Let the Employees Strengthen for a Sustainable Future: A Systematic Literature Review of Sustainable HRM

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the developments in  construct of sustainable human resources management and to identify key elements, trends and research gaps for future. Therefore, a systematic literature review was carried out using Google Scholar database, covering the period from 2001 to 2024, which resulted in a corpus of 115 scientific articles.The date is simply tabulated  The results showed four categories, which comprise 74% of the elementary units of the corpus analyzed. The first comprised studies on sustainable leadership, based on individual and group power and embedded in its principles, processes, practices and organizational values. The second demonstrated the relationship among human resources management, environmental sustainability and organizational performance. The third category considered the tensions and paradoxes between human resources management practices and sustainability: on the one hand, human resources management should focus on cost reduction and corporate profitability (in the short-term); on the other, their actions should provide long-term sustainability of organizational performance. The last category dealt with the link between human resources management and the social dimension of sustainability, especially with regard to organizational social responsibility and the company’s relationship with its stakeholders. In conclusion, this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the topic of sustainable human resources management by analyzing the state of the art and future directions of human resources studies.