Beyond Compliance: ESG-Driven Workplace Transformation, Green HRM, and Employee Wellness as Pathways to Sustainable Public Sector Success

Growing calls for the implementation of ESG principles within the core operations of the public sector indicate the necessity to go beyond the superficiality of formal compliance and make ESG an integral component of the organization’s transformation. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to analyze the complex connection between ESG-induced changes in the workplace, Green Human Resource Management (Green HRM), and employees’ well-being suggesting that the combination of those three factors is essential for sustainable performance of organizations. Using Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) framework and Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, we hypothesize that Green HRM practices play the key mediating role between organizational ESG strategy and individual well-being, leading to improved environmental and social performance. We will conduct an integrative literature review along with the analysis of illustrative examples from UK’s National Health Service and the City of Vancouver, showing the two-sided nature of green work transformation which can be perceived either as a job resource or a job demand. This paper disputes the common assumption that the interests of environmental programs and employee welfare are conflicting in nature, as opposed to being complementary through participatory design, green transformational leadership, and holistic governance orientation. Our paper presents practical suggestions for public sector leaders to collaboratively create a workplace environment that sustains both the Earth and its people, and also presents a crucial research agenda to test these dynamics within a sector known for bureaucratic inefficiency.