Human Resources as Strategic Drivers of Sustainability
A Systematic Review in Property and Real Estate
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32832/jm-uika.v17i3.23847Keywords:
Green Human Resource Management, Sustainability, Resource-Based View, Workforce Capability, Property and Real EstateAbstract
Sustainability has become a critical organizational priority, yet the strategic role of human resources in supporting sustainability, particularly within the property and real estate sector, remains underexplored. This study employs a systematic literature review (SLR) guided by the Resource-Based View (RBV) to synthesize studies on Green Human Resource Management (GHRM), workforce sustainability capabilities, and sustainability outcomes published between 2016 and 2026. A total of 433 articles were initially identified, of which 21 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final review. The findings indicate that sustainability-oriented HR practices, including green training, recruitment, employee participation, and performance management, significantly contribute to pro-environmental behavior, green innovation, and sustainability awareness. The review further reveals that sustainability outcomes are primarily achieved through workforce capability development rather than through HR practices alone. Although studies on Green HRM and sustainability have expanded across manufacturing and service industries, research within the property and real estate sector remains comparatively limited and fragmented, particularly regarding workforce-centered sustainability mechanisms. This review contributes by providing a more integrated understanding of HR-driven sustainability mechanisms and highlighting future research opportunities for workforce sustainability within the built environment sector.
References
Aboramadan, M. (2022). The effect of green HRM on employee green behaviors in higher education: the mediating mechanism of green work engagement. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 30(1), 7–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-05-2020-2190
Albhirat, M. M., Rashid, A., Rasheed, R., Rasool, S., Zulkiffli, S. N. A., Zia-ul-Haq, H. M., & Mohammad, A. M. (2024). The PRISMA statement in enviropreneurship study: A systematic literature and a research agenda. Cleaner Engineering and Technology, 18(18), 100721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2024.100721
Ali, M., Shujahat, M., Fatima, N., Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, A. B., Vo-Thanh, T., Salam, M. A., & Latan, H. (2024). Green HRM practices and corporate sustainability performance. Management Decision, 62(11), 3681–3703. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2023-0787
Asfahani, A. M. (2023). Green HRM and Servant Leadership: Driving Competitive Advantage and Environmental Performance in Higher Education. Sustainability, 15(10), 7921. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107921
Aulia, K. Z., & Nawangsari, L. C. (2023). Effects of Green Human Resource Management and Green Transformational Leadership towards Employee Sustainable Performance through Employee Green Behavior at Mercu Buana University. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 8(5), 181–186. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejbmr.2023.8.5.2128
Barney, J. (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108
Chen, C., & Haron, S. H. (2024). Green Motivation for Responsible Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the Chinese Construction Industry. Sustainability, 16(24), 10805. https://doi.org/10.3390/su162410805
Chopra, S. S., Senadheera, S. S., Dissanayake, P. D., Withana, P. A., Chib, R., Rhee, J. H., & Ok, Y. S. (2024). Navigating the Challenges of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Reporting: The Path to Broader Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 16(2), 606. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020606
Darko, A., & Chan, A. P. C. (2016). Critical analysis of green building research trend in construction journals. Habitat International, 57, 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2016.07.001
Dinter, R. van, Tekinerdogan, B., & Catal, C. (2021). Automation of systematic literature reviews: A systematic literature review. Information and Software Technology, 136, 106589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2021.106589
Farida, I., & Setiawan, D. (2024). Indonesia’s real estate value potential: the role of green innovation and effective management control systems. Cogent Business & Management, 11(1), 2413384. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2413384
Gaybullaev, O., & Strode, J. P. (2026). Transformational leadership and organizational sustainability performance: A systematic literature review of global evidence. Environment, Development and Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-026-07319-z
Huo, X., Azhar, A., Rehman, N., & Majeed, N. (2022). The Role of Green Human Resource Management Practices in Driving Green Performance in the Context of Manufacturing SMEs. Sustainability, 14(24), 16776. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416776
Jabbour, C. J. C., & Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L. (2016). Green Human Resource Management and Green Supply Chain Management: linking two emerging agendas. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 1824–1833. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.01.052
Järlström, M., Saru, E., & Vanhala, S. (2018). Sustainable Human Resource Management with Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(3), 703–724. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3310-8
Joshi, A., Kataria, A., Rastogi, M., Beutell, N. J., Ahmad, S., & Yusliza, M. Y. (2023). Green human resource management in the context of organizational sustainability: A systematic review and research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 430, 139713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139713
Kampilong, J. K., Karauwan, W., Suatan, M., Merentek, T. C., & Korua, S. R. N. (2025). Sustainable leadership innovation capability (SLIC): Enhancing organizational sustainability performance in the construction industry. Sustainable Futures, 10(10), 101016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2025.101016
Kumar, A., Sethi, S. R., & Sahoo, C. K. (2025). Greening the workforce: Unveiling the role of proactive employee behaviour in enhancing environmental performance. Strategic Business Research, 1(1), 100005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbr.2025.100005
Lame, G. (2019). Systematic literature reviews: An introduction. Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED, 2019-August, 1633–1642. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.169
Legese, M. A., Zhou, S., Tiruneh, W. A., & Ying, H. (2026). How Green HRM Enhances Sustainable Organizational Performance: A Capability-Building Explanation Through Green Innovation and Organizational Culture. Sustainability, 18(2), 764. https://doi.org/10.3390/su18020764
Lozano, R. (2015). A Holistic Perspective on Corporate Sustainability Drivers. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 22(1), 32–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1325
Lozano, R., & Garcia, I. (2020). Scrutinizing Sustainability Change and Its Institutionalization in Organizations. Frontiers in Sustainability, 1. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2020.00001
Malik, S. Y., Cao, Y., Mughal, Y. H., Kundi, G. M., Mughal, M. H., & Ramayah, T. (2020). Pathways towards Sustainability in Organizations: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Green Human Resource Management Practices and Green Intellectual Capital. Sustainability, 12(8), 3228. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083228
Masri, H. A., & Jaaron, A. A. M. (2017). Assessing green human resources management practices in Palestinian manufacturing context: An empirical study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, 474–489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.087
Moczydłowska, J., Sadkowska, J., & Leszczewska, K. (2024). Exploring Green HR Practices in the Construction Industry—Evidence from Poland. Sustainability, 16(22), 9886. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16229886
Nugraha, A. T., Sunarti, S., & Makitsuna, F. (2024). The Nexus Between Green HRM Practices And Organizational Sustainability Performance. Jurnal Manajemen Indonesia, 24(2), 134–146. https://doi.org/10.25124/jmi.v24i2.6925
Parida, S., Chan, C., Ananthram, S., & Brown, K. (2023). In the search for greener buildings: The role of green human resource management. Business Strategy and the Environment, 32(8), 5952–5968. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3467
Paul, J., & Barari, M. (2022). Meta-analysis and traditional systematic literature reviews—What, why, when, where, and how? Psychology and Marketing, 39(6), 1099–1115. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21657
Pauziah, S. S., & Rufaidah, P. (2026). The Effect of Innovation Ability and Green Innovation on Business Performance Moderated by Competitive Advantage. Jurnal Ilmiah Manajemen Kesatuan, 14(1), 1283–1294. https://doi.org/10.37641/jimkes.v14i1.5049
Pham, N. T., Hoang, H. T., & Phan, Q. P. T. (2019). Green human resource management: a comprehensive review and future research agenda. International Journal of Manpower, 41(7), 845–878. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-07-2019-0350
Pinzone, M., Guerci, M., Lettieri, E., & Redman, T. (2016). Progressing in the change journey towards sustainability in healthcare: the role of ‘Green’ HRM. Journal of Cleaner Production, 122(122), 201–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.031
Renwick, D. W. S., Redman, T., & Maguire, S. (2013). Green Human Resource Management: A Review and Research Agenda*. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00328.x
Schouteten, R., van der Heijden, B., Peters, P., Kraus-Hoogeveen, S., & Heres, L. (2021). More Roads Lead to Rome. HR Configurations and Employee Sustainability Outcomes in Public Sector Organizations. Sustainability, 13(21), 11698. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111698
Shaheen, N., Shaheen, A., Ramadan, A., Hefnawy, M. T., Ramadan, A., Ibrahim, I. A., Hassanein, M. E., Ashour, M. E., & Flouty, O. (2023). Appraising systematic reviews: a comprehensive guide to ensuring validity and reliability. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 8(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2023.1268045
Tahir, A. H., Umer, M., Nauman, S., Abbass, K., & Song, H. (2024). Sustainable development goals and green human resource management: A comprehensive review of environmental performance. Journal of Environmental Management, 370, 122495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122495
Thomas, J., & Harden, A. (2008). Methods for the thematic synthesis of qualitative research in systematic reviews. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 8(45), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-8-45
Wright, P. M., McMahan, G. C., & McWilliams, A. (1994). Human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource-based perspective. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(2), 301–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585199400000020
Zhang, M., Fan, L., Liu, Y., Zhang, S., & Zeng, D. (2023). The Relationship between BIM Application and Project Sustainability Performance: Mediation Role of Green Innovation and Moderating Role of Institutional Pressures. Buildings, 13(12), 3126. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13123126
Zhao, F., Kusi, M., Chen, Y., Hu, W., Ahmed, F., & Sukamani, D. (2021). Influencing Mechanism of Green Human Resource Management and Corporate Social Responsibility on Organizational Sustainable Performance. Sustainability, 13(16), 8875. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168875
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Jurnal Manajemen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
