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This chapter is devoted to sustainable human resource management that leads to sustainable competitiveness. It features the ways human resources can be managed to carry out sustainable goals and the impact of sustainability on employees' attitudes and behaviours. The aim of this study is to explore the complex objectives of sustainability and human resource management and empirically investigate the dynamic relationship between human resources in science and technology and sustainable competitiveness in the case of 35 European countries. Our contribution emphasizes this interrelationship and its causality. For this research, we applied a vector auto-regression (VAR) model, and the Granger causality method to examine the relationship between human resources in science and technology and sustainable competitiveness. A panel data included 314 observations between 2012 and 2021. The panel VAR for analysing the impulse response function was enriched with the 5% and 95%, using Monte Carlo simulations. The research results revealed bidirectional causality in the European countries between human resources in science and technology and sustainable competitiveness. Human resources in science and technology trigger sustainable competitiveness and vice versa. As an element of originality, our study demonstrates that human resources in science and technology contribute to sustainable performance, and, on the other hand, a more competitive and sustainable environment contributes to the development of human resources in science and technology. Thus, the chapter outlines the role of human resources in science and technology with regard to sustainable human resource management (HRM), and how to navigate these objectives so that they can positively influence sustainable competitiveness.

This study aims to perform a systematic literature review to organize the abundance of information on employee relations (ER) and sustainable organizations. Moreover, this study identifies the research gaps by investigating the review of ER’ mediating and moderating variables and the relationship between ER and sustainable organizations.

This study is based on the systematic literature review methodology involving 257 studies in the final stage. The Scopus and Google Scholar databases with search criteria “employee relations” and “employee relations and sustainable organization” were used to achieve the research objective. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, researchers come to the distribution of the articles based on the subthemes, geographical region, types of methods, top authors with affiliation and complete research articles based on the citation. In the final stage, this study concluded with the conceptual model comprising mediators and moderators of ER as well as the mediating and moderating variables of the relationship between ER and sustainable organizations.

The reviewed literature shows that employee relation is an optimal strategy for retaining employees via proper disclosure of human resources (HRs) and ER Index. This study included the top six publishers, namely, Emerald, Elsevier, Sage, Springer, Taylor and Francis and Wiley Online Library, to do an exhaustive review on a specific topic. The findings indicate that after COVID-19, the ER index, HR disclosures and the sustainability of ER are among the new and required paradigm shifts needed to manage a crisis impact and perform productively. The mediator and moderator variables that can improve employee–employer relationships are organizational trusts, organizational justice, perceived job satisfaction, organizational structure and firm ownership. On the other hand, variables that mediate and moderate the relationship between ER and sustainable organizations are organizational climate, organization trust, organization culture, perceived organization support, psychological empowerment, firm ownership, leadership behavior and attitude, respectively. The findings concluded that harmonious and cordial ER are pertinent in building sustainable organizations and accomplishing organizational goals.

The mediating and moderating variables that have been identified can be helpful for enthusiastic researchers in contributing to empirical research. Practitioners and managers can use the findings in making an effective organizational model that develops good employee–employer relationships and helps create a culture of trust and harmony. This study focuses on exploring the variables of ER, which strengthens employee–employer relationships and supports organizations to stay agile and attain sustainability to endure in the future.

This study insights on the specific mediating and moderating variables of ER and sustainable organizations. Till date, studies exploring constructs of ER and sustainable organizations are still in deficit. Better employee relation reflects and leads to a more resilient organization. Future researchers should explore the connection between pandemics and ER which is done insufficiently in the present time.

Literature encompassing sustainable leadership and developing leaders sustainably are still in infancy (Lambert, 2011). Nevertheless indications identify leadership as a vital cog in achieving sustainable organisations. Sustainable leadership can allow a fast, resilient response which is competitive and appealing to all stakeholders (Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a, b). Arguably, organisations’ need to stop considering leadership as a control function (Casserley and Critchley, 2010; Crews, 2010) and instead focus on dialogue and mutual-interdependency between leaders and their followers (Barr and Dowding, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the concept of sustainable leadership to present a conceptual framework surrounding sustainable leadership.

This conceptual paper will review the existing frameworks of sustainable leadership and present a conceptualisation of the frameworks. This conceptualisation synthesises frameworks and literature surrounding the concept of sustainable leadership which involves work from Casserley and Critchley (2010), Avery and Bergsteiner (2011a, b), Hargreaves and Fink (2006), Davies (2007) and Lambert (2011). Seminal themes from the synthesised frameworks are presented in order to attempt to unify the conceptualisation of sustainable leadership.

Within leadership literature, stakeholder approaches (Groves and LaRocca, 2011; Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a); discourses underlining the importance of relationship between leaders and followers (Barr and Dowding, 2012); and discussions about the need to develop reflexive and participative leadership models (Kopp and Martinuzzi, 2013) have become prominent. Sustainable leadership embraces all of these new components. The concept advocates organisations should shift emphasis from a traditional singular focus on finances, to a view that organisations are contributors to wider environmental and social influences (Crews, 2010; Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a).

This paper explores the theoretical frameworks which surround sustainable leadership and will synthesise and present commonly referenced facets of the concept within the internal and external factors influencing sustainable leadership.

The world continues to grapple with grand challenges – climate change, pandemic, poverty, social injustice and diminishing resources – requiring mitigation if we are to focus on well-being and move towards a more sustainable future. Cultivating sustainable ecosystems offers a possible solution. The purpose of this paper is to understand how sustainable organizations at the meso level can nurture sustainable service ecosystems that provide the potential for greater well-being outcomes for individuals, business, society and the planet.

Case study data is gathered from 11 sustainable fashion organizations operating at the meso level within a complex ecosystem. The analysis includes interviews with founders and/or key managers and secondary information from company websites and publicly available reports.

The findings identify key value co-creation sustainable practices at the meso level that facilitate the function of the service ecosystem to create well-being outcomes. Value co-creation practices include – embedding a sustainable ethos; implementing sustainable strategies that embrace innovation, transparency and stakeholder collaboration; and incorporating sustainable communication practices that engage.

Encapsulating sustainability within macromarketing and service ecosystems enables the development of a sustainable service ecosystems framework that has the potential to offer enhanced well-being. Implications for marketing practice in terms of important factors that facilitate service-sustainable ecosystems to enhance well-being are considered.

This paper aims to emphasize integrating training for organizational sustainability with the United Nation’s (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It shows how SDGs can be included in the training, development programs and incentives to promote sustainable practices. It guides organizations to set long-term sustainability objectives to stay competitive and adapt to changing conditions.

The paper conducts a review of the literature on the topic of integrating training for organizational sustainability with the SDGs. The research includes investigating the 17 SDGs and their specific areas of improvement, the benefits and challenges of integrating training for organizational sustainability with the SDGs and the best practices of organizations that have successfully integrated training for organizational sustainability with the SDGs.

The findings of this study were obtained through a systematic review of literature on the topics of human resource development, corporate social responsibility, organizational sustainability and the integration of training to promote sustainable and ethical behavior. A total of 36 articles were selected from a pool of 120 articles identified through a comprehensive search of electronic databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. The selected articles were analyzed in detail, and information from the UN was also incorporated into the analysis. The review focused on examining the impact of integrating sustainability training with the SDGs on organizational sustainability. The results of this analysis suggest that integrating sustainability training with SDGs has a positive impact on organizations. This impact includes promoting sustainable practices, improving employee satisfaction and productivity, reducing environmental impact and enhancing the organization’s reputation. The study found that regular progress reviews and long-term objectives are essential for organizations to remain competitive and adapt to changes.

This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the 17 SDGs and how they can be integrated with training for organizational sustainability. It provides practical guidance for organizations on effectively incorporating the SDGs into their training and development programs, performance evaluations and incentives. The paper also includes case studies and best practices of organizations that have successfully integrated training for organizational sustainability with the SDGs, making it an original and valuable resource for organizations looking to promote sustainable practices within their operations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical investigation into the mediating effect of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on health harm (HH). The paper also examines the role of perceived organizational support (POS) and its indirect effect on work intensification (WI) and HH through HPWS. Further, the implications of the HH on individuals, organizations, families and societies are also presented. Recognizing the need for sustainable human resource management (HRM) practices that drive employee well-being and reducing HH is also highlighted.

Data for the study were collected using four established scales. The data collected from 345 executives were analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 Version and Amos 21.0.

The study confirmed that work intensification causes HH. The results also indicate the significant mediation of HPWS and the moderation of POS between WI and HH, thus suggesting the inevitability of HR intervention for implementing sustainable HRM practices, which reduce the negative harm of the work.

Data were collected from executives working in IT organizations in India. However, IT work exhibits broadly similar technology/platforms across the world and hence, applicable to the other contexts as well.

The study suggests that organizations should formulate policies and initiate interventions toward the care of employees, motivating toward higher performance and support them to prevent HH of work. It is difficult to categorize what comprises the care of employees in the current context of HPWS and treating employees as an end in itself. Generally, it is seen in terms of health and safety, work–life balance, remuneration, workload, job role and job design. People are core to sustainable development, and the HR must design and develop systems so that the organization can retain a healthy and productive workforce from a sustainability perspective. Moreover, sustainable work performance is a function of high resource levels of employees (energy, time and competences) and the allocation of resources, leading to resource regeneration. Hence, organizations need to source from a variety of sources and balance it for the sustainable performance of employees.

The HRM literature reveals the positive effect of POS on employee health, but studies that investigated the adverse impact of POS are notably absent. The study bridges this gap and is novel, as it explores the moderating role of POS on HPWS and HH and reaffirms the need for building sustainable organizations and sustainable HRM practices. Moreover, the paper provides contextual support to the literature, where studies relating to sustainable HRM practices in developing countries like India are absent.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions that management accountants have of their roles in accounting for sustainable development in their organisations.

The paper draws arguments from prior literature to identify the roles that management accountants play in accounting for sustainable development. Management accountants' perceptions of their roles in accounting for sustainable development are examined by conducting interviews and surveys of management accountants from various organisations in New Zealand. The study is informed by legitimacy theory.

Management accountants of small-medium organisations in New Zealand play a limited role in accounting for sustainable development, compared to management accountants of larger organisations. The correlation between the type of organisation and their overall goals for achieving sustainable development are closely linked with the roles the organisations' management accountants play in accounting for sustainable development.

This research is limited as it is only an exploratory study with a small sample of small-medium and large businesses in New Zealand. There is a need for greater acceptance by senior management of the role management accountants could play in accounting for sustainable development.

This paper may help management accountants, of both small-medium and larger organisations, to advance accounting for sustainable development within their organisations by actively engaging with the issues that have deterred such advancement.

This paper provides a review of the current debates and positions of accounting for sustainable development as well as the barriers management accountants face in getting engaged in accounting for sustainable development initiatives.

In this paper the authors aim to examine the dominance of machine and organism metaphors in organisational studies. They argue that these metaphors impede progress towards sustainable development because they perpetuate a story that dehumanises and de‐prioritises humans at the expense of the organisation which in turn becomes a rarefied and prioritised subject. This result is not consistent with the whole of humanity narrative that is entwined within sustainable development. To develop these arguments, the authors discuss sustainable development, highlighting how the concept implicates the central role of humans. They then discuss the limitations of the machine and organism metaphors relative to sustainable development. The paper then offers a different view of metaphors and suggests a more holistic understanding that is compatible with the achievement of sustainable development.

As a conceptual paper, this article reviews existing literature and offers critique of the use of the dominant metaphors of machine and organism.

Machine and organism metaphors perpetuate a language and understanding that dehumanises work and organisations. The implication of this is that organisational practice and research needs to adopt new metaphors to facilitate sustainable development.

As a conceptual document, this manuscript offers new avenues for future research and practice.

The arguments presented challenge scholars', educators' and practitioners' use of machine and organism metaphors when discussing organisations.

The originality/value of this paper lies in reflecting upon the metaphors of organism and machine relative to sustainable development and in turn reflecting upon the metaphors associated with and the central role of humans within the sustainable development concept.

This chapter explores the evolution of a network, initially based on providing sustainable seafood through Loblaw’s supply chain, to a network that is collectively working to improve ocean health. It describes the role of the CEO and key managers, the internal changes taken by Loblaw to become a more sustainable organization, and the external partnering that resulted in a more coherent network with shared goals.

The chapter describes models and theories of sustainable organizations, issue nets, and collaboration and then applies the concepts to understand Loblaw’s sustainability journey and the creation of a network.

The model of the evolution to a sustainable organization is extended to include the journey to sustainable issue or domain networks. What Loblaw and the partnering organizations were able to create suggests that there are increasing levels of collaboration around changing a domain, if there is the courage to take a leap of faith and increase an organization’s time horizon beyond immediate financial demands.

The findings of this chapter will help senior executives with responsibility for shifting supply chains to become more sustainable. In addition, this case provides a new level of detail in describing the journey to sustainability, shifting from a company focus to an issue focus.

We argue that in order to address the contemporary challenges that organizations and societies are facing, the field of organization development (OD) requires frameworks and skills to focus on the eco-system as the level of analysis. In a world that has become economically, socially, and technologically highly connected, approaches that foster the optimization of specific actors in the eco-system, such as individual corporations, result in sub-optimization of the sustainability of the natural and social system because there is insufficient offset to the ego-centric purposes of the focal organization. We discuss the need for OD to broaden focus to deal with technological advances that enable new ways of organizing at the eco-system level, and to deal with the challenges to sustainable development. Case examples from healthcare and the agri-foods industry illustrate the kinds of development approaches that are required for the development of healthy eco-systems. We do not suggest fundamental changes in the identity of the field of organizational development. In fact, we demonstrate the need to dig deeply into the open systems and socio-technical roots of the field, and to translate the traditional values and approaches of OD to continue to be relevant in today’s dynamic interdependent world.