Fostering Sustainable Skies: The Role of Green Human Resource Management in Driving Employee Green Behavior and Corporate Responsibility in Pakistani Airlines

Abstract

The urgency of climate change and environmental degradation has placed sustainability at the top of global policy, research, and industry agendas. Of the many routes organizations can take to approach this issue, placing true efficiency in embedding environmental values into recruitment, training, employee engagement, and performance appraisal mechanisms has become an important aspect through Green Human Resource Management (GHRM). In conventional HR models that heavily emphasize productivity and profitability, GHRM develops working forces with ecological objectives by turning employees into conscious collaborators in developing environmental responsibility. The growing immediacy of integrating sustainability in high-impact industries of developing economies inspires this study with a particular focus on the service sector, like airlines in Pakistan. The aviation industry negatively contributes to the global CO² emissions, leading to global warming and ozone layer thinning. GHRM practices can be adopted to reduce carbon footprints, support corporate social responsibility (CSR), and promote corporate environmental responsibility (CER). However, much of the existing research on aviation management remains focused on customer loyalty, operational efficiency, and financial performance, leaving a notable gap in research that links human resource strategies to environmental outcomes. Using contemporary literature and other global initiatives, for example, the Paris Agreement, this paper discusses how GHRM can be both strategic and operational in sustaining the transport, hospitality, tourism, and aviation sectors of Pakistan. Further, it also discusses awareness at what level (micro-level or individual level), through employee selection, training, and performance management systems, is attained when these systems are designed or implemented through a green lens. Behavioral change-informing behavior changes to achieve long-term environmental objectives addresses organizational constraints of cost implications of low awareness, and a tendency toward greenwashing, inhibiting its proper implementation. This research seeks to make a theoretical contribution by widening the discussion of GHRM in the context of developing economies, besides making an actual contribution through implementable recommendations for HR practitioners, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. Hence, it brings out that GHRM is not a supplementary strategy but rather a core approach through which productivity and environmental responsibility can be institutionalized within the same framework, supporting the larger global mission of climate change and a sustainable future.