10926: Investing in People, Helping the Planet: HR Practices for Environmental Sustainability in Operation (session 25558)

Do human resource management (HRM) practices increase employees' willingness to make environmentally sustainable operational decisions? Using a 25-year panel dataset, we demonstrate that investment-oriented HRM practices lead to more sustainable operations. We replicate and extend this finding via a controlled behavioral experiment at the individual level, exploring theoretical explanations for this effect grounded in motivation theory. Examining competing theoretical perspectives, we test how different company strategies interact with HRM investments to motivate managers. The findings reveal that when operations managers are the recipients of HRM investments, they allocate more resources to environmental initiatives, regardless of the company's sustainability strategy. This work highlights social sustainability as one key driver of environmental performance in operations: By acknowledging the motivations of managers and providing strategic HRM support, firms can better address both social and environmental objectives.

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