Sustainable human resource management and sustainable performance: mediating role of organization citizenship behavior

Purpose This study aims to investigate the influence of sustainable human resource management (SHRM) policies on sustainability performance of higher education institutions (HEIs). Furthermore, this study also examined the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior toward sustainability (OCBS) between SHRM and HEIs’ sustainability performance. The ability motivation opportunity (AMO) and stakeholder theories are used to conceptualize the model. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 162 academic staff of 12 government and private universities in India by using snowball sampling method. The partial least square structured equation modeling technique was used to analyze the data. Findings The overall results suggest that SHRM, such as sustainability motivation, sustainability-building practices, green employee engagement initiatives and social considerations, significantly impact OCBS among academic staff and the sustainability performance of HEIs. These findings provide a better understanding of how to improve the sustainability performance of HEIs through SHRM and OCBS among academic staff. Originality/value This study significantly extends the growing literature on SHRM and sustainability performance by focusing on sustainable HR practices in the HEIs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to empirically investigate SHRM and sustainability performance in the context of education sector in India.