**4. Discussion and conclusion**

In today's business era, companies that once were responsible for ecological degradation are now expected to become the catalysts of reform and advocates of environmental issues. Thus, preserving a competitive edge in the market requires the company to have an impact on the environment from employees with different visions, perceptions, and backgrounds, which is a challenging task. Thus, the awareness and responsibility of employees for environmental protection is a prerequisite for the success of companies.

As a crucial driving force for the organization to achieve sustainable goals, HRM is the most undefeated tool that contributes to involving employees in a new process, conducting change, and shaping behaviors. Thus, the atmosphere that the firm creates through green initiatives, such as GHRM, would be able to uphold the ecological norms and values of the firm and would lead to a green competitive edge.

In this regard, to build such sophisticatedly developed and robust GHRM toward green competitive advantage, it is most appropriate to develop green human resource management practices, including solid recruitment strategies, performance assessment, and reward systems that include environmental compliance, training and empowerment programs that will develop a new set of skills and competencies among the firm's employees compared to those of competitors. Nevertheless, studies considering green competitive advantage as an outcome of GHRM practices are very scarce in GHRM literature, which is a major gap that this study attempted to fill.

Drawing on the RBV, we developed a research framework that explains how GHRM can lead to a green competitive advantage. This is done by building on green knowledge, green commitment, and green values as mediators. Hence, we suggest that GHRM is more effective and may substantially improve a business' green competitive advantage when employees have enough knowledge, values, and commitment to participate, develop, create and innovate in environmental activities.

Overall, we consider that GHRM involves a set of environmentally friendly efforts and practices leading to improved knowledge, values, and commitment, which leads to being distinct in the business era.

This paper highlights that through a goal-oriented HRM process toward environmental preservation, such as GHRM, companies have the ability to increase employees' knowledge of the habits and conducts that may harm the environment, the specific actions that need to be, undertaken and the ecological work processes that need to be followed. Thus, corporate environmental policies are not likely to be achieved by organizations lacking the essential employee knowledge required for the green movement. As posited by Khan et al. [44] knowledge of environmental issues is seen as a prerequisite for positive and proactive environmental behavior and its dissemination is seen as an essential module and standard for the effective adoption of environmental

#### *Toward a Better Understanding of Green Human Resource Management's Impact on Green… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105528*

education initiatives. Without green knowledge, it may be difficult to encourage employees to be committed and passionate about environmental protection.

Accordingly, we believe that GHRM has the ability to improve green knowledge, through educational programs, recruitment of green profiles, empowerment, and involvement in green actions. Rubel et al. [63] state that if an organization demonstrates its responsibility to the environment through GHRM practices, the consequential outcome will a developed green understanding among employees. Thus, to be green, companies need well-designed HR practices to cultivate knowledgeable workers who are able to look into the emergent environmental issue and create ground-breaking, innovative, and creative solutions. Thus, the lack of environmentally literate employees with the right skills can lead to a gap in environmental management.

In the present research, the conceptual model also highlights that green knowledge mediates the role of GHRM on green competitive advantage. In the light of resource-based theory from the internal perspective, employees with environmental knowledge are unique resources that a firm possesses, which in turn will drive the company toward distinction and lead to a green competitive advantage. As posited by Rubel et al. [63], knowledge is considered as an important base for organizations to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Thus, organizations are often eager to acknowledge that "knowledge" acts as a driver toward excellence [64].

In the same vein, Astuti and Datrini [50] claim that employees' green knowledge enables companies to conduct research and development activities related to environmental protection or green innovation with the aim of offering products or services that are more environmentally friendly and difficult to imitate by competitors. Thus, sophisticated thinking processes spurred by knowledge may enhance novelty and uniqueness [64]. Overall, the paper highlights the potential role of GHRM as a policy that manages and develops employees' green knowledge to make the company more competitive in the green era.

Besides, values filter information, act as an imperative for standard behavioral norms, and are an important predictor of green behaviors [65]. Therefore, individuals with high environmental values are more passionate about safeguarding the environment by engaging in environmental activities. Nevertheless, individuals with lower environmental values show less or no interest in those activities that promote environmental protection [38]. Thus, individual green values need to be strengthened and enriched, which is the major angle that can help organizations to achieve their goals in this area [66].

Accordingly, this paper emphasizes that green values are supported and promoted throughout GHRM practices, which further boosts environmental green competitive advantage. Thus, through rewards and recognition to environmental champions, training and sensitizing programs on the actual state of the environment, and empowerment programs to involve employees, the company's human resources would be encouraged to imbed green values and deeply immerse in the environmental agenda. In the same line, Alzgool [66] claims that if companies implement GHRM practices such as green recruitment, green training programs, green benefits, and compensation, this will indicate a clear corporate ambition and focus on greener entities and can help reinforce individual green values.

Given that green values give meaning to every green action, motivate employees, and guide them toward protecting the environment while believing in greening, values may regulate behaviors and give direction to follow green conduct. Therefore, Al-Hawari [65] argues that employees with strong green values embed these values in their self-identities and show greater motivation to work on developing new skills and abilities and expand their thought processes to generate new solutions to protect the environment. For this reason, green values are incorporated as a mediator, we consider that workforce with inner green values may help the company grow and outperform its competitors in the green era. Thus, having a green workforce with green values and beliefs toward protecting the environment is unique, rare, exclusive, and difficult to imitate by competitors.

In other words, employees who engage in environmental activities as a result of their appreciation, mindset, beliefs, and values regarding the environment, may help the company gain a green competitive advantage. More specifically, manpower with high values can carry out more voluntary green work and can contribute to the company's distinctiveness and uniqueness. Consequently, we suggested that green values play a mediating role between GHRM and green competitive advantage.

Moreover, this paper outlines that GHRM enhances employees' green commitment. An employee is considered environmentally committed when he or she is willing to share, identify and care about the environmental concerns of his or her organization [35]. Thus, commitment to the natural environment is based on psychological attachment and the internalization of the goals and values of the organization that engenders a spontaneous feeling of responsibility for greening [67].

Pham et al. [37] emphasize that a possible way to strengthen employee green commitment at work is to provide green practices such as training and reward programs to employees and to develop a green culture in the organization. Thus, through GHRM, the company transmits to employees a signal of the company's environmental concern, which makes employees more engaged in corporate environmental goals. Thus, GHRM as a strategic tool aims to involve employees in green initiatives and programs through several practices, that is, (green empowerment, green training, green induction, etc.).

Consequently, GHRM helps foster employee's green commitment to embrace organizational goals, to work in accordance with the organization's environmental guidelines, and to exert effort in environmental programs. As stated by Hameed [68], green commitment cannot be embodied by employees if the company shows no commitment, no practices, and no interest in the well-being of the community and the protection of the natural environment.

GHRM practices enable companies to create an empowering environment through training, suggestions programs, performance appraisal, etc. Thus, GHRM practices enhance employees' commitment to environmental programs and empower them to innovate, take action, and make decisions. Similarly, Afsar [67] argues that employees with higher levels of commitment are more likely to adopt recycling, energy saving, and paper use behaviors in the office and become more dedicated to quality improvement and environmental problem-solving. Consequently, GHRM not only contributes to successful environmental strategies, but also promotes the creation of a unique, self-directed, and committed workforce. Thus, the paper discusses the potential of incorporating ecological aspects into HRM policy to create a green committed workforce and a gain green competitive advantage.

Overall, through the RBV lens, this paper asserts that GHRM improves competitive advantage by enhancing employee values, commitment, and knowledge. As stated by Zhu et al. [46], when employees have sufficient knowledge and green values, they may have a higher sense of belonging to the organization and maintain an optimistic attitude toward the establishment of the relationship between themselves and the organization. Thus, The RBV provides a more comprehensive framework for

exploring the impact of GHRM on competitive advantage. In this context, GHRM is not limited to its direct effects on employee knowledge, commitment, and values. Its effects are more holistic as it contributes to transforming these assets into a green competitive advantage.
