This paper shows that two leading approaches to Sustainable HRM, Green HRM and Common Good HRM, share an emphasis on employee involvement and that this provides a point of fusion from which to develop a practical approach to Sustainable HRM centred on a transformed form of high-involvement management. Despite their shared concern with sustainability, the two approaches constitute distinct frameworks. Green HRM focuses on improving the physical environment through HRM practices, whereas Common Good HRM encompasses both physical and human sustainability. Both approaches are normative, but they differ in their conceptions of organisational purpose, stakeholder responsibilities, and the moral orientation of HRM. Nevertheless, each approach emphasises employee involvement, although its role differs between them: it is functionally instrumental in Green HRM and intrinsic to Common Good HRM. Green HRM primarily promotes individual-level involvement, whereas Common Good HRM extends this to collective mechanisms and forms of industrial democracy. I show how this shared emphasis can be developed into a practical model of Sustainable HRM. Pursuing such a model implies a transformed form of high-involvement management embedded throughout the organisation. In particular, the wider use of cross-functional and cross-hierarchical working parties could provide a form of industrial democracy akin to deliberative democratic practices. Under this approach, employee involvement fulfils a moral imperative while also serving as a mode of collective governance, a generator of knowledge, and a catalyst for innovation. Employee involvement should therefore stand at the centre of Sustainable HRM, with responsibility for its development extending well beyond the HR function.
Drawing on self-determination theory, this daily diary study examines why and when hybrid work relates to employees’ daily well-being. We propose that working from home versus working in the office differentially satisfies employees’ needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence, which, in turn, are associated with daily work engagement and cognitive stress. We further examine telework normativeness—the extent to which telework is common and institutionally supported in the work unit—as a contextual boundary condition of these relationships. Multilevel structural equation models based on data from 114 employees and 744 daily observations revealed that, compared with office days, home days were associated with higher autonomy- and competence-need satisfaction but lower relatedness-need satisfaction. These need-based experiences, in turn, accounted for the indirect associations between work location and both work engagement and cognitive stress. Telework normativeness attenuated the indirect associations through autonomy and relatedness, whereas no corresponding moderation emerged for competence. Additional between-person analyses indicated that employees’ overall amount of telework was not associated with average need satisfaction, work engagement, or cognitive stress. These findings contribute to research on hybrid work by identifying distinct motivational mechanisms through which daily work location relates to well-being and by showing that these mechanisms depend partly on the normative context of telework. Overall, hybrid work is neither uniformly beneficial nor harmful: its daily implications depend on which psychological needs are supported in a given location and on how telework is embedded in the broader work context.
Fully remote work has increasingly become a standard operating model for many organizations. However, our understanding of employee experiences in entirely voluntary remote work environments remains limited, particularly regarding the specific work characteristics that define fully remote work, or how they interact with perceived work quality. To address this gap, this study investigates the multidimensional nature of employee experience in fully remote work by examining the relationship between work characteristics and work quality. We draw on 1659 Glassdoor employee reviews from 13 companies that operate exclusively remotely. Our analysis shows that social support, along with job autonomy, are the most salient and positively perceived work characteristics in fully remote settings. In contrast, workload and monitoring practices were consistently viewed as negative. Furthermore, the findings extend existing work characteristics models by identifying two novel dimensions - virtual team characteristics and task characteristics - that appear to be important in fully remote work contexts, responding to recent calls for more integrative perspectives on global virtual work that incorporate the dynamics of people, technology, context, and time. Taken together, these insights refine our understanding of employee experience in digitally mediated environments and offer practical guidance for designing fully remote roles that enhance it. In addition, they offer actionable implications for organizations by highlighting the importance of designing autonomy with clear coordination structures, fostering social support and belonging, and enhancing transparency around career development and recognition in fully remote settings. They also highlight several promising avenues for future research on remote work, job design, work quality, and employee experience.
Planned change can lead to asynchronicity in the participation and experiences of change initiators and recipients. This may produce suboptimal outcomes for planned change projects. The literature suggests that employee participation events may alleviate this problem; yet, research also shows that not all employee participation events have the desired outcomes. Using event system theory, we explore how the timing of employee participation events in planned organizational change impacts stakeholder asynchronicities in the change process. We interviewed 23 change consultants about one of their planned change projects. We find that different designs of employee participation events give rise to different subsequent event chains with varied impacts on planned change processes in terms of synchronicity. First, a different timing of employee participation events leads to asynchronicity experiences and determines both the amount of facilitated time for change recipients to adapt to the change and the number of change phases employees can participate in. Second, timing, in combination with the kind of employee participation, explains differences in event chains across hierarchical levels in terms of dispersion and proximity. Both design elements contribute to the degree of synchronicity and help explain why some change projects are successful while others are not, despite applying participative interventions. Third, we add to event system theory by studying proactive change events.
The nature of global work is undergoing a transformative shift. Digital technologies now enable collaboration across national boundaries without requiring physical presence, giving rise to virtual forms of global work. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as global virtual work, has attracted substantial research attention across three business disciplines: international business, information systems, and human resource management. However, each discipline studies the phenomenon from a distinct perspective, often developing in isolation. This results in fragmented knowledge and limited cross-fertilization. In this article, we examine how each discipline conceptualizes and studies global virtual work. We then develop future research perspectives that are inspired by the three aspects of global virtual work: (1) global aspects, (2) virtual aspects, and (3) work-related aspects. We identify thematic overlaps, contradictions, and potential for integration across disciplines, proposing a forward-looking, interdisciplinary research agenda on global virtual work. By synthesizing insights across disciplines, we provide an integrative understanding of the topic. Our approach emphasizes the importance of considering different disciplinary lenses, promoting cross-disciplinary research, and integrating theoretical and empirical perspectives to capture the complexity of global virtual work.
In the context of demographic change, creating a supportive work environment adapted to the abilities and needs of an age-diverse and aging workforce becomes increasingly important. However, implementing HR measures for older workers comes with certain challenges and often fails. Theoretical models and frameworks that depict the hindrances and triggers of implementing HR measures often fail to adequately capture the specific context of aging workforces. Therefore, we aim to identify hindering and facilitating internal and external factors regarding the implementation of HR measures for older workers in particular. Using a reflexive thematic analysis approach, we qualitatively analyzed interview data of organizational stakeholders from 23 different organizations in Germany. We identified various internal organizational factors that can hinder or facilitate the development and implementation of HR measures (e.g. organizational structures, stakeholder support, and resources). Likewise, several external factors were identified that can-depending on their nature and organizational characteristics like size and industry type-influence the development and implementation (e.g. implications of events like the COVID-19 pandemic or social change, legal standards, and external organizations). This study contributes to research and practice on HR measures for older workers by increasing the understanding of diverse hindering and facilitating factors for their implementation, thereby contributing to fostering positive organizational change.
This article contributes to the debate on the quality of open access publishing by examining the prevalence and consequences of predatory publishing in Green HRM. Green HRM has grown rapidly as a research area, but the number of journal publications about it remains limited, and we were thus able to study the whole literature in this field over an approximately 30-year period. Our analysis suggests not only that publications in ranked journals have an impact on papers published in questionable (so-called "predatory") journals, but also the other way around. Through citations, questionable research contributes to the impact of quality publications. Even more importantly, we found that articles published in ranked journals legitimize pseudo-knowledge by referencing to questionable literature and thus facilitate the infiltration of unreliable or misleading findings into the broader body of academic knowledge. Although the sample consists of one specific area of research, we suggest that our findings can be transferred to other areas of HRM and management research. We discuss practical implications to different stakeholders and end with a plea and recommendations for more awareness and responsibility in the publication process.
Hybrid work, offering locational flexibility, is becoming a key aspect of contemporary work. However, its focus on the percentage of work per location overlooks the critical role of team dynamics. This study identified the role of coordination in hybrid team collaboration by defining four key components (location, time, collaboration modality, and preferences) and developed a scale to assess them. Construct conceptualization and item definitions were derived and refined through expert panels. In Study 1 Phase A, an automated item-selection algorithm identified 12 items based on psychometric enhancement (N = 775) in German and English. Confirmatory analysis showed good fit indices, reliability, validity, and measurement invariance.We tested external validity in Study 1 Phase B with a second measurement after 6 weeks (N = 245), revealing small-to-modest correlations with relevant outcome variables at individual and team levels. Study 2 offers encouraging empirical support for conceptualizing coordination of collaboration in hybrid teams as a team-level construct in hybrid settings (N = 108, 22 teams). This scale advances hybrid teamwork research with incremental validity over traditional operationalizations. It empowers teams to self-coordinate, improving satisfaction, performance, and commitment, while serving as a diagnostic tool to identify strengths and weaknesses, fostering targeted team development. This scale makes managing hybrid teams a tangible management responsibility.
In this Perspective article, I look to go beyond the arguably legitimate pessimism of Brewster and Brookes critique of human resources (HR) not enacting the UN SDGs in HRM. Using publicly available secondary data, I cautiously offer a different and arguably more optimistic perspective. Drawing on Legge's Deviant Innovator (power relations) and Ulrich's HR Champions (HR roles) classic texts, I argue that HR might perhaps occupy a new role, in becoming a green business partner. In doing so, I theoretically advocate adopting systems thinking and research co-creation between HRM academics (rigour) and HR practitioners (relevance). I reflect on the context which sets the regulatory framework for workplace HR (in)action regarding the UN SDGs, and discuss what such context means for everyday HRM greening. Lastly, I offer future research ideas and implications for HRM theory and practice before concluding.
It has been argued that the extreme working conditions experienced by many interactive workers in 'key' services during the Covid-19 pandemic stemmed mainly from a situation of crisis. Using a combination of literature from the debates on interactive (service) work and extreme work, the article aims to deconstruct the various conditions giving rise to extreme work at different analytical levels. The analysis is based on a qualitative cross-sectoral comparative study in three key service sectors (retail, elderly care, and the police) during the pandemic in Germany. The article identifies both characteristics and enabling conditions of extreme work, thereby making two contributions: First, it demonstrates that specific risks are inherent to interactive work due to its very nature (i.e. work-related social interactions); it thus makes a claim for considering 'interaction-as-a-risk' as a core characteristic of interactive work. Second, by investigating the role of contexts at multiple analytical levels, it indicates that it was not solely the pandemic that enabled extreme work experiences, as the contributory unfavourable conditions already existed prior to the outbreak of Covid-19. Overall, the article emphasises the general importance of the concept of risk in HRM and employment-related research.
Previous research on sexual orientation in the workplace has mainly focused on barriers and discrimination. Little is known about how gay people deal with their potential stigma to build a career in leadership. In our qualitative study we focus on lived experiences of gay leaders, the drivers and obstacles they have encountered on their career path, their assessment of the diversity and equality culture at their respective companies and the impact of role models, allies and networks on their leadership ascension. Based on 36 semi-structured interviews with gay leaders in high-level positions from Germany and Australia, this study identifies a typology of four strategies gay leaders use to build their careers: the "Meritocrat," the "Boys' Club Member," the "Gay Mafia Member," and the "Inclusion Hero." While the first two strategy types conceal gay identity and rely on a passing strategy regarding sexual orientation based on individual or group power, the last two use gay identity to embrace careers, also based on individual or group power. With our finding we contribute to the theorizing of sexual orientation at work and leadership career development.
This study complements existing longitudinal research on voice and silence in organizations by addressing how Implicit Voice Theories (IVTs)-for example, the belief that speaking up is risky-can spread and become deeply embedded in organizational culture. Based on a qualitative longitudinal study conducted over nearly 3 years at an automotive production site in Germany, 48 managers at various hierarchical levels were interviewed repeatedly, resulting in a total of 128 interviews. One specific event emerged as particularly significant, providing the basis for an abductive exploration of how IVTs disseminate within organizations. The findings highlight two key mechanisms: storytelling and Coactive Vicarious Learning (CVL). These processes contribute to shaping colleagues' communication behavior in organizations, fostering a generalized tendency toward silence-persisting even years later and beyond those directly involved.
Using a recent tripartite representation of supervisors' behaviors rooted in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this person-centered study sought to identify the different configurations (profiles) of supervisors' need-supportive, need-thwarting, and need-indifferent behaviors as perceived by their subordinates. It also investigated how these supervisory profiles were related to subordinates' levels of need satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, performance, and burnout. Latent profile analyses were estimated in a sample of 807 employees (Mage = 39.17; 42.7% women) recruited via the Prolific Academic crowdsourcing platform. Our results revealed five distinct profiles of supervisors' need-related behaviors: (1) globally unfavorable, (2) globally moderately unfavorable and specifically indifferent, (3) globally moderately favorable, (4) globally unfavorable and specifically thwarting, and (5) globally unfavorable and specifically inconsistent. In line with our expectations, these profiles shared distinct associations with all outcomes. Moreover, our results showed that subordinates' specific perceptions of their supervisor need-related behaviors mattered, beyond their global perception of their supervisor, when predicting employee functioning. These findings underline the importance of considering global and specific levels of need-related behaviors when seeking to understand supervisory profiles and their associations with employee functioning.
Digital Transformation technologies (DT technologies) are reshaping work processes, including personnel selection, an area traditionally viewed as inherently human-centric. While prior studies have examined various digital technologies in personnel selection, they have not provided sufficient evidence on the different levels of digitalization in selection processes and the factors influencing organizations' adoption decisions. To address these gaps, this study systematically reviews 94 Scopus-indexed studies to analyze how DT technologies are applied across selection stages, categorizing practices into Manual, Digitalized, and Digitally Transformed approaches. By further distinguishing between Digital Technologies and AI Enhancements, this study offers a structured framework for understanding how organizations integrate digital technologies into selection and what drives or hinders their adoption. The findings highlight both the benefits (efficiency gains, potential bias reduction, improved candidate experience) and challenges (ethical concerns, algorithmic bias, technical and cultural barriers, and candidate perceptions) associated with these technologies, providing insights for both academic research and HR practice.
Prior research has proposed detrimental but also beneficial effects of Technology-Assisted Supplemental Work (TASW) for employees' recovery. The beneficial effects of TASW have been attributed to its autonomy-enhancing potential. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), we distinguish two forms of TASW (reactive and proactive), depicting external and relative autonomous regulation of TASW, to explain its opposing associations with recovery. Based on SDT and the stressor-detachment model we predict detrimental effects for daily recovery experiences as TASW might comprise externally motivated behaviors that are internalized over time. We propose that external pressures (work stressors and normative pressures) serve as antecedents to TASW. Furthermore, we predict that more autonomous TASW has less detrimental effects on recovery experiences. Results from two consecutive diary studies with two and three daily measurements (NPersons = 43, 65; nobservations = 514, 1211) largely support our hypotheses. Quantitative (overtaxing) and qualitative (hindering) work stressors and injunctive, but not descriptive norms, predicted TASW. Proactive TASW, but not reactive TASW, had a negative indirect effect on relaxation via lower levels of psychological detachment. Our findings provide insights into the temporal dynamics of external pressures, supplemental work, and subsequent impairment of recovery. Overall, our results did not support a beneficial effect of more autonomous TASW for recovery experiences.
In addition to changes within an organization, disruptive events in employees’ broader environment may have an impact on their experience at work. However, the influence of recurring environmental events on employees’ job engagement and the potential moderating role of job characteristics are not yet well understood. Based on event system theory, we hypothesized declines in employees’ physical, cognitive, and emotional job engagement in reaction to disruptive environmental events. We additionally considered the role of event novelty and four important job characteristics (i.e. workload, job autonomy, supervisor, and coworker support) for these effects. Data were provided by 652 employees in Germany, who participated in a longitudinal study with 20 measurement waves between December 2019 and September 2021, and across two national pandemic lockdowns in Germany. Results showed a decline in all three facets of job engagement due to the first disruptive environmental event, but only negligible changes when the event recurred. Declines in physical and cognitive engagement were stronger for the first event compared to the second event. Findings regarding the moderating role of job characteristics only partially supported our hypotheses. For example, higher levels of workload strengthened the decline in physical and cognitive engagement due to the first occurrence of the event, whereas lower coworker support was associated with a stronger decrease in emotional engagement due to the second event. Human resource management should consider how to design jobs that help employees maintain high levels of job engagement, even in the face of disruptive environmental events. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by integrating event- and feature-oriented approaches to employee experiences.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, knowledge workers have transitioned from passive occupants of corporate spaces to active agents navigating diverse workspaces. As organizations attempt to recall employees to central offices, they encounter widespread reluctance, as the company premises now compete with other locations. This study examines how knowledge workers navigate the growing array of work location choices and the resulting mobilities. Through 25 semi-structured interviews with knowledge workers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland who have flexible working arrangements, we explore the factors influencing employees' location choices. Specifically, we examine the underlying drivers of location selection, work preferences, and the associated geographic mobility within the context of the ongoing remote work transformation. Our results show that employees experience flexibility as a daily negotiation shaped by personal preferences, resource constraints, and evolving definitions of "workplace." From this, we develop a decision-making framework that maps how resource allocation shapes mobility patterns along a continuum-from micromobility through mesomobility to macromobility. Furthermore, we have conceptualized effective and ineffective organizational responses to shaping employee mobility. By bridging the gap between organizational policies and employee agency, this research advances the geographic mobility literature, offering actionable insights for firms grappling with hybrid work models. It encourages practitioners to reconsider "flexibility" as a strategic resource rather than a perk, suggesting that aligning spatial policies with employee-driven needs can mitigate attrition and support sustainable productivity.
Given the many obstacles women encounter on their path to leadership positions, resilience is particularly important for women in leadership. Nevertheless, there is still little knowledge about the specifics of female leader resilience and how it can be enhanced. Drawing on a qualitative interview study, we show how female leaders' resilience can be promoted at individual, organizational, and societal levels. For this purpose, we conducted 48 in-depth semistructured interviews with female leaders from upper, middle, and lower leadership positions in various industrial sectors. We found that female leader resilience is shaped by individual internal resources (such as achievement orientation, self-confidence, and adaptability) and social support (such as a supportive partner, family, and friends), encouraged by enabling organizational factors (such as inclusive cultures, flexible structures, and mentoring), and influenced by societal factors (such as gender-specific role expectations, early socialization, and access to role models). We further demonstrate that due to persistent inequalities, stereotypes, and prejudices, women rely on their resilience not only in crisis situations but also in the context of everyday leadership. Thus, our study offers valuable insights for developing female leaders' resilience in both theory and practice.
Low-skilled migrant workers make up a significant portion of the workforce in many countries, yet their well-being remains underexplored in mainstream human resource literature, particularly in relation to stress and coping mechanisms. This study examines how low-skilled migrant workers navigate stress while working and living overseas, identifying key stressors and coping strategies. Focussing on Bangladeshi male migrant workers in Malaysia, a country shaped by migration, the study responds to calls for a more inclusive perspective in human resource management research. Drawing on 44 semi-structured interviews, our findings indicate that low-skilled migrants predominantly rely on support-seeking strategies, particularly from family, peers, and faith. This is followed by problem-solving and accommodation strategies. Additionally, religion emerges to be a key personal resource in their coping efforts. These insights offer implications for human resource management practices and government policies aimed at enhancing the well-being of foreign semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
