Common good HRM practices and employee involvement in sustainability: A social exchange perspective

Existing literature provides limited understanding of how organizational level factors translate into more sustainable employee behaviors. Integrating institutional theory and social exchange theory, this study proposes a cross-level serial mediation model that links firm perceived institutional pressures for sustainability and employee involvement in organizational sustainability behaviors. Specifically, we propose that firm perceived institutional pressures is the main driver for firms to adopt common good human resource management practices, which initiates a micro social exchange mechanism that affects employee perceived organizational support and the subsequent employee efforts toward organizational sustainability. Empirical results based on time-lagged multi-source survey data collected from 96 firms in China support our theoretical model. With its theoretical and practical implications, this study contributes to both organizational sustainability and human resource management literature.