Book review: Radha R. Sharma (Ed.),Human Resource Management for Organizational Sustainability

Global warming, climate change, pollution are today’s reality. The world has been searching for new solutions to handle these issues. This led to the idea of sustainability and sustainable development as an overarching philosophy of development. The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. To operationalize this philosophy, John Elkington (1994) suggested the idea of ‘triple bottom line’ with a focus on 3Ps—Profit, People and Planet. Sharma S. (1996) suggested the idea of 4Es—Efficiency, Equity, Ethics and Ecology. These frameworks with the vision of sustainability and sustainable development have roots in the ideas of ethics, values and moral dimension of human existence and human society. In fact, the vision of sustainability and sustainable development takes us beyond the twentieth-century social discourse of socialism and capitalism and offers a new vision for human society beyond these ideologies.

The discipline of Human Resource Management (HRM) has been developing over a period of time, however, its overarching paradigm has been profit. It has not concerned itself with other elements of the triple bottom line, particularly the Planet (ecology) aspect. This is because the corporate model has its origin in shareholders’ wealth maximization paradigm, and it has not yet moved to higher-order purpose reflected in the vision of sustainability and sustainable development. With the impact of global warming, climate change, pollution and increased social awareness, corporate world is forced to respond to these changes in their vision, mission, strategies and action plans. This, to some extent, is reflected in a new corporate model wherein profit, CSR and good governance are integral part of the corporate vision and mission. It is in this context that the book Human Resource Management for Organizational Sustainability is a welcome addition to the field of HRM. This book provides a new vision to HRM by linking human resource systems and processes with the idea of sustainability and sustainable development and is therefore, a step towards Holistic Corporate Management. It puts together concepts, researches and practices that advance the understanding of organizational sustainability through HRM. The book is a collection of 11 well-written and insightful articles and two case studies, contributed by well-known and experienced academics and practitioners from across the world.

The book deals with various themes of HRM such as sustainable recruitment, developing sustainability mindset, transparency in Reward and Recognition (R&R), responsible communication, motivating future business leaders to assume social responsibility through prosocial behaviours, accountability in appraisal process, values, ethics and the human spirit for responsible management, coaching and mentoring for responsibility, training employees for responsible management, management education for developing a new generation of managers to lead responsibly and promoting responsible leadership and sustainability.

In Chapter 1, ‘Corporate social responsibility and sustainable recruitment’, Joost J. L. E. Bücker suggest that organizations that establish an employer brand based on sustainable HRM practices attract and retain high-quality employees and have a competitive edge in multiple ways. Accordingly, in recruitment, organizations should assess the values of a potential candidate and whether they are aligned with organizational values and sustainable HRM.

In Chapter 2, ‘Personal development toward a sustainability mindset’, Isabel Rimanoczy explains the concept of sustainability mindset and provides a number of very useful practical exercises based on it. For this, there is a need to focus on a larger purpose of life. The author argues that a new generation of sustainability-minded leaders can be developed by engaging not only the head but also the heart, not only IQ but also EQ and compassion. This has implications for management education as the focus of the current paradigm of management education has been largely on the head.

In Chapter 3, ‘Transparency in reward and recognition’, Raj K. Nehru discusses the transparency in the reward and recognition (R&R) systems and their impact on employee behaviour and on designing. The R&R system is rooted in transparency. Factors that can affect effectiveness of the R&R system include inadequate budget allocations, lack of leadership interest, lack of standardized metrics, poor communication of practices, weak frameworks and poor engagement of employee at various levels. Organizations need to identify the key metrics of R&R performance and review it periodically for its success.

In Chapter 4, ‘Responsible communication’, Gabriele Faber-Wiener explains the idea of responsible communication as value-based and ethical communication. The author posits that Responsible Communication is based on the idea of responsible management and is defined as the inclusion of socially relevant arguments and powers in all the management decisions and processes, and communication’s adherence to stringent communication principles. The author also offers practical suggestions for making responsible communication effective.

In Chapter 5, ‘Motivating future business leaders to assume social responsibility through prosocial behaviors’, Marc Brundelius, Pilar Escotorin and Robert Roche highlight the role of prosocial behaviour in motivating the business leaders. Intrinsic pursuit of social responsibility happens when certain values are internalized. Hence, it is important that leaders should internalize certain values that lead to prosocial behaviour in them and in their followers.

In Chapter 6, ‘Accountability in appraisal process’, Raj K. Nehru focuses on the accountability in the appraisal process and offers a model involving Climate, Culture and Condition (3Cs) and Employee, Employer and Enterprise (3Es) and inter-linkages between 3Es and 3Cs. The author also offers practical suggestions for making accountability effective within the organizational context.

In Chapter 7, ‘Values, ethics and the human spirit for responsible management’, Radha R. Sharma and Saleha Ahmad highlight the role of values, ethics and the human spirit for responsible management. Values are an integral part of human nature, there is an innate desire among the human beings to follow them, and there is also a feeling of fulfilment when human beings follow the values and experience dissonance when values are violated. The authors suggest that for fulfilment, one needs to be true to oneself, value-oriented and ethical. The authors also suggest that Indian concept of Purushartha offers a holistic perspective on human values.

In Chapter 8, ‘Coaching and mentoring for responsibility’, Sally Britton suggests the need for coaching and mentoring as effective ways of providing the support that people often need to put ideas into practice. The author argues that coaching and mentoring enable the learner to focus on the impact of their behaviours and styles, raise self-awareness and have a better understanding of which aspects of what they are doing lead to more successful outcomes.

In Chapter 9, ‘Training employees for responsible management’, Silke Bustamante focuses on training employees for responsible management with theoretical inputs and practical examples from the industry. According to the author, the objectives of training for responsible management are to transfer knowledge on all aspects of responsible management and to develop moral awareness and reasoning as a basis for responsible behaviour. This calls for the use of a variety of training approaches, from reading over lectures to group discussions, negotiations and case study work.

In Chapter 10, ‘Management education for developing a new generation of managers to lead responsibly’, Steve Kempster, Emma Watton and Philippa Chapman focus on the role of management education in creating a new generation of responsible leaders, who not only embrace the notion of responsible leadership but also inculcate it in their teams and in the organization. The authors also discuss the challenges in developing responsible leadership and suggests ways to move in this direction.

In Chapter 11, ‘Promoting responsible leadership and sustainability: A case study in management education’, Grace Hurford presents a case study in responsible management education and highlights the role of partnership and experiential learning in the effectiveness of a residential MBA programme. The author documents the experience of how initial partnership between the University of Cumbria and Robert Kennedy College in Zurich led to a pilot of their first joint MBA programme in Leadership and Sustainability (2010–2011), leading to MBA and MA programmes commencing in 2013.

These 11 chapters are followed by two case studies. The first case, Nikhil at ABC, Constructions (Ranjini Swamy) deals with ethical dilemma of an employee, and the second case, Providing Safe Drinking Water to Ude Karan (Shiv S. Tripathi and Benjamin Mathew) relates to a community-based project of supply of safe drinking water to a village in Muktsar district in the State of Punjab, overcoming economic and social challenges.

The purpose of the book is ‘to bridge the knowledge gap and serve as a text/source book to develop insights into how sustainable HRM practices can contribute not only to organizational sustainability but also to sustainability at large’. The book meets this purpose in a very meaningful and insightful manner by providing relevant readings related to various themes of HRM and linking them with sustainability paradigm. In this respect, the book is a unique contribution to the HRM literature and also provides a new direction and vision to the HRM discipline. For this, the editor and authors need to be complimented for this timely contribution. The book is useful to scholars, researchers, teachers, students, practicing managers and professionals interested in sustainability as a new horizon in HRM.