Is There a Dark Side to Green Human Resource Management? Evidence from India

Abstract

The present paper attempts to explain if the outcomes of green human resource management (GHRM) are always positive (as suggested by the past studies) or is there a dark side to it? Specifically, we intend to test if GHRM leads to the attribution of different motives on the part of employees and if these motives differentially affect their sense of meaningfulness. The data collected from 106 employees working in varied industries in India and analyzed using SPSS AMOS 24 revealed that employees attribute internal and external motives to the GHRM practices of the organization. GHRM was not found to have any direct effect on meaningfulness; rather, the influence occurred through employees’ attribution of motives to observed GHRM practices. Attribution of internal motives contributed to the experience of psychological meaningfulness while the attribution of external motives failed to contribute to meaningfulness. The study makes a unique contribution to what we know about the phenomenon of GHRM by offering a framework that advances our understanding of how employees make sense of GHRM and seek and find meaningfulness through it. By establishing that employees’ attributions underlie their ensuing attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, our research would carry significant implications for the selection, design, and communication of GHRM practices and policies.