Green employee empowerment: a systematic literature review on state-of-art in green human resource management

Abstract

Being a member of the society, it is evident that the organization has to operate like a team player; cue the influx of the green management concept. The study focuses on the second aspect of the green human resources management definition, which is preservation of knowledge asset and specifically addresses the novel concept of "Green employee empowerment" as a mediator. The research paper focuses on integrating and systematically arranging literature regarding motivating employees to pursue green tasks, as mediated by green employee empowerment. Literature supports that employees must be encouraged, empowered, and eco-conscious in order to take responsibility of green management tasks, which is core dilemma in today's world. Green empowered employees is a novel concept as introduced by this research paper but also has strong literature support stemming from the concept of "employee empowerment". The unit of analysis was previous available research studies relevant to the topic (their findings are included). Both the service and manufacturing sectors was focused and data was collected from ISI web of knowledge. Additionally, the search mostly focused on updated knowledge and only focused on 104 of recent and relevant studies. The study concluded that empowered employees are more motivated to perform environmental tasks which pay to be green. Human resources are truly the back bone of any successful organization, so motivated green workforce has a deep influential effect on social organizational profitability and productivity.

The moderating effect of ‘Green’ HRM on the association between proactive environmental management and financial performance in small firms

“…Employees with 'green' environmental values, technical capabilities, and managerial skills, and who feel valued, are highly motivated and engaged in their work, are fundamental to proactive adoption and enactment of the principles of environmental sustainability and the enhancement of firm performance (e.g. Paillé et al, 2014;Tariq, Jan, & Ahmad, 2014;Ramus & Steger, 2000).…”

Green Employee Empowerment and Green Physical Evidence: The Green Service Strategy to Enhance Firm Performance

“…However, the term green empowerment was not familiar in the previous research. Tariq, Jan and Ahmad (2016) in their recent study discussed the overlooked of this issue in the past research. Accordingly, they introduced the term green employee empowerment.…”

Linking environmental accounting to reward systems: the case of the Environmental Profit and Loss Account

“…In most of reported cases, appraisal and reward systems used to incentivize environmental management for employees other than top management consist in giving employees non-monetary rewards (Govindarajulu and Daily 2004;Renwick at al., 2013). However, Tariq et al (2014), still recognizing the importance of non-monetary rewards, show that financial incentives rise more the commitment of the employees, suggesting the relevance of moving in this direction. Finally, some authors suggest the opportunity of configuring employees' compensation as a share of the savings made by the company thanks to possible environmental initiatives (Bonner et al, 2000;Mandip, 2012).…”

“…Finally, prior research typically reports the use of non-monetary rewards for personnel other than top management (Govindarajulu and Daily 2004;Renwick at al., 2013), whilst the analysed case went into the direction suggested by Tariq et al (2014) that highlighted the opportunity for the employees of being involved in environmental management also through monetary incentives. In DIY case, the choice of linking the EP&LA to a monetary reward system allowed the employees to start participating in the gains or cost savings obtained by the company through environmental management.…”

“…Simpson and Samson (2008) (2007) Monetary rewards Ramus (2002); Tariq et al (2014) Participation in savings Bonner et al (2000), Mandip (2012) …”