1 Introduction

Human Resource Management (HRM) is highly incorporated with green concepts, which helps in the exposure of Green Human Resource Management. Green HRM helps the organization in achieving economic constancy and ecological stability by assembling sustainability necessities for social justice, health, and well-being of organizations and employees (Nisar et al. 2021). Green Human Resource Management involves undertaking eco-friendly Human Resource initiatives ensuing in greater work efficiency, lower cost for production, and enhanced work commitment of employee and employee work retention (Marrucci et al. 2021). The emerging role of developing sustainable organizations in the competitive market is finding difficult in the current situation.

Fine-tuning practices of Green HRM and paying little attention to the effectiveness of environmental management. Until 2008, Green HRM methods were classified as environmental management as methods of recruitment and selection (Sabokro et al. 2021). For evaluation and management of performance, green training, organizational development, labor relations, green pay, and green reward through human resource professionals, organizations are trying to use strategies that make their business greener. Practices of Green HRM must be enhanced to make sure that these available resources are maximized within the organization and provide preferred public sector innovation. This requires a modification in the way people are managed, especially in Small and medium enterprises, to achieve desired outcomes by developing an approach that takes into account employee orientation and sustainability in an organization's environment. Green HRM is followed by the organization to improve the sustainability of both the organization and its environment (Mousa and Othman 2020). Some of the Green HRM practices which are constantly followed by the organization are namely.

1.1 Green recruitment and selection

The process which creates a positive impact on the environment of the organization by minimizing the usage of paper and undergoing the process of recruitment. Through online resources like electronic mail, Global talent pool, and other mediums the applications are retrieved and processed. Some job seekers choose to give up their probable wages to work for environmentally conscientious organizations (Jamal et al. 2021). Successful Recruitment and Selection Methods are Core Components Items Points Human Resources for any organization. Strategies of effectual recruitment and green selection result in effective improvement of the organization. Recruitment involves attracting potential candidates to apply for existing vacancies within or outside the organization, thus attracting employees to the platform for environmental protection knowledge as well as environmental conservation interests. By selecting candidates with an ecological mindset, companies can hire experts who know of stable processes.

1.2 Green employee involvement

Green employee participation refers to the prospect for employees to discover environmental strategies and how they can be applied to combat pollution and other environmental problems. Organizations require to demeanor an environmental review, thus altering the organizational culture, concerning waste management, pollution, and serving the general public, those who are getting exaggerated by pollution (Afum et al. 2020).

1.3 Green performance

Management of the environment and policy handling will be properly maintained when green performance is adopted in the organization (Farias et al. 2019). Green performance is a procedure that motivates employees to improve their skills which is essential for their profession. Also, the green performance of employees helps to achieve the aim, objectives, and scope of the organization. Consciousness about the strategies proposed by the corporates is delegated by managing the performance of the organization in green aspects (Belhadi et al. 2018). The green performance of an organization also influences the business strategy of corporates globally.

Damages will be reduced to defend the organization’s environment by properly maintaining green performance. Also, human resource managers can motivate employee to improve their performance in green aspects. Some companies today are tackling green performance management by establishing enterprise-wide performance levels of organizations’ environment and information reviews of the environment to generate constructive environmental performance data (Pipatprapa et al. 2017). This overall concept of green HRM is briefly shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
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Overall model of green human resource management concept

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1.4 Green organizational culture

The diversified concept of organizational culture in green aspects includes eco, an environmental, sustainability-oriented friendly culture which is specially designed to improve and extend the culture of an organization in the context of green-oriented. Green organization culture is the collection of shared values, norms, beliefs, perspectives, and other guidelines that helps the employees of an organization to behave properly during the process of economic business (Shah et al. 2021; Afum et al. 2020). For achieving corporate social responsibility the organizational culture should be maintained in the green aspects. The most significant thing in project management is performance evaluation. Additionally, to meet the value of reliability, adequacy, and fairness, successful evaluation provides useful criticism to employees and contributes to the unremitting enhancement of the environmental concert of an organization. Environmental green performance assessment litigation addresses the necessitate for managers to be held responsible for environmental green performance in adding up to broader performance scope. According to the hypothesis, HRM may play a beneficial function by finding, choosing, training, and fairly compensating their skilled, capable, and competent personnel, which ultimately raises their level of motivation and productivity. Additionally, it increases their effectiveness and efficiency in terms of improved quality, maximum profit, and increased profit.

The contribution of this research work is as follows:

  • A concise summary of 55 research publications on green human resource management is provided. The papers that had been gathered were from the year (2013–2021).

  • Structured survey questions were used to gather data for analysis, and they were distributed to the appropriate authorities of various organizations, manufacturing companies, and industries.

  • PLS-SEM and fuzzy set comparative analysis were used as the analysis types for determining the effects of Green HRM.

  • Future researchers will look back on this as a turning point because it also depicts the current difficulties with the structure and methods of green human resource management.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: The summary of the gathered research papers is covered in Sect. 2. Section 3 presents the analysis of the compiled research papers. In Sect. 4, the highlighted research gaps and difficulties are addressed. Section 5 provides a conclusion to this study.

2 Literature review

In this research work, a total of 55 research papers have been collected, and all these papers have been selected from standard journals like the journal of human resources, Elsevier, Springer, Taylor and Francis, and so on. The papers are collected from the year (2013–2021). The papers are selected based on green human resources practices.

2.1 Related works

Green HRM helps the organization to upgrade itself to maintain a high level of work and performance sustainability in the organization. For that purpose, more green HRM practices and drivers are involved to enhance the outcome of the organization. Green HRM helps to improve process efficiency, reduce costs, eliminate environmental waste, and update HR products, tools, and measures. By becoming environmentally aware, organizations are beginning to incorporate an environmental approach into their normal working environment with civilization. Those drivers and practices are explained in the following existing works of literature. Table 1 depicts the sustainability practices created by the authors.

Table 1 Sustainability practices created by authors
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2.1.1 Green human resource management practices

Green HRM encompasses environmentally friendly workforce management initiatives that increase efficiencies, lower costs, and improve employee commitment and retention, helping organizations reduce their employees' carbon footprint through green human resource practices. To create firms that are environmentally trustworthy, resource-efficient, and socially responsible, green HRM offers a collection of policies, procedures, and systems that support green behavior among employees.

Nisar et al. (2021) have examined the practices of Green HRM and their role in the performance of organizations’ environments. They looked into the relationship between employees' ecological behavior and their intellectual capital for sustainability. They prepared survey questions and distributed them to the respective authorities of the organization. From 374 employees they collected the data and performed PLS-SEM analysis. They identified that green development, training, and discipline management create the greatest impact on green intellectual capital in the organization. Their study correlates GHRM practices with the environmental behavior of organizations and green intellectual capital. They also evaluate the organization's recital with the help of the practices of GHRM. They also recommend the organization punish the employee if they disobey the rules and guidelines followed by the respective organization.

Marrucci et al. (2021) have evaluated the consequence of GHRM on the performance and reputation of the firm. They examined the practices of GHRM such as green training, recruiting, involvement, green rewarding, and performance management. They prepared a constructive questionnaire and collected samples from the registered organization. They found that corporations had begun appearing on their functionality to step forward their sustainability control. They identified that GHRM positively impacts the performance of the organization. Additionally, they evaluated the affiliation between GHRM and the circular economy.

Sabokro et al. (2021) have investigated the effect of CSR and green psychological climate on the green behavior of employees in the organization. They surveyed by distributing the structured questionnaire to the managers of the organization and performed PLS-SEM for the collected data. They found that GHRM creates an impact on the organization's social responsibility, the green behavior of the employee, and their psychological capital. They also demonstrated the role of Green HRM in attaining organizational sustainability. They also suggested founding sustainable practices for minimizing resource consumption.

Mousa and Othman (2020) have evaluated the deployment of green HRM and its' influence on organizational performance and sustainability. They conducted semi-structured interviews to gather the information. Also, the data has been gathered from the HR managers, CEO, and operational managers. A structured survey was conducted by them using quantitative tools from 69 employees of health care centers. Their study showed that green HR management creates a high-level collision in the sustainable performance of health care centers. They also discovered that green hiring, training, and interaction are the most crucial green HR management approaches. They also looked at the route coefficient to determine how green HRM affected achieving environmental sustainability. Additionally, they assessed how green HR management affected workers' eco-friendly behavior.

Jamal et al. (2021) have recognized the influencing nature of green HR management practices in the industry; they considered the practices of Green HRM as green training, recruitment, pay and rewards, training, and involvement of employees. They surveyed 200 industry managers and gathered their responses. They delivered PLS-SEM for analyzing the performance. Their findings resulted that practices in Green HRM positively impact green selection, recruitment, pay and reward, and green involvement. Also, they found that green training is not impacted the sustainability of the organization.

Obeidat et al. (2020) have demonstrated the Green HRM role in the industry. They developed hypotheses and analyzed the Green HRM effects on the industry. They prepared a set of questions and collected data from 144 industrial managers. They analyzed the collected data using PLS-SEM analysis. They find out that Green HRM creates a high-level impact on the firms’ effective performance. Furthermore, they found that the firms’ performance is influenced by the performance of the firm environment.

Paillé et al. (2020) have researched to discover the effect of Green HRM practices to achieve sustainability in an organizational environment. They collected data from 221 respondents and found that practices of Green HRM indirectly affect the performance of the organization and its' environment. Their result found that training given to the employees completely impacts the environmental activities of the organization and employee satisfaction.

Malik et al. (2020) have evaluated the influencing nature of practices of green HR management and intellectual capital in achieving sustainability of the organization. They considered the practices of green HR management as a green selection of the candidate, recruitment of the candidate, and rewards given to the employees and the dimension of green intellectual capital as Green structural, green human, and green relational capital. They established that green HR management and intellectual capital create a high-level impact on the sustainability of the organization. They recommended exploring the influence of practices of Green HRM and the pressure on stakeholders in the sustainability area.

Elshaer et al. (2020) have focused more on environmental behavior, performance, and Green HRM in the organization to understand the efficiency or work. They examined the impact of Green HRM in small enterprises to increase their performance. They prepared survey questions and distributed them to the employees in the industry. They performed SEM analysis for the collected data and they found that the environmental performance of the industry is not influenced by the Green HRM. They also explained the impacting role of green HR management and the performance of the industrial environment in small-scale enterprises.

Malik et al. (2021) have demonstrated the role of employee behavior in an organization and its' relationship toward practices of green HR management like green selection, training, recruitment, reward, and evaluation of performance, CSR, and sustainable organizational performance. They prepared structured survey questions and delivered them to 150 industries. They analyzed the collected data using PLS-SEM and tested the proposed hypothesis. They found that employee behavior is impacted by the CSR and practices of Green HRM.

Amjad et al. (2021) have revealed the effect of green HR management practices on the management to attain sustainability of organizational performance. The practices of green HRM include employee training, employee development, reward and performance appraisal of the employee, and compensation provided to the employee. They prepared survey questions and distributed them to 165 employees in the textile industry. Their results show that the sustainability of an organization is significantly impacted by the practices of green HRM.

Fawehinmi et al. (2020) have examined the influence of Green HRM on the green behavior of employees in the organization. They surveyed universities by distributing a questionnaire to 425 respondents. From the collected data they performed PLS-SEM and found that green HR management affects the green behavior of the employee in an organization.

Rawashdeha (2018) have explored the correlation between practices of green HRM and the performance of the organization's environment. They considered green HR management practices such as Green recruitment of candidates, Green selection of candidates, Green training provided to employees, Green development of employees, and Green rewards given to the employees. They prepared a structured questionnaire for collecting the data. From the response, they performed the analysis and found that green recruitment of candidates and green training given to the employees have less correlation with green training and green development. Also, their result concluded that an optimistic relationship exists between the practices of HR management and organizational performance.

Al Kerdawy et al. (2019) have demonstrated the influence of green HRM in corporate social responsibility. They conducted a survey and collected data from 326 respondents from 30 registered industries. With the collected data they performed an SEM analysis and found that there is an affirmative impact and connection between green HR management and CSR.

Tang et al. (2018) have explained the important factors of green HRM to develop the organization's productivity. They considered the factors of green HR management as green recruitment of candidates, green selection of candidates, the green performance of employees and management, green pay given to employees, green training provided to the employees, and green involvement of employees. They performed confirmatory factor analysis and their results showed that green recruitment of candidates, green selection of candidates, the green performance of employees and management, green pay given to employees, green training provided to the employees, and green involvement of employees are the factors of green HR management.

Qureshi et al. (2020) suggested the results of the current study show that employees in the public sector were not properly informed about the government's policies and vision for green human resource management practises, which hampered the achievement of organisational environmental goals and, by extension, attempts to sustain the nation as a whole.

2.1.2 Green employee behavior

Sustainable employee behavior in green aspects refers to a set of actions taken by employees to reduce negative environmental impacts and promote a sustainable environment. Sustainable employee behavior contributes to an environmental collision in the organization. Within the framework of “green” HR management, the role of the organization and its impacting features are more efficient and effective. Organizational communication and green transformational leadership promote good environmental behavior among employees. Green employee behavior is key to creating a prominent and effective workplace.

Zhu et al. (2021) have examined the Green HRM impact on voluntary and task-related green behavior of employees in the organization. They collected data from 228 respondents using structured questionnaires from respective organizations. Their obtained results show that Green HRM impacts Voluntary and task-related employee behavior positively.

Dumont et al. (2017) have evaluated the effect of green climate and green value in Green HRM. Their outcome shows that green behavior is directly and indirectly impacted by the Green HRM of an organization. They also found the mediating effect of green psychological capital. Their findings also examined the effect of green HR management on the role of employee green behavior in an organization and found whether green HR management impacts the in-role green behavior of employees or extra-role green behavior of employees.

Kim et al. (2019) examined the improvement of employee behavior and performance with the help of Green HRM. They prepared survey questions and distributed them to 177 employees in the hotel to collect the required information. With the collected data they performed analysis and found that green HR management helps in the enhancement of performance and behavior of employees in hotels. They also recommended the respective hotel management derive Green HRM policies and guidelines.

Chaudhary (2021) have conducted a research study to find the role of green HR management in employees' environmental performance. They examined the impacting nature of practices of Green HRM on the behavioral performance of employees such as voluntary and task-related behavior. Their proposed hypothesis is analyzed using hierarchical regression. From the performed analysis they found that Green HRM creates a high-level impact on the green behavior of the employee. Their study also revealed the effect of Green HRM on achieving organizational sustainability.

Al-Ghazali and Afsar (2021) have examined the practices of Green HRM's effect on the green creativity of employees. They also demonstrated the role of green values and intention toward environmental performance. They surveyed 437 respondents of the organization. From the collected data they performed analysis and found that Green HRM positively affects green creativity. They also found the relationship between practices of Green HRM, employee behavior, and green intention.

He et al. (2021) have surveyed and find the effectiveness of green HR management, CSR, and green leadership on the green behavior of the employee and employee performance over the task. They collect the data from 261 employees of five-star hotels and performed analysis. Through analysis, they found that CSR, Green HRM, and leadership create an impact on employee green behavior and their performance. Their analysis enhanced the performance framework and highlighted the sustainability of the organization.

Bohlmann et al. (2018) demonstrated the green behavior of the employee, overall performance, task-related behavior, and productive behavior at work. They used a design namely an experimental policy-capturing approach to find the rating of participants about the work performance and employee work behavior. With the ratings retrieved from the managers, analysis is performed and they found that job performance is impacted highly by employee task-related behavior. They also analyzed the ratings for the green behavior of employees, citizenship behavior in an organization, and work performance of employees.

Zhang et al. (2019) have explained the practices of green HR management like the life cycle of employees, training, empowerment of employees, and involvement of employees. They demonstrated the effect of green behavior in organizations. They conducted a structured survey and collected the sample data from respondents. With the help of collected data, they performed an analysis and found that there is a relationship exists between green HRM and the green behavior of the employee.

Saeed et al. (2019) have examined the practices of green HR management and its effect on the pro-ecological activities of workers in the organization. They considered the practices of green HR management as a green selection of candidates, green recruitment of candidates, green training provided to employees, green performance of employees, green appraisal given to employees, green reward offered to employees, green compensation provided to employees, and green involvement of employees. They delivered a review and collected the required information from 347 respondents of the organization. Their obtained results show that practices of green HRM highly influence the pro-ecological behavior of employees in an organization.

Ansari et al. (2021) have examined the pro-ecological activities of employees in the organization and explained the significant impact of it on the Green HRM. They carried out a survey and received the necessary data from 342 respondents. Their results confirmed that practices of Green HRM impact the green commitment of employees and the pro-ecological performance of employees in the organization.

2.1.3 Green training

Green training helps to equip the employees of the organization about the policies and guidelines followed by the organization. Employees' green innovation and creativity are also enhanced by green training. Employees are encouraged to increase their work efficiency through green training. This will promote the employees to improve their work performance in the organization.

Shah (2019) developed a valid scale for measuring Green HRM. Their study explained the practices of green HRM like green creativity, green training, green recruitment, green development, and green selection. They performed structural equation modeling to measure the performance. For performing analysis they prepared a structured questionnaire and performed data collection. In addition, they performed CFA, convergent validity, and discriminant validity.

Srivastava and Shree (2018) explained green training and its role in CSR. The working hotel staff was where they gathered the necessary data. They conducted EFA and CFA using the data they had gathered. In addition, they also performed a hierarchical regression analysis to find out the impacting nature of green training. Their study found that providing maximum green training to the employee will impact green involvement and relates the CSR.

Liu et al. (2020) have demonstrated green training and its moderating role in manufacturing firms. They described that top management of the manufacturing firm commonly uses green training as a tool to improve the worker's performance. They prepared a structured questionnaire comprised of 221 questions and collect information from the top management of the firm. They performed regression analysis to find the affiliation between green training and CSR.

Xie et al. (2020) developed a hypothesis relating green training and the career growth of employees. They also explained the green performance of employees in the organization. They prepared a questionnaire and collected data from 35 firms. They conducted CFA, reliability, and discriminant validity analysis using the collected data. They discovered from the analysis that green training serves as a pathway for both the professional development and job performance of employees in firms.

Pinzone et al. (2019) have evaluated the engagement and behavior of the employee with the effect of green training. They also explained that green training will develop job satisfaction among working employees. They carried out a survey and gathered information from 260 healthcare experts. They conducted regression analysis and Cronbach alpha tests using the data they had gathered. Finally, they discovered the importance of green training for healthcare workers' job satisfaction and productivity.

2.1.4 Green performance

The green performance of the organization is measured using green organization development and its activities towards the environment. The practices of green HR management actively help the company to increase the attainment of the organization in green aspects. Also, green performance is enhanced by the TQM and CSR of the organization and its environment.

Ge et al. (2016) anticipated a model to examine the correlation between green performance, green legitimacy, and green orientation. They collected data from 235 green firms to perform analysis. They performed discriminant, validity, reliability, correlation analysis, regression, and rotated factor analysis. They found that green orientation and green attainment have a significant certain correlation.

Wang et al. (2017) conducted a survey in 29 sectors of manufacturing industries in China. They developed a hypothesis and check the relationship between green innovation in the manufacturing industry and the green performance of employees in the firm. They also estimated the level of performance of employees and their innovation of them in green aspects. They also investigated the gap and tools which helps to increase the firms' work efficiency.

Jabbour et al. (2016) have explained the barriers to operational practices of firms in green aspects and analyzed the effect of practices in the green performance and green operational performance of the organization. They analyzed the developed hypothesis using PLS-SEM. They collected sufficient data from 75 organizations and performed the analysis. From the analysis, they found that an affirmative bond exists between green practices and green operational organizations’ performance.

Feng et al. (2017) explained the green performance and gree development of the organization and impacting nature of it among the organization. They collected data from 165 sub-regions of a country. They performed analysis for the developed hypothesis and found that there is a positive correlation between the influencing characteristics of green performance and the green development performance of the organization.

Abbas (2020) have demonstrated the role of CSR and the impacting character of TQM on organizations' performance in green aspects. They performed structural analysis for the collected data from medium-size firms and small-size firms. They discovered a link between TQM and the organization's success in terms of going green. They also noticed how TQM affected the organization's CSR.

Pipatprapa et al. (2017) have evaluated the green performance of the employee and its effectiveness to enhance the quality of the management. They prepared a structured questionnaire and delivered it to the 178 managers working in the food industry. With the gathered information they performed the SEM analysis. From the performed analysis they found the fitness of the proposed variables. Finally, their results stated that TQM has an optimistic interrelationship with the green performance of the food industry.

Farias et al. (2019) have developed an approach to establish the collision of green practices in maximizing the performance of organizations in green aspects. To discover the connection between the variables of the proposed hypothesis, they applied the ANP approach. To gather the information, a questionnaire was created. They concluded the analysis that there is a strong link between the organization's green practices and its green performance.

Belhadi et al. (2018) explained the impacting nature of lean practices on the performance of SMEs. They prepared a structured questionnaire to collect data from the employees of enterprises to perform analysis. Finally, they concluded that there is a correlation exists between lean practices and the performance of enterprises in green aspects.

Alshammrei et al. (2023) This study shows that the application of GHRM can improve the implementation of GI by businesses, which would improve the sustainability of those businesses. Additionally, this data strengthens and supports conventional wisdom. The study also shows how environmental management strategies in the innovation and human resource sectors might lead to higher sustainability.

2.1.5 Green organizational culture

An organization's culture determines the correct way to perform within the organization. This organizational culture comprises shared beliefs and principles set by leaders and is ultimately communicated and non-breakable through a variety of ways to shape employee perceptions, behaviors, and understandings. Green culture is a collective belief in sustainable and environmentally friendly style (cooperative) production shared by the majority of the organization's members.

García-Machado and Martínez-Ávila (2019) demonstrated the effect of innovation and the relationship occurrence between green performance and green culture. They used 157 observations as a sample for measuring the performance. For the collected data they performed a PLS-SEM analysis. From the performed analysis they found the fitness of the proposed hypothesis. Finally, they conclude that there is a positive correlation occurs between green culture and organization performance.

Yang et al. (2019) explained the concept of green information systems, green innovation, and green culture. They collected data from 300 companies respectively. With the collected information they performed an analysis to find the relationship between green culture, innovation, and information system performance. They concluded that there is significant positive relationship exists between the three variables namely green innovation, culture, and performance of organizations' information systems.

Shah et al. (2021) demonstrated the impact of practices of green HRM on the organizational culture and climate in green aspects. They collected sufficient data using a structured questionnaire from 480 working employees of various organizations. Using the collected data they performed a PLS-SEM analysis. Finally, they concluded that there is significant relationship exists between the green culture and the climate of the organization, and is impacted positively by the practices of green HRM.

Asmui et al. (2014) explained the green organizational culture and commitment of the organization. They constructed a questionnaire and distributes it to the workers of the educational institution. With the collected information they performed a statistical analysis using the SPSS tool. From the performed analysis they found a relationship between organizational commitment and green organizational culture.

Chen et al. (2020) defined the green culture of an organization and its impact on enhancing the green performance of the organization. They collected data using the developed survey questions. By distributing the questions they get the data. With the retrieved data, they performed analysis and found a positive relationship between the green culture of the organization and the green performance of the organization.

Chandra et al. (2021) examined the impacting nature of green organizational culture on the performance of the organization and explained the mediating effect of innovation in the green aspect. They prepared a structured survey question and collect the data from the managers, CEO, and team members of the manufacturing firms. With the collected information they performed SEM analysis to find the fitness level of each variable. Finally, they concluded that the green culture of an organization impacts the performance of the organization positively.

Afum et al. (2020) collected the required information from 157 manufacturing industries to find out the impact of organizational culture impact on the performance of the organization's environment and the management of the organization in the green aspect. They formulated the hypothesis and performed PLS-SEM to find the goodness of fit indices.

2.1.6 Organizational sustainability

Maintaining sustainability in an organization determines having the quality leadership role, global understanding, and revolutionizing strategies needed to address the exclusive challenges faced by organizations in today’s conditions. This includes, but is not defective to diminishing the worldwide talent pool across four multicultural generations. The main goal of Green HRM is to educate employees on the complexities of environmental management, what actions are required, how they work, and how they benefit the environment. This movement truly motivates employees and builds pride in being part of the Greening program.

Sathasivam et al. (2021) have undergone a qualitative study that explored the environmental sustainability of companies by using Green HRM. They conducted an in-depth interview and collect the required data. They evaluated the sustainability of an organization with three drivers such as embracing, embarking, and building sustainability in the organizational environment. Their study explored that for maintaining sustainability in organizations they should maintain the practices of green HRM like green recruiting, employee involvement, employee participation, green training, orientation, and rewards.

Roscoe1 et al. (2019) has explained the performance and sustainability of organizations' environment. This study evaluated the correlation between the practices of green HRM and the culture of the organization. They performed a survey with 204 respondents in the manufacturing industry. Their findings resulted that the practices of green HRM like green training, rewards, recruiting, and appraisal help in the deployment of organizational culture. They also explained the mediating effect of organizational culture in practices of green HRM and the performance of the organizational environment.

Islam et al. (2020) have explored the challenges in achieving organizational sustainability with the help of practices of green HRM. They underwent qualitative research in which the data are collected from respective authorities of the industry with planned survey questions. They found the effect of green HRM is maximized by the rules and guidelines, monitoring, and training programs followed in the organization.

Jerónimo et al. (2020) have explained green HRM as the factors which help the organization attain sustainability. They examined the aim of green hiring, training, and compensation of sustainable organizations. They performed a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis with the collected data from 275 respondents. Their results show that the sustainability of the organization is mainly achieved by green hiring and less likely by green training. Also, they confirmed that green training is more important for younger employees than older employees of the organization.

Zaid et al. (2018) have investigated the relationship between practices of green HRM and green supply chain management. Also, explained the impacting nature to achieve organizational sustainability. They underwent a survey of 121 manufacturing firms. With the collected data they performed PLS-SEM and their analyzed result showed that there is a positive relationship between green HRM and supply chain management.

Mousa and Othman (2020) have identified the practices of green HRM to achieve sustainability in the organization. They also evaluated the influence of green HRM on the sustainability of an organization and its' performance. They interviewed 69 respective authorities of the organization, They performed PLS-SEM for the collected data and their results show that green hiring, training, and involvement highly impact the sustainability of the organization. The evaluated outcome of the path coefficient shows that sustainability in organizational performance is highly influenced by the practices of green HRM.

Yong et al. (2020) have examined the impact of practices of green HRM on achieving the sustainability of the organization. They conducted a structured survey in 112 manufacturing industries and collected data from respective authorities. From the collected data they confirmed that there is no relationship exists between green selection, assessment, reward, and sustainability of manufacturing firms.

Bombiak and Marciniuk-Kluska (2018) have demonstrated the role of practices of green HRM to achieve sustainable development in the organization. They surveyed by collecting a sample from 150 respondents. Their study shows that green HRM highly helps in the development of a sustainable organizational environment.

Paillé et al. (2014) have explained the correlation between HRM, employee behavior in an organization, and the organization's performance. They prepared a set of 151 questions and distributed them to the respondents for collecting the data. Using the collected data they found that there is a positive effect and relationship between organizational employee behavior, human resource management, and the performance of the organization.

Mishra (2014) have explored the gap that exists between green HRM and organizational sustainability. They explained the practices of green HRM. They conducted a survey and collected data from the respective organizations to perform analysis. Their results showed that practices of green HRM like training, recruiting, appraisal for employee performance, compensation of an employee, and employee involvement highly impacted the sustainability of the organization and its' work performance. Table 1 shows the Sustainability practices created by the authors.

2.2 Objective of review

The following goals were specifically achieved with the help of this paper:

  1. 1.

    To identify related topics and briefly offer an introduction to green HR management.

  2. 2.

    The purpose of this survey is to look into and examine the main GHRM practices.

  3. 3.

    This study identifies specific areas of Green Human Resource Management research shortages.

  4. 4.

    This surveyed article provides a view for potential future effects.

3 Analysis of existing research

3.1 Chronological review

In this survey, a total of 55 research papers have been gathered for study, and they have all been examined from a variety of angles. The research papers were assembled between 2013 and 2021. A great deal of attention is paid to the research papers released in recent years to have a clear and correct understanding of green human resource management (i.e. 2019–2021). Figure 2 depicts the historical overview of the compiled research publications. The gathered research papers include 1 and 4 papers, respectively, from the years 2013 and 2016. Additionally, there are 8, 9, 15, 11, and 9 research papers total from the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively. The majority of the 15 papers have been gathered.

Fig. 2
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Chronological review of collected papers

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3.2 Analysis of source of data collection

The analysis is carried out in this phase to comprehend the method used to get the data for analysis. Distribution of structured survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews with senior managers, human resource managers, operational managers, chief executive officers, and employees of the organization, manufacturing enterprises, and other sectors are used to collect data for the study paper. Table 2 shows that the majority of research publications used survey questions to get their data. Mousa and Othman (2020), Shah et al. (2021), Sathasivam et al. (2021) collected the information by conducting in-depth interviews with the relevant organizational authorities.

Table 2 Analysis of source of data collection
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3.3 Analysis of data collection of respondents

In this study, a total of 55 research articles were gathered, each of which was written by a different author with expertise in a distinct field. Some authors obtained the necessary information from the staff members in their particular industry, while others obtained it via human resource management. We selected a sample of operational managers, superior officers, and chief executive officers from a particular organization, manufacturing firm, or industry Table 3.

Table 3 Analysis of data collection of respondents
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3.4 Analysis of statistical tools

The majority of the research papers included in the collection use PLS-SEM for analysis. Alpha Cronbach's coefficient, descriptive statistics of variables, robust test, multiple linear regression analysis, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, hierarchical linear modeling, and path analysis are all used to perform analyses on the collected data in 13 research papers using PLS-SEM to determine performance analysis, and 11 research papers using measurement models. Table 4 displayed those numbers.

Table 4 Analysis of Statistical tools
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3.5 Analysis of variables

Variables like a dependent variable, independent variable, and intermediate variable can be discovered in the study papers that have been gathered. These factors were used for analysis and for a hypothesis to be put forth. The independent variable is identified as the factor influencing the other factor. The dependent variable is the one that is affected by the other, and the mediator variable is the one that acts as a link between the two factors. There is a list of variables in Table 5.

Table 5 Analysis of variables
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3.6 Framework of overall green human resource management concept

To increase the sustainability of an organization, corporate social responsibility, and performance of the organizational environment Green HRM practices should be maintained. Nisar et al. (2021), Marrucci et al. (2021), Sabokro et al. (2021), Mousa and Othman (2020), Jamal et al. (2021), Obeidat et al. (2020), Paillé et al. (2020), Malik et al. (2020, 2021), Elshaer et al. (2020), Amjad et al. (2021), Fawehinmi et al. (2020), Rawashdeh (2018), Al Kerdawy (2019), Tang et al. (2018) explained the practices of Gren HRM as green recruitment of candidates, green orientation, green selection of employees, green training provided to employees, employee involvement of employees, green pay given to employees, rewards offered to employees, and compensation provided by the organization. Shah et al. (2021), Asmui et al. (2014), Chen et al. (2020), Chandra et al. (2021), Afum et al. (2020), Sathasivam et al. (2021), Roscoe et al. (2019), Islam et al. (2020), Jerónimo et al. (2020), Zaid et al. (2018) demonstrated the impact of practices of green HR management in attaining organizational sustainability, improving the performance of the organization's environment, and achieving CSR. Zhu et al. (2021), Dumont et al. (2017), Kim et al. (2019), Chaudhary (2021), Al-Ghazali and Afsar (2021), He et al. (2021), Bohlmann et al. (2018), Zhang et al. (2019), Saeed et al. (2019), Ansari et al. (2021) provided the importance of green employee behavior to increase the performance of the organization. Shah (2019), Srivastava and Shree (2018), Liu et al. (2020), Xie et al. (2020), Pinzone et al. (2019) shows the impacting nature of green training in achieving the sustainability of an organization. Ge et al. (2016), Wang et al. (2017), Jabbour et al. (2016), Feng et al. (2017), Abbas (2020), Pipatprapa et al. (2017), Farias et al. (2019), Belhadi et al. (2018) explained the quality of green performance and work efficiency of employees to reach corporate social responsibility and achieve sustainability in the organization. García-Machado and Martínez-Ávila (2019), Yang et al. (2019), Shah et al. (2021), Asmui et al. (2014), Chen et al. (2020), Chandra et al. (2021), Afum et al. (2020) analyzed the influencing drivers of green organization culture to achieve a sustainable organizational environment.

3.7 Analysis of t-value and p-value

The p-value is used to find out the significance level and it will measure the impact between the variables. The t-value is used to find out the difference between the variables. The p-value is the likelihood that, if the null hypothesis is correct, each test will result in a t-value with an absolute value at least as large as the one we observed in the sample data. The t-value is a way to measure the difference between population means. The t-value and p-value analysis is demonstrated in Table 6.

Table 6 t-Value and p-value Analysis
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3.8 Analysis of reliability and validity

The consistency of the measure is defined as the reliability and the accuracy of the measure is defined as the validity. Table 7 shows the reliability and validity analysis. When the AVEs' square root values are greater than the corresponding correlation coefficients between the constructs, this is known as discriminant validity. Where CR is the construct reliability and AVE is the average variance extracted. The Cronbach alpha is reliably valid between the range of 0.5–0.8. The outcomes of green human resource management techniques, including sustainable performance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), organization citizenship behavior toward the environment (OCBE), and green training and performance assessment (economic, social, and environmental). All of the constructs have first-order factor loadings of more than 0.7, composite reliability (CR) > 0.70, average validity (AVE) > 0.50, and Cronbach's alpha > 0.70.

Table 7 Reliability and validity analysis
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4 Research gaps in green human resource management

Several research papers mainly focus on the behavior of the organizational environment and the individuality of employees within the organization. There are more gaps in the Green HRM that need to be filled in both theoretical and empirical ways. There are more gaps found to be filled concerning Green HRM. Nisar et al. (2021), Al Kerdawy (2019) explained only a few of the Green HRM practices like green development, training, discipline management, green training, recruiting, involvement, green rewarding, performance management (Marrucci et al. 2021; Malik et al. 2020), green pay, and compensation (Amjad et al. 2021; Rawashdeh 2018). There is an issue that arises that only a few practices of Green HRM are considered. To overcome this issue few other practices of Green HRM should be introduced. Issues in data sampling: While collecting the data many research papers have taken only limited samples. So that while performing analysis reliability value will not reach the threshold value. By collecting more data samples accurate results can be obtained. Also, some researchers found that during data collection done through a questionnaire there may be a possibility of answering the question dishonestly by the respondents. To resolve this issue better follow the stealth observation way of data collection. Issues in approaches: Some of the research work focused only on a few dimensions of Green HRM and the effect of Green HRM is not fully mentioned. Defining the characteristic of Green HRM and its usefulness to attain organization give more detailed information about Green HRM.

The following are the identified research gap and findings regarding the context of Green HRM.

4.1 Analysis of research gap and findings on Green HRM practices

Green HRM is maintained in the organization to improve the sustainability of the organization and to maximize the performance of the organizational environment. Some of the practices of Green HRM that are followed by the organizations are green recruitment, green hiring of candidates, green selection of candidates, green training provided to the selected employees, green compensation offered by the organization to the employees, green pay given to the employees, and green reward provided to the workers. These practices will directly influence the sustainability of the organization or else each one of the practices of Green HRM will separately help to develop workplace performance. Some of the findings and research gap based on practices of Green HRM in the existing literature is mentioned in below Table 8.

Table 8 Analysis of research gap and findings on Green HRM practices
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4.2 Analysis of research gap and findings on green employee behavior

The sustainability of an organization is increased by the green behavior of employees in the workplace. Employee behavior in an organization is classified as task-related work behavior and voluntary work behavior of employees. Also, employee green behavior helps to increase the work commitment of the organization. Some of the findings and research gap based on green employee behavior and work performance of the employee in the existing literature is mentioned in below Table 9.

Table 9 Analysis of research gap and findings on green employee behaviour
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4.3 Analysis of research gap and findings on green training

Green training provided to the employees acts as an important component for achieving the sustainable development of the organization. Small and medium enterprises mainly use the concept of green training to produce green employees. Green training in an organization helps the newly appointed employees to know about the functionality of the organization and is a valuable predictor for attaining sustainability. Some of the findings and research gap based on green training and its effect on achieving organizational sustainability in the existing literature are mentioned in Table 10.

Table 10 Analysis of research gap and findings on green training
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4.4 Analysis of research gap and findings on green performance

Green performance helps to maximize the work commitment in the organization and achieve sustainable development in the organization. Green performance acts as a perfect mediator between the green behavior of employees and the work efficiency of the organization. Green performance and work behavior of employees play a major role in attaining organization environment sustainability. Some of the findings and research gaps based on green innovation and its effect on achieving organizational sustainability in the existing literature are mentioned in Table 11.

Table 11 Analysis of research gap and findings on green leadership
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4.5 Analysis of research gap and findings on green organizational culture

To maintain sustainability in an organization green organizational culture and green HRM should maintain a good relationship. This both acts as a mediator of performance improvement in an organization. Some of the findings and research gaps based on green innovation and its effect on achieving organizational sustainability in the existing literature are mentioned in Table 12.

Table 12 Analysis of research gap and findings on green organizational culture
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4.6 Challenges in green HRM

The main focus of this entire survey is on the effect of green human resource management in attaining organizational sustainability and is mentioned in the below research questions:

Research Question 1: What are the important practices of green human resource management that help the organization to develop its performance?

Research Question 2: Is the employees’ pro-environmental behaviors in an organization impact the organization’s work performance?

Research Question 3: Does green recruitment of candidates, green selection of the candidate, green training provided to employees, a green reward given to employees for their activities, and compensation offered to employee helps in the sustainable development of an organization?

Research Question 4: Which methodology is mainly used to recognize the impact of green human resource management in achieving sustainable organization?

Research Question 5: What is the role of organizations’ green performance in improving the value of the organization and its sustainability?

Research Question 6: Do green human resource management and green organizational culture positively impact the sustainable development of an organization?

In an organization, the Department of Human resources is mainly responsible for framing guidelines and policies to invent green effective employees. The human resource department faces many challenges during the entire process of promoting Green HRM. Also, green values and green practices establishment faces many challenges in an organization. All the employees in the organization will maintain their own beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions and they will act accordingly.

  • The first important challenge of green HRM is creating consciousness about the organizational environment. Incorporating the green attitude is a growing need of human life across all circumstances. All organizations should maintain a green environment for attaining organizational sustainability.

  • Another key challenge faced by organizations in this process is creating green consciousness among the workforce and encouraging the employees to adopt a green work-life balance. The organization needs to enlighten the employees about the issue and encourage the integration of green behavior.

  • One of the difficult tasks faced by the organization is recruiting a green employee for better work performance. Green recruitment is considered one of the key challenges for human resource managers. Each employee in the organization will not get motivated for achieving their job in green aspects.

  • While selecting and assigning the employees Human Resource managers face more pressure for the deployment of Green HRM in the organization. Also, the recruited employees will take more time to adapt to the new environment in green aspects.

  • Issues about the organizational environment should be provided properly by the finance and workforce groups to spread consciousness and training on green environment.

  • The infrastructure of each organization/ industry/firm/company/ other sector is not strong to accept the emerging technological changes which are considered friendly to the environment.

  • Employees' lack of interest and unwillingness to work on a critical task is an additional immense challenge. A few employees think that it is not their responsibility to guard their organization's environment. They do not like to take inventiveness to pursue green practices.

  • Preliminary unit cost on green practices minimizes the retribution and earnings of the organization. For example, high cost is demand in installing the solar system on the roof of a particular organization.

5 Conclusion

This study gives managers an overview of a research area that is very important to the integration of GHRM practices with organizational sustainability. It also makes suggestions on how managers might incorporate sustainability into regular business operations. To test, alter, and improve these claims as part of further research, researchers and managers are invited to conduct additional studies. Analysis techniques like a structural model, measurement model, correlation, regression, and Cronbach alpha coefficient analysis are used to determine each research paper's performance. According to the analysis, Green HRM has a positive impact on creating a sustainable work environment. The research gap faced by the existing research paper and the findings of those papers were mentioned briefly in this survey article. Also, managers of the organization will face a challenge in explaining the consciousness and issues in the organization to develop a green environment. Such challenges faced by the human resource managers on deploying the Green HRM are portrayed, and this will be a helpful one for future researchers.

A theoretical study about achieving sustainability in the organization is explored in this paper by analyzing the practices of green HRM, green behavior of the employee, green training provided to the employees, the green performance of employees & organization, and green organization culture at the workplace. The researchers demonstrated different types of Green HRM practices adoption to attain a sustainable organizational environment. This study has also reviewed the influencing feature of green training, green employee behavior, and green organizational culture in improving the performance of the organization in the green aspect. The existing studies found a limitation in data collection. They have collected data from only a few sectors. If it is possible to collect data from many other sectors reliability will achieve constantly. In the future, empirical studies can be performed to relate the practices of Green HRM to maintain organizational culture change. Also, future researchers can undergo studies on the intermediate features of green intellectual capital and green employee retention towards attaining organizational sustainability.