Exploring Themes of Sustainable Practices in Manufacturing Industry: Using Thematic Networks Approach

Noor Ullah Khan, Haoqiang Wei, Guiling Yue, Nabila Nazir and Noor Raihani Zainol
Additional contact information
Noor Ullah Khan: Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), Kota Bharu 16100, Malaysia
Haoqiang Wei: Department of Audit, Shanghai National Accounting Institute, Shanghai 201702, China
Guiling Yue: School of Human Resource Development & Psychology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
Nabila Nazir: Department of Management Sciences, Comsats University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Noor Raihani Zainol: Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), Kota Bharu 16100, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-26

Abstract: Sustainability is a vital strategy for manufacturing industries to address major environmental issues. Stakeholders’ growing ecological awareness is forcing manufacturers to adopt green human resource management practices (green HRM practices) and environmental management systems (EMS) to improve sustainable performance (SP). This research explores the key themes of green HRM practices, EMS, and OCBE, and how these themes affect the environment and explain SP among ISO14001-certified manufacturing firms. This research used a qualitative methodology following an interpretivist approach. It employed the thematic networks technique, using qualitative data to achieve the objectives. The qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews conducted with HR managers and then analyzed using NVivo 12. Thematic network analysis explores basic and organizing themes within qualitative data. Four central (parent) themes, i.e., green HRM practices, OCBE, EMS, and SP, emerged. First, green HRM was sub-divided into three sub-themes: (i) green recruitment and selection, (ii) green training and development, and (iii) green assessment and rewards. Consequently, OCBE was then sub-divided into three themes: (i) eco-helping behavior, (ii) eco-initiatives behavior, and (iii) eco-civic engagement behavior emerged. Likewise, EMS was sub-divided into three themes: (i) ISO14001, (ii) EMS key benefits, and (iii) EMS key motives. Lastly, SP was further divided into three sub-themes: (i) economic, (ii) social, and (iii) environmental. This research also discusses important implications for managers and organizations.

Keywords: green HRM practices; organizational citizenship behavior for the environment; environmental management system; sustainable performance; thematic networks approach (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 (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10288/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10288/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10288-:d:635734

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().