Measuring Sustainable Human Resource Management under the new economic era

Abstract

The main feature of the new economic era is the use of network technology, information technology and other economic material means, under the guidance of the age of knowledge, the scientific and technological force as an important productivity of social and economic development. At present, China has entered an era of rapid economic development, and all sectors of society pay more and more attention to human resource management, which provides support for the sustainable development of enterprises. Sustainable human resource management (Sustainable HRM) refers to ideas and practices of human resource management that can bring long-term competitive advantages to organizations, by enabling them to achieve sustainable economic, social, and environmental development. This paper aims to explore the dimension of Sustainable HRM and develop the measure scale and test the construct validation. Based on the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the researchers conducted qualitative interviews and also used open questionnaires with 103 corporate managers and employees to obtain their insights on the significance, structure, and ingredients of sustainable HRM under the background of emerging economies. Previous research in the field along with the interview and questionnaire responses were coded and analyzed in order to prepare a preliminary, 25-item scale for measuring sustainable methods of HRM. This initial scale was tested in a study involving 243 participants, and exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the results. The findings shows that sustainable HRM has two dimensions, named sustainable HRM ideas and practice. An adjusted scale was created for measuring two dimensions of sustainable HRM: namely, the ideas (7 items) and practices (5 items) of sustainable HRM. This study finds that sustainable HRM has two dimensions: principles or ideas of sustainable HRM and practice of sustainable HRM. The scale is intended to provide a reference point for attempts to expand sustainable HRM, by clarifying directions for research on and development of sustainable HRM. The two-dimensional scale of sustainable HRM developed in this study can prompt companies to pay equal attention to “knowledge” and “action”, and to implement the concept of sustainable HRM into HRM policies. Along both dimensions, the reliability and validity of the adjusted scale have reached a good level, and confirmatory factor analysis supports the structural validity of the scale.