The impact of employment relationships on firm sustainability
ISSN: 0142-5455
Article publication date: 13 October 2021
Issue publication date: 14 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of different employment relationships (ERs) on the sustainability results of cooperatives. The authors approached the type of ER comparing the inducements offered by the firm with the contributions that the manager expects from employees. In this way, the authors study how the orientation toward the employment relationship influences the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the firm.
Design/methodology/approach
This article presents a theoretical and empirical research model about the relationship between ERs and sustainability. The necessary information was obtained through a questionnaire that was completed by the human resource (HR) managers and chief executive officers (CEOs) of 124 cooperative companies, and structural equation modelling was applied to evaluate the relationships between the proposed constructs, using the partial least squares technique (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The obtained results suggest that mutual investment and overinvestment ERs favour economic, social and environmental sustainability, whereas quasi spot contract and underinvestment ERs have a negative influence on all three types of sustainability. Therefore, it is confirmed that the type of ER adopted can condition the sustainability of the company, either favouring or worsening it.
Originality/value
This work contributes to covering the lack of studies about which ERs impact the sustainability of organisations, and it provides information on the role of ERs in the search for a more sustainable organisation, demonstrating that the type of employment relationship developed by the firm has a relevant impact on its sustainability.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: Financial support for this paper was provided by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Proyectos de I+D+i (PID2020‐112599GB-I00).
Citation
Rincon-Roldan, F. and Lopez-Cabrales, A. (2022), "The impact of employment relationships on firm sustainability", Employee Relations, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 386-406. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-12-2020-0522
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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