Green Human Resource Management Practices and Environmental Performance in Malaysian Green Hotels: The role of Green Intellectual Capital and Pro-Environmental Behavior

Abstract This study examines the role of green human resource management practices towards the environmental performance of green hotels in Malaysia. It also investigates the mediating effect of green intellectual capital and pro-environmental behavior. The target population consisted of employees of green hotels in Malaysia. Data collected using a survey questionnaire from 374 employees was subjected to PLS-SEM for analysis. The finding that green human resource practices (green training & development and green discipline management) are significant predictors for green intellectual capital further contributes positively towards pro-environmental behavior. Findings also proved that employees’ pro-environmental behavior plays a significant role to enhance the environmental performance of hotels. Moreover, it is shown that green human resource management practices indirectly contribute to environmental performance through green intellectual capital and pro-environmental behaviors. This study is one of the few attempts to integrate the green human resource management practices with green intellectual capital and pro-environmental behaviors in the domain of environmental management. It explicitly contributes towards a new line of research to understand the crucial role of green human resource practices to improve the environmental performance of hotels. The study findings have postulated green training and development as a key practice to build intellectual capital and foster pro-environmental behaviors. It can facilitate managers in their effort to build the intellectual capital that facilitates to generate pro-environmental behaviors. In order to cope with the rising environmental concerns of the hotel industry, the present study suggests that managers should maintain green discipline by punishing or fining employees for not observing the environmental policy of hotels.