Green Perceptions or Green Practices: What Are the Strongest Influences on Work Engagement?

Advance/CSG, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract: Green practices promoted in terms of people management, and which embody a Green Human Resources Management, are important tools for establishing a workforce which understands, values and practices green initiatives, which in turn will enable the organizations to attain their sustainability objectives. Workers also need to perceive that their organizations are concerned with and values sustainability, a phenomenon known as the organisational rationale for sustainability, and when they experience a close psychological connection with the organization, workers adopt its organizational objectives and targets for themselves, showing higher levels of organizational identification and work engagement. This paper analyses which factors most influence levels of work engagement in an organizational framework of pro-sustainability actions and concerns. Based on a sample of 275 workers from different organizations, economic sectors and occupations, the results show that implementing HRM green practices, especially in recruitment and selection and compensation (and, to a lesser extent, training), and reinforcing organizational identification are stronger determinants of greater work engagement than the perception that workers have of the importance which their organization attaches to sustainability.