Different Shades of Green? The Role of Green HRM and Its Authenticity in Cultivating Employee Commitment to Environment and Organization

Abstract

Green human resource management (HRM) leverages the workforce to advance environmental sustainability. While prior research predominantly examined green HRM’s impact on employees’ environmental dedication, this study takes a more comprehensive approach by investigating employees’ broader commitment to the organization and examining a potential boundary condition. We posit that employees’ perceptions of green HRM, along with their beliefs in its authenticity, interact and relate to both pro-environmental behavior and affective organizational commitment. Results from a vignette experiment indicate that these effects are stronger when green HRM is perceived as authentic rather than inauthentic. A subsequent time-lagged field survey study extends these findings, suggesting that green HRM fosters pro-environmental behavior, which in turn spills over into affective organizational commitment. This indirect relationship is more pronounced among employees with stronger authenticity beliefs. These results offer novel insights into green HRM’s role in promoting commitment to both the environment and the organization, highlighting the importance of adopting this role authentically.