
Sustainable Human Resources Management: In Relation to Strategic Management
Chapter from the book:
Arat,
M.
(ed.)
2025.
Sustainable Human Resources Management: Dynamics of New Age.
Synopsis
The increasing global awareness of sustainability has impacted all areas, including human resources management. The concept of sustainability encompasses societies, organizations, and individuals, and its success requires the collective action of all these elements. From a corporate sustainability perspective, sustainable human resources management (S-HRM) essentially refers to the sustainability of human resources management within organizations and the contribution of human resources to the organization's sustainability. Managing human resources to ensure the planned use of existing resources while considering their capacity to meet future needs can only be achieved through strategic management of this process. The concept of sustainability has become a strategic imperative, not only in its ecological and economic dimensions but also in terms of human resources management. The place and importance of human resources in an organization's continuity and success are undeniable. Human resources management is crucial for ensuring corporate sustainability by implementing various practices aimed at fostering sustainable attitudes and behaviors among employees. In this context, S-HRM plays a key role in providing employees with the necessary training to acquire and develop the competencies needed to achieve the organization's sustainability-related goals and objectives, and in developing various practices in this regard. The concept of sustainability, which has inevitably affected the entire world in the late 21st century, has led both individuals and institutions to embrace it. One such outcome is the concept of Sustainable Human Resources Management (S-HRM), which emerges from the combined use of sustainability and human resources management. This approach is expected to contribute to developing sustainability approaches to support the well-being of human resources through policies and practices that enable the achievement of sustainability goals. Strategic management is used as a critical management technique for organizations' vision creation and realization processes oriented towards the future. In the context of S-HRM, the strategic management approach plays an important role in achieving the organization's sustainability goals, while also increasing the organization's sustainability and competitiveness potential. In this study, S-HRM is examined in the context of strategic management, and the relationship between them is revealed in detail. In this context, the relationship between S-HRM and strategic management is examined based on academic literature.