mediator between green HR practices and the proactive behavior of employees in reducing environmental effects. Furthermore, it was discovered that proactive personality acted as a catalyst to enhance the impact of GHRM on the proactive behavior of employees with regard to environmental initiatives. Future research directions and managerial implications were also discussed.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The study offers a conceptual framework linking GHRM and employees’ proactive behavior for environmental impact in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan.

• Based on the theory of planned behavior, the study extends GHRM research by including a mediator called ‘organizational identification’.

• With the support of trait activation theory, proactive personality is used as a moderator to strengthen the relationship between GHRM and employees’ proactive environmental behavior.

• Results indicate a positive and statistically significant association between green HR practices and employees’ proactive environmental behavior.

Keywords:

• Green HR practices
• proactive behavior
• organizational identification
• proactive personality
• environmental sustainability

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to all the manufacturing firms that participated in our study by providing the required information regarding the subject matter. We are also grateful for the insightful comments by the anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this study, participants did not provide permission for their data to be shared publicly; therefore, supporting data are unavailable.