The Impact of Green Human Resource Management Practices on Organizational Sustainability: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach in Saudi Arabian Organizations

Abstract

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and global pressure for sustainability are driving organizations to adopt Green Human Resource Management (GHRM), an approach that aligns human capital practices with environmental, social, and economic goals; however, evidence on how the four GHRM dimensions of Green Recruitment and Selection (GRS), Green Training and Development (GTD), Green Performance Management (GPM), and Green Compensation and Rewards (GCR) simultaneously affect the triple bottom line of organizational sustainability remains limited, particularly in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) contexts. This study examines how these four GHRM practices are associated with environmental (ENV), social (SOC), and economic (ECO) sustainability in Saudi organizations. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of 350 valid employee responses from four Saudi regions, the data were analyzed using covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) with confirmatory factor analysis to assess the measurement model and test twelve hypotheses. The measurement model demonstrated strong reliability and validity, with composite reliability ranging from 0.866 to 0.893 and average variance extracted ranging from 0.684 to 0.741. All twelve hypotheses were supported (β = 0.163–0.241, p < 0.01), and the model explained 48.7%, 41.2%, and 35.5% of the variance in environmental, social, and economic sustainability, respectively, indicating moderate to substantial explanatory power. Green Training and Development was the strongest predictor of social and economic sustainability, whereas Green Recruitment and Selection was the strongest predictor of environmental sustainability; regional differences were not statistically significant. These findings indicate that GHRM functions as a unified set of practices that support organizational sustainability across its environmental, social, and economic dimensions, underscoring the strategic importance of green training and green incentives for Saudi organizations pursuing the goals of Vision 2030. By testing all four GHRM practices against all three sustainability dimensions within a single model in an under-researched GCC setting, the study extends the cross-cultural evidence base on GHRM and offers context-specific guidance for managers and policymakers; future research should adopt longitudinal and multi-source designs to examine the causal and mediating mechanisms underlying these associations.