Green Human Resource Management Practices in Manufacturing Industry: Cases of Firms in the Southern Part of Malaysia

Green Human Resource Management (Green HRM) is vital in improving the management and productivity of organization. Green HRM is a new approach which is implemented in the organizations in order to improve the environmental management. There are several studies about green HRM and they are not adequate to provide guidelines to the organization. This paper focuses on the awareness of HR Manager about Green Human Resource Management in Manufacturing Industry. There are three objectives of study. The first objective is to determine to what extent HR managers in Manufacturing Industry aware about green HRM and second, to identify perceived challenges of adopting green HRM in manufacturing industry. The third objective is to identify perceived benefits of adopting green HRM in manufacturing industry. This study was conducted in Manufacturing Companies in the Southern Part of Malaysia. The methodology employed is qualitative inquiry as it able to generate deeper understanding of underexplored social phenomenon of the context under study. The data collection technique adopted is in-depth interview with the managers of HR department in manufacturing companies in Johore. The data analysis adopted for this study is thematic analysis. The result had shown that most HR managers were not aware about what the meaning of the term of green HRM but surprisingly their companies have already implement and adopt several elements of green HRM. The study has articulated the benefits of adopting green HRM but also attentive to the challenges in adopting the green HRM in their firms. In conclusion, this study provides a deeper understanding to the managerial perspectives on the benefits and challenges of green HRM.