IMPACT OF ADAPTATION-ORIENTED HRM ON ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR: MEDIATING ROLE OF HRM CAPABILITY

Abstract

This study examined the impact of Adaptation-Oriented HRM (AOHRM) on Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (EOCB) in manufacturing firms of Pakistan. It also investigated the mediating role of HRM Capability (HRMC) in explaining how adaptive HR practices encouraged employees to engage in voluntary environmental behaviour. The study was based on the view that environmental performance in manufacturing firms depends not only on formal policies and technical systems, but also on employees’ willingness to support environmental goals beyond their assigned duties. The study used a quantitative research design and collected primary data through a structured questionnaire. The measurement items were adopted from previous empirical studies and measured on a five-point Likert scale. Data were collected through a face-to-face survey from employees and managers working in manufacturing firms of Pakistan. Convenience sampling was used because access to manufacturing firms and employees was limited, while snowball sampling helped reach further relevant respondents through referrals. A total of 229 usable responses were obtained. The collected data were cleaned and screened in SPSS version 25, while the hypotheses were tested through SmartPLS. The findings showed that AOHRM had a positive and significant effect on EOCB. This indicated that supportive, flexible and learning-oriented HR practices encouraged employees to participate in voluntary environmental activities. The results also confirmed that AOHRM had a strong positive effect on HRMC, suggesting that adaptive HR practices helped firms strengthen their internal human resource systems. HRMC was also found to have a significant positive effect on EOCB. In addition, HRMC partially mediated the relationship between AOHRM and EOCB, showing that adaptive HR practices influenced environmental citizenship behaviour both directly and indirectly through stronger HRMC. The study offers useful implications for manufacturing firms, HR managers and sustainability practitioners. It suggests that firms should not treat environmental responsibility only as a compliance or technical issue, but should also integrate it into HRM practices. Manufacturing firms can encourage voluntary green behaviour by developing employee-centred HR systems, providing relevant training, supporting employee participation and strengthening the capability of the HR function.