Research On Environmental Performance Based On Green Human Resource Management In South Africa

Increasing adverse environmental impacts of business practices and activities motivate stakeholders,managers,and manufacturing firms to improve their environmental performance.As small and medium-sized enterprises contribute significantly to the economic development of the Republic of South Africa,it is important to understand how they contribute to environmental sustainability.Sustainability issues have long been an integral concept in the business world,and the effectiveness of a company’s green human resource management can help companies improve their environmental performance.Therefore,green human resource management is an effective tool for improving sustainable corporate actions and behaviours.It mainly improves employees’ low-carbon behaviour,green innovation practices and green organizational commitment to achieve higher environmental goals.However,few studies have explored the impact of green human resource management on employee low-carbon behaviour,green innovation practices and green organizational commitment in emerging economies such as South Africa.This study investigated the impact of low-carbon behaviour,green innovation practices and green organizational commitment on environmental performance.This paper examines the mediating effects of green innovation practices and organizational commitment,with green transformation leadership and environmental knowledge as moderating variables.To understand the mechanisms underlying the interactions between these concepts,the study employs a new synthesis of four theoretical models: Ability Motivation and Opportunity,Norm Activation Model,Resource-Based View and Social Cognitive Theory.This thesis adopts mainly quantitative research methods,focusing on analyzing and evaluating the hypotheses and theoretical models proposed.The research data was first collected from small and medium-sized enterprises in Cape Town,South Africa,by stratified sampling method.After carefully evaluating the collected data,920 responses were used for the final analysis.The advanced partial least structural equation modelling approach was used to assess the research hypotheses.In addition,the study applied the necessary condition analysis to verify the conditions to improve the enterprise’s environmental performance.The paper’s research evaluation includes the reliability and effectiveness of technical means and tools,multi-collinearity test,descriptive statistics,correlation analysis and model fitness.The findings show that:(1)Green human resource management positively impacts the workforce’s green innovation practices,organizational commitment and low-carbon behaviour.(2)Green innovation practices stimulate low-carbon behaviour of employees and environmental performance for the entire company.In addition,green innovation practices actively mediate the interaction between green human resource management and the staff’s low-carbon behaviour.This result implies that green innovation practices can strengthen targeted green human resource management policies and green behaviours of employees,such as low carbon behaviour.(3)Likewise,the thesis results show that green organizational commitment is directly and significantly linked to low-carbon behaviour and environmental performance.In addition,the green organizational commitment further mediates the green human resource management-low carbon behaviour link.(4)The low carbon behaviour of employees is identified as an important factor affecting the environmental performance of SMEs in this analysis.(5)Green transformation leadership was also shown to mediate the association between green human resource management and low-carbon behaviour.(6)The findings emphasize that environmental knowledge has an inverse regulatory effect on the relationship between low-carbon behaviour-environmental performance.(7)Finally,the necessary condition analysis demonstrated that manufacturing enterprises need six important conditions to achieve higher environmental performance.These six conditions include green transformation leadership,environmental knowledge,green human resource management,green innovation practices,green organizational commitment and low carbon behaviour.This article enriches the body of knowledge in environmental and human resource literature by dissecting how green organizational commitment,green innovation practices,environmental knowledge,green transformation leadership,and low-carbon behaviour stimulate environmental performance.Although previous studies have shown that environmental knowledge is positively correlated with low-carbon behaviour and environmental performance,the conclusions of this study refute this argument.This finding enriches the discussion on the importance of green human resource management regarding the appropriate mechanisms needed to strengthen low-carbon behaviour and environmental performance.This study also extends the Ability Motivation and Opportunity,Norm Activation Model,Resource-Based View and Social Cognitive Theory theories.The paper makes several practical recommendations for strengthening low-carbon behaviour and environmental performance.Therefore,human resource management managers should outline measures that can be used to empower and engage employees in environmental issues and provide them with autonomy to address these challenges.These actions can be implemented within the company’s human resources management framework and are grouped under relevant themes.Green employee feedback can also be a strategic tool for improving green organizational commitment.Furthermore,the study recommends incorporating green transformation leadership into the business environment to motivate employees to think innovatively and behave environmentally consciously.Managers should improve and strengthen employee interactions and create an enabling environment to help strengthen the GHRM-low carbon behaviour relationship.