Core Sustainability‐Oriented <scp>HRM</scp> Practices: A Follow‐Up Hybrid Literature Review
ABSTRACT The integration of sustainability in organizations depends heavily on skilled and motivated employees, positioning Human Resource Management (HRM) as a key enabler. This has led to new approaches—green HRM, socially responsible HRM, sustainable HRM, and common‐good HRM—collectively termed sustainability‐oriented HRM (SOHRM). These approaches focus on five core practices: recruitment and selection, HR appraisal, training and development, compensation, and HR flow. This paper offers an updated literature review, building on a single prior review from 2021, using H‐Classics methodology. A bibliometric and manual analysis of 104 influential publications (the H‐Core) reveals that green HRM dominates the field. Among HRM practices, training and development is most studied, while HR flow remains underexplored. The study maps existing research, synthesizes key findings, and identifies theoretical frameworks, predictors, and outcomes of SOHRM. It also highlights inconsistencies in prior results and proposes future research directions, thereby extending earlier research and refining the understanding of SOHRM. For practitioners, the study provides insights into which HRM practices most effectively support sustainability, helping organizations prioritize initiatives with the greatest potential impact.
Authors
- Katarzyna Piwowar‐Sulej
Institutions
- Wroclaw University of Economics and Business (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Sustainable Development
- Published
- 2026-01-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.70626
- Primary Topic
- Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00