Bridging ESG and Sustainable HRM: Evidence from Lebanon’s Crisis-Driven Work Environment

The concept of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) has emerged as a central framework for organizational sustainability, alongside employee performance and retention as critical human capital outcomes. This study addresses a notable gap in the literature by situating ESG practices within the field of sustainable human resource management and examining their role in the Lebanese cultural settings, characterized by a vulnerable institutional ecosystem and crisis-driven work environments. A quantitative method was employed using a structured questionnaire, yielding a sample of 495 respondents. The results showed that environmental and governance practices significantly influenced employee performance, whereas social responsibility initiatives did not have a statistically significant effect on performance. All ESG dimensions significantly influenced employee retention. This study advances ESG and sustainable HRM research by providing employee-level empirical evidence from a crisis-affected economy, demonstrating how ESG practices function as internal performance and retention mechanisms rather than solely as external legitimacy tools.