Assessing Green Human Resources Management Practices in West Bank: An Exploratory Study

In the last few years, global concerns have increased regarding the environmental issues, especially after the consolidation of the industrial revolution which caused an increment in degradation of the environment. These concerns generated more pressure and inculcated business and industry to develop and use green management by adopting environmentally-friendly practices and products. Environmental Management (EM) has been included in many departments such as marketing, supply chain, finance and others. Recently, Human Resource Management (HRM) joined the green movement. The integration of EM into HRM practices is known as Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) which aims to help organizations improve Environmental Performance (EP) through increasing employees' involvement and commitment towards environment. The industrial sector is considered to be a source of various forms of environmental pollution in Palestine which needs to be assessed, monitored and rectified. Therefore, it should involve all employees to achieve EM goals. This research aims to explore and assess the extent of implementing GHRM practices in Palestinian manufacturing companies from three industrial sectors (food, Chemical and pharmaceutical industries) in the West Bank (WB). An exploratory research inquiry using structured questionnaires with semi-structured interviews is used. This research discusses the current trends of GHRM practices in these companies based on findings of 17 semi-structured interviews and questionnaires submitted to 110 companies. The result of this research indicates that HRM practices are not used to a great extent to encourage employees to become more pro-environmental. The total implementation of GHRM is 54.9% which is considered as a moderate level. It has been found that the preferable practice which increased employees’ commitment and awareness toward the environment is the “Green management of organizational culture”. On the other hand, the least used practices were “Green Reward and Compensation”. This study discusses the role of GHRM in creating a green culture and achieving EM goals which will improve EP. The results of hypotheses testing show that there is a statistically significant relationship between GHRM practices and EP. Furthermore, it devises a model that represents the best practices of GHRM to improve EP. In addition, this research identifies the variables that could affect GHRM implementation by supporting or hindering and the expected benefits of GHRM implementation from the viewpoint of the targeted companies. The results of the descriptive analysis show that the main driver of GHRM is “Environmental Considerations”, the main barrier of GHRM is “Cost of implementing GHRM programs” and the main expected benefit of GHRM is “promotes social responsibility toward environment among employees”. Finally, the findings of this research are expected to provide useful information for future research directions.