Sustainability and human resource management: reasoning and applications on corporate websites

Abstract

The notion of sustainability has moved from a fringe issue towards a topic of increasing interest for management research and business practice. Recently, it has also appeared in the context of managing the corporate human resources. This paper seeks to explore the meaning of sustainability for Human Resource Management (HRM) and the reasoning for and applications of the concept for HRM through an analysis of corporate websites of 50 European multinational enterprises. It is explored how the companies define sustainability and sustainable development, how they justify applying the concept of sustainability, how they link sustainability to managing human resources and which key activities they suggest to manage human resources sustainably. These findings are critically reflected and the paper concludes with recommendations for future research.