Cultivating Support for the Sustainable Development Goals, Green Strategy and Human Resource Management Practices in Future Business Leaders: The Role of Individual Differences and Academic Training

James W. Westerman, Lubna Nafees and Jennifer Westerman
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James W. Westerman: Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA
Lubna Nafees: Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA
Jennifer Westerman: Sustainable Development, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-9

Abstract: How we effectively train our future business leaders is critical to the success of the implementation of the SDGs. Higher education will play a central role in this effort. This research examines business student support for environmentally oriented organizational strategy (“green strategy”) and human resource management policies and practices (“green hrm”) in comparison with sustainable development (SD) students to explore the barriers facing the education of our future business leaders on the SDGs. We explore whether student political orientation, gender, or authoritarianism are associated with different levels of support within each discipline. We also examine whether business students prioritize the same UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as SD students. Results ( n = 281) indicate that business students (particularly those who are male, conservative, or authoritarian) are less supportive of green strategy and green HR than SD students. However, business student support of prosperity/people-oriented SDGs offers a potential avenue for progress.

Keywords: SDGs; human resource management; higher education; authoritarianism; political orientation; gender; business students; green HRM; green strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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