Manufacturing leaders’ perspectives on green employability skill development through multi-level organizational learning

Purpose This study aims to examine how manufacturing industry leaders understand the development of green employability skills through multi-level organizational learning (OL) processes and the role this development plays in building organizational sustainability competencies. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive qualitative design was used using reflexive thematic analysis. Sixteen manufacturing leaders representing diverse organizational sizes, functional areas and geographic regions across the United States were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling in collaboration with a state-level manufacturing trade association. Findings Three themes emerged: Learning Agility for Green Role Evolution, in which individual employees develop adaptive capacity for continuous skill renewal as green roles evolve; Green Employability Co-Design with Educational Ecosystems, in which organizations and educational institutions collaboratively develop sustainability-aligned curricula and credentials; and Green Learning Culture as a Catalyst for Organizational Change, in which embedded sustainability values and Human Resource Development (HRD) infrastructure drive enterprise-wide transformation. Practical implications Manufacturing leaders and HRD practitioners would benefit from designing learning interventions that operate across individual, team and organizational levels, integrating sustainability competencies into talent management systems, educational partnerships and leadership development rather than treating green skill development as a standalone training initiative. Originality/value This study presents a three-level OL framework comprising adaptive, generative and transformational green learning that advances green HRD theory by systematically integrating individual employability development, team-based knowledge creation and organizational cultural transformation, providing a theoretically grounded architecture for manufacturing sustainability workforce development.