Master’s thesis, 30 hp

Master’s in leadership and organization, 120hp

Spring term 2020

Sustainable human resources management

Constructed and negotiated by HR professionals

Aliisa Uotila

Abstract

This present paper analyses how HR professionals construct and negotiate sustainable human

resources management (HRM). The empirical data is collected through five interviews with

six informants and in the Swedish working context. A Foucauldian inspired qualitative

discourse analysis reveals how sustainability is seen as an important part of HR, and moreover,

societal sustainability is seen as the main focus of HR. Contrary to most of the prior

sustainability HR research, the discourse of ecological sustainability was not activated to the

same extent as the other societal discourses. Instead, the study showed that in the Swedish work

context, the matters of health promotion, equality and diversity are seen as more essential.

Keyword: Sustainable Human Resources Management

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to express sincere gratitude to my respondents for taking time

to participate in this study, especially during the difficult times of global pandemic. Without

your contribution, I have not been able to follow out this research.

Secondly, I want to give special thanks to my supervisor Ann-Louise Silfver for her dedicated

guidance and support. Her being as inspiring supervisor as she was, motivated me to continue

the writing process during changing circumstances. Your encouragement truly held me on the

right track and our inspiring conversations around sustainability will always be remembered.

Last but not least, I want to thank my supportive friends and sister that have been there for me

during this process. Your never ending support has been uplifting and meaningful during this

time.

Thank you!

Aliisa Uotila

Helsinki 2020-06-05

Introduction 1

Purpose 4

Contextualizing sustainability 5

Societal discourse of sustainability 5

Agenda 2030 6

Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) 6

The law of sustainability reports 7

Previous research 8

Strategic HR and sustainability 9

Green HRM 10

Operative HRM and sustainability 11

Organization culture 11

Employer branding 11

Leadership 11

Training 12

Analysis of the previous research 12

Methodology 14

Discourse theory 14

Foucault’s discourse theory 15

Sampling 16

Pilot study 17

Qualitative in-depth interviews 18

Data collection and processing 19

Trustworthiness and quality 22

Ethics 23

Results 25

Sustainability as an unsure given 25

Sustainability as a good working environment 29

Sustainability as an organizational culture 31

Sustainability as health promotion 33

Sustainability as equality and diversity 34

Sustainability as employer branding 36

Sustainability as good leadership 39

Summary 41

Analysis and discussion 42

HR and social sustainability 42

HR and economic sustainability 44

Silences: HR and ecological sustainability 44

HR and CSR 45

How is sustainable HRM discursively constructed among HR professionals? 46

How do HR professionals negotiate what sustainable HRM means in the context of their own

companies? 47

Methodological reflection 47

Implication for further research and practice 49

References 50

Appendix 1 Information letter 57

Appendix 2 Interview guide 58

Appendix 3 Analytical map 60

1

Introduction

This thesis explores the role of sustainability in Human Resources (HR). The debate of

sustainability is not new, yet the term sustainability is still an equivocal term, with multiple

meanings (Portney, 2015) and the concept of sustainability tends to be more confusing than

clarifying (World Ocean Review, 2015). The World Commission on Environment and

Development in 1987 stated that sustainability is an economic-development activity that

“meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs” (Portney, 2015, p. 2). To its core, sustainability is a concept that focuses on

the condition of Planet Earth’s biophysical environment, especially concerning the use and

consumption of natural resources. In other words, sustainability is about finding a steady-state

where the Earth can support the human population and our economic growth without

threatening the health of humans, animals, and plants. The basic assumption of sustainability

is that the Earth’s resources cannot be used, consumed, and damaged endlessly (Portney, 2015).

Sustainability in the context of the business world is implemented by a theory of Triple Bottom

Line which was introduced by John Elkington (1994) to evaluate and measure the

environmental and social business performance in addition to the financial one. The Triple

Bottom Line is also called the three P’s: Profit, Planet and People. The profit element is about

long-term financial health, the planet dimension is about not doing harm for the environment

with the production and operations of the company and lastly, the people dimension

encompasses how the company treats employees, regarding for instance working conditions

and ethics. (Willard, 2012)

Sustainability takes on a different meaning depending on the given definition, project or

context. Currently the sustainability term is used inflationary, not only because of its

uncertainty of meaning, but because the concept is indeed a blend of different factors. The

sustainability debate includes multiple aspects, like economic development, nature

conservation, and distributive justice. Different to the recent application, these matters were

earlier considered in isolation from one another and therefore, studied separately. (World

Ocean Review, 2015) As a more recent application of sustainability is UN's Agenda 2030. The

Agenda 2030 has 17 global goals, and since its initiation in 2015, Agenda 2030 has provided a

framework for the creation of a sustainable world which is described as “a world where all

2

people can live productive, vibrant and peaceful lives on a healthy planet”. (United Nations,

2019) Agenda 2030 and global sustainability goals are integrated into three dimensions of

sustainable development. The dimensions are economic, social, and environmental

sustainability (Regeringskansliet, 2016). Climate change has been brought up broadly by

different global actors but also created global movements like Fridays for Future. In August

2018, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate. She sat outside the

Swedish Parliament demanding actions on the climate crisis and she sparked an international

awakening. Fridays for Future is seen as part of a hopeful new wave of change. (Fridays for

Future, 2020).

Agenda 2030 is the UN’s global goal for sustainable development and has the aim to create

sustainable development all around the world. Agenda 2030 is seen as a framework in the

Swedish politics since 2015 and it guides sustainable development in hole country from

regional governance to municipalities (Regeringskansliet, 2018). To be able to measure the

development in sustainability in Sweden, Swedish government has implemented different

actions like naming an Agenda 2030-declaration. Several other authorities are also involved in

the sustainability work. (Regeringskansliet, 2018) For example, the Swedish Work

Environment Authority in collaboration with VINNOVA funded a platform called “the

Sustainable Work 2020”. This collaboration platform is between researchers and community

actors that promotes increased EU funding for research on specifically a sustainable working

life. Promoting a sustainable working life is not only a challenge for Sweden, but for the whole

EU and the rest of the world. (Arbetsmiljöverket, 2020)

The global competition that companies face makes up the demands for work in Sweden. The

quality and efficiency of the production is more important than ever and therefore the work has

to be organized in a new way. However, this re-organization of work should not be done at the

expense of the employees of the company. (Regeringskansliet, 2018) Because sustainability is

seen as a global matter, the expectations towards companies regarding sustainability work

become even more significant. Customers as well as the job-seekers are more aware of

sustainability matters and therefore, sustainability is important in the context of the business

world and specially in the matter of being a good business opportunity. A study from

Företagarna (2019) showed how the motivation for sustainability work in the Swedish context

is competitiveness, profitability and increased demands from the customers (Företagarna,

2019).

3

Based on this background, the work of Human Resources (HR) has become even more

important in the companies. HR is an organizational function that develop strategies to be able

to provide both control over and commitment from workers (Bratton and Gold, 2017). The

difference between HR and HRM is that HR often seen as the function and HRM the actual

practice of HR (John and Björkman, 2015). As HR, HRM involves the managerial decisions

and actions concerning the relationship between employees and the organization. It is about

employment management, which seeks advantage by strategic implementation of cultural,

structural and personnel approaches (Bratton and Gold, 2017).The research on sustainability in

HRM covers numerous related subject matters, such as Green HRM (Renwick et al., 2013;

Tang et al., 2018) which focuses mainly on establishing HR functions and practices that have

shown to support the company’s strategy and green sustainability agenda. In addition to the

green aspects of sustainable HR, strategic HRM and sustainability have been studied (DuBois

and Dubois, 2012) as well as CSR (Corporate social responsibility), which is widely reviewed

in the field of academic scholars (Shen et al., 2018; Stahl et al., 2019). CSR does not have a

universal definition, but most commonly CSR is described as the social responsibility of that

companies have on towards the society. These responsibilities are seen different depending on

the economic, legal, and ethical expectations that society has on the companies at a specific

time point. (Stefano et al., 2018) However, little attention has been given to how sustainable

HR and these new organizational challenges are negotiated by HR professionals. HR

professionals have a great responsibility in driving organizations’ internal development and

therefore, sustainability in the context of HRM is interesting (DuBois and Dubois, 2012).

4

Purpose

The aim of the thesis is to discursively explore and analyze how sustainable HRM is

constructed and negotiated by HR professionals in the Swedish work context. The study is

guided by the following research questions:

RQ 1: How is sustainable HRM discursively constructed among HR professionals?

RQ 2: How do HR professionals negotiate what sustainable HRM means in the context of

their own companies?

5

Contextualizing sustainability

In this section of the thesis I set out to trace three societal discourses of sustainability which, I

argue, set the agenda for how sustainability is understood and negotiated. I further link these

to corporate social responsibility (CSR) which is a discourse and practice developed to meet

demands of sustainability in the corporate context. A final important contextualization deals

with legal frameworks placing demands on companies in Sweden to, under certain

circumstances, produce sustainability reports detailing how the company works with issues of

sustainability.

Societal discourse of sustainability

The first thing that often is brought up when sustainability is discussed, the environmental

aspect of it. However, sustainability is not only an environmental matter but also a matter of

business opportunity and a societal matter. (Bright Planet, 2020) Our demands for a good life

are often argued to be divided into three perspectives: ecological, economic, and social.

(Framtidsstigen, 2017) Ecological sustainability considers the assumption that nature and

environmental resources are not limitless. Therefore, it is necessary to protect them and use

them rationally. Sustainability is social development as well, attempting coherence between

communities and cultures. With this cohesion, satisfactory levels of life, health, and education

are seen to be achieved. (Active Sustainability, 2017) The social sustainability is also seen to

include justice, welfare, power, human rights and the needs of the individual. The context of

the implementation determines what is considered to be the most important aspect of social

sustainability. (United Nations, 2019) Thirdly, sustainability focuses on equal economic

growth that generates wealth for all without harming the environment. (Active Sustainability,

2017) These perspectives are seen to be integrated into each other by the global economy and

the climate. For that reason, sustainability is seen as a global responsibility, and everyone is

supposed to take action to ensure a secure future. (Framtidsstigen, 2017) Sustainable

development is regulated by the societal changes and the goal is always to ensure a good living

environment for the people today and also to the next generation. As a consequence, the

economy, environment and people are supposed to be considered equally in political decision-

making and also in the corporate operations. (Statsrådets kansli, 2017)

6

Agenda 2030

As presented in the introduction, Agenda 2030 is the UN's global sustainable development

goals (United Nations, 2019). In the context of working-life and thereby HRM, the goals 3, 5,

8 and 10 are assessed to be especially meaningful and interesting. The global goal 3 is good

health and well-being which is about “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all

at all ages”. (United Nations, 2019) The global goal 5 is gender equality (United Nations,

2019). Gender equality is one of the most important goals in Swedish context. The uneven

distribution of unpaid work between the genders is argued to be one of the major obstacles to

women's and girls’ participating in the labor market under the same conditions as boys and

men. (Regeringskansliet, 2015) The global goal 8 decent work and economic growth where the

goal is to ensure the inclusive and long-term sustainable economic growth (United Nations,

2019). Sustainable economic growth should include productive employment and decent

working conditions for everyone. (Regeringskansliet, 2015) Lastly, global 10 reduced

inequalities (United Nations, 2019). Reducing inequalities is based on the principle of equal

society. Everyone should have equal rights regardless of for example, gender, sexual

orientation, ethnicity or disability. (Regeringskansliet, 2015)

Corporate Social responsibility (CSR)

The concepts of sustainability discussed above are seen as closely related to Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) yet different (Whitfield and McNett, 2013). CSR as a concept and

practice relates to corporate sustainability (Shen et al., 2018; Tang et al., 2018). CSR also

relates to voluntary business activities that consider the social and environmental impact

created by the business. As practiced nowadays, companies commit to develop policies that

integrate socially responsible practices into everyday business operations and to report progress

on an annual basis to stakeholders. More recently, this concept has been displaced by a broad

engagement to protect and improve the lives of workers and the communities in which

companies do business. Despite the definition, CSR is often divided into both internal and

external dimensions, where the internal dimension focuses on corporate social responsibilities

towards its employees. External CSR focuses on relations between the company and its

stakeholders, environment, and society. (Whitfield and McNett, 2013)

7

The law of sustainability reports

In the Swedish context, a final issue is important to highlight, namely the demand on certain

companies to account for their sustainability work. In 2016 Sweden established a new

sustainability law, which clarified the business responsibility in relation to sustainability work.

In the annual act (SPF1995:1554) sixth chapter three new paragraphs have been added, 10-12

§, which states which businesses that are covered by the law and that sustainability reports

should be conducted. The 10 § presents which companies are responsible to conduct a

sustainability rapport. If the company has two of three of the following criteria, the company

have the obligation to present a sustainability rapport:

(1) The average amount of employees are more than 250 persons

(2) The company declared total liabilities is more than SEK 175 million

(3) The company’s declared net income is more than SEK 350 million

The first paragraph does not apply to a company’s subsidiary if it and all its subsidiaries are

covered by a sustainability report for the association of companies. Anyone who, according to

the second paragraph, does not prepare any sustainability report shall disclose this in a note to

the annual report and provide information on the name, organization, or personal number and

seat of the parent company that prepares the sustainability report for the association of

companies. An alternative option is to follow the guidelines of the 11 §, that declares that a

company may choose to prepare the report as a separate document. If chosen to do so, the

document must be submitted to the company’s accountant with the annual report. In addition,

it must also be stated in the directors report. The paragraph 12 § presents what the sustainability

report has to contain. The report should contain the sustainability information needed to

understand the company's development, position, and results and consequences for the

business, including information on issues relating to the environment, social conditions,

personnel, respect for human rights, and countering corruption. (SFS 2016:947)

8

Previous research

In this section, previous research regarding sustainable HRM will be reported. First, I will

present the databases, keywords, and inclusion criteria used when identifying the previous

research. Next, I present my approaches while reviewing the previous research. Thereafter, I

will present my point of departure in choosing the concepts regarding sustainability and HR.

This determination of what is included in this study is done because sustainability is a complex

concept and further, to find a focus to the presentation of the previous research that supports

the scope of the study. Lastly, an analysis of the previous research will be provided.

Web of Science and Scopus were used in the search for previous research. In addition, Umeå

University’s database was used to get access to articles that were referenced in articles

identified in the key word search. One of the inclusion criteria for the selected articles was the

year of publication. The research articles reviewed in this paper are from the last ten years,

2010-2020. The ambition was to gain research articles from different fields of research to

ensure the consideration of the different approaches to sustainability and HR. Therefore, I used

three different databases. The articles reviewed were written within the fields of management,

business, human resources management, and social sciences.

The search was initiated using the key terms "green HRM," and "green human resources

management," resulting in 45 and 77 hits respectively from Web of Science. The same key

terms used in Scopus resulted in 79 and 149 hits. After reviewing two critical meta-research

articles (Renwick et al., 2013; Tang et al., 2018), the understanding of the complexity of

sustainable HRM was recognized. These meta-researches were also used to gain access to

further articles reviewed in this section. To be able to cover all of the pillars of sustainable

HRM, the concept of CRS was reviewed and used to gain more comprehensive knowledge

regarding the topic of sustainable HRM. While searching for articles regarding CRS, I used

search words "CSR” and “sustainability." Web of Science resulted in 39 hits and Scopus 427

hits. However, the CSR was evaluated later to be more accurate in the conceptualization of

sustainability rather than in previous research and is therefore presented in the previous section.

When respective keywords gained too many hits at Scopus, “HRM” as a keyword was added

in order to narrow the search. This limited the hits down to 19 and gained articles that were in

the scope of interest. To understand HRM's role in companies` sustainability strategy and the

relationship between HR and companies' economic performance, I decided to also look into

9

the relation between strategic HRM and sustainability. While examining articles concerning

the association between strategic HR and sustainability, I used search words "strategic HRM"

and "sustainability". When these key terms were applied at the same time they provided 14

articles from Web of Science and 19 articles from Scopus. Lastly, in operative HR and

sustainability was included. I used key terms “operative HRM” and sustainability, that

provided 2 hits from Web of Science and Scopus did not provide any hits at all. Therefore, I

used those already reviewed articles that reviewed operational HR, even though they were not

calling it by that term.

I started the reviewing of the articles by reflecting on the abstracts and conclusions from the

chosen articles and ensuring that the articles would be in the scope of interest for this research.

After reviewing the abstracts and conclusions of the articles, the articles that were relevant for

this study were reviewed further. The articles chosen for this section will be presented and

analysed in relation to each other. The aim with this section is to provide a reliable overview

and validation of the previous research that has been done in the field of sustainable HR. While

reviewing the previous studies, the challenge was to determine how to interpret the different

concepts of sustainability. Therefore, I decided to include strategic HR and sustainability, green

HRM, and finally operative HRM and sustainability into this research, which also are the

thematic categories in this section. The choice of these thematic categories is based on the

ambition to cover the whole spectrum of sustainability work in HR and the fact that these

concepts showed to be connected to sustainable HR.

Strategic HR and sustainability

Strategic human resources management (SHRM) is a broadly researched topic (DuBois and

Dubois, 2012; Mariappanadar, 2003) and has a range of theoretical frameworks. Difference

between SHRM and HRM is that HRM is a more specific approach to managing people. SHRM

is an approach to management that includes HR strategies designed to improve organizational

performance. (Kramar, 2014) To date economic sustainability has been highlighted in the

SHRM literature mainly because HRM systems have a supportive role in the company's

economic performance. (DuBois and Dubois, 2012) It is acknowledged that HRM functions

are needed to implement sustainability efforts. The sustainability efforts often start with a

vision and a strategy and HR has the expertise on an effective implementation of a strategy.

The implementation of a strategy often involves e.g. training, changing work processes, and

10

organizational development, which are seen as basic competencies of HR. In addition, the

internal and external social structures are the main development targets of the sustainability

efforts. HR has good management tools to effectively re-coordinate and mobilize employees

and therefore, HR has a key role in putting sustainability processes in action. The social

structures of a company are often seen as the key resource but also the possible roadblock and

therefore, the transaction of sustainability goals is often seen as part of HR’s work. (DuBois

and Dubois, 2012)

Green HRM

Green Human Resource Management (Green HRM) is an element of HRM that generates value

for company stakeholders through consideration of efficient environmental aspects in HR

processes (Bombiak, 2019). Green HRM differs from SHRM because it focuses on including

the concern of environmental effects of a company to HR actions, whereas the traditional

SHRM perseveres organizational strategic goals that are mainly grounded in enhancing profit

or organizational performance (Santana and Lopez‐Cabrales, 2019). The concept of green

HRM is based on the motivation to integrate the concept of green sustainability into the internal

and external processes of an organization (Howard-Grenville et al., 2014). As green HRM

includes concerns found within the parameters of CSR, implementing green HRM has shown

to help businesses to create shared values among the company stakeholders. These shared

values are created by the implementation of green HRM practices considering a candidate’s

green values during the recruitment processes, skills training, developing employee green

awareness and motivating employees to participate in aspects of the company’s CSR initiatives

(Shen et al., 2018). In contrast to the studies presented above, a Finnish study by Järlström et

al., (2018) showed that environmental aspects and ecological sustainability was largely ignored

by the top managers when the researchers studied how the top managers construct the meaning

of sustainable HR. In other words, the top managers did not see that HR is a main actor in

implementing sustainability agendas. Instead, the researchers argued that the environmental

aspects are rather initiated by other organizational units like Marketing and Sales (Järlström et

al., 2018).

11

Operative HRM and sustainability

Organization culture

Organizational culture has shown to increase positive attitudes toward sustainability within

organizations (Ahmad, 2015; Lo et al., 2012). The formal and informal structures relating to

sustainability within organizations support awareness of and attitudes to sustainability among

employees. Organizational structures and social norms supporting sustainability agendas are

vital for implementation (Lo et al., 2012) since employees are more likely to implement

sustainable behavior at their workplace if the employer takes action in developing

organizational culture towards sustainability (Dumitru et al., 2016). When an employee shares

the same values as the company, the employee is more likely to feel proud of working in a

particular company (Tang et al., 2018). In addition, sustainability awareness among employees

also sets expectations on the company and its sustainability agenda (Bombiak, 2019).

Employer branding

Sustainability has become a significant part of employer branding and, therefore, companies

are willing to highlight their sustainability work. Job-seekers tend to search for information

about a company's environmental performance and the found description is used to determine

how the company is treating its employees. As a consequence, companies that have

sustainability profiles attract job-seekers that share the same values. (Tang et al., 2018).

Furthermore, a company that has a sustainability profile is attractive among young people and

university graduates. Thoughtful employer branding with sustainability in focus has proved

positive for the recruitment processes, which it is argued, supports the economic profit of the

company (Grolleau et al., 2012). The companies face different societal challenges, for example

demographic changes and the mismatch between current skills. These challenges have

highlighted the importance of employer branding. Companies have to attract and retain the

right competence in the company. Thus, it is important that HR implements long-term

solutions, like attracting employees who share and are committed to a sustainability culture as

well as values. (Stankevičiūtė and Savanevičienė, 2018)

Leadership

The successful implementation of a sustainability agenda in a company requires the support

of the company's executive team as noted by DuBois and Dubois (2012). Leadership is seen as

a significant factor in the communication of sustainability agendas and values to the employees.

12

HR needs to work with all levels of management to ensure that every manager is in fact

implementing the sustainability agenda and communicating it to the employees (DuBois and

Dubois, 2012). Positive engagement from the leader or executive team supports the future

development of corporate sustainability (Paillé et al., 2014). If a company’s leadership is open-

minded towards innovative sustainability solutions, it supports the development of a

sustainable mindset among the employees (Daily et al., 2012). While pursuing sustainability

goals, organizational managers should address the needs and interests of employees to ensure

the positive effect among the employees and their workplace performance (Shen et al., 2018).

However, as DuBois and DuBois (2012) argues, HR does not have a proactive role in

sustainability initiatives, since HR neither design nor leads the initiatives. HR’s main function

is to support leader and company visions, and therefore, HRM cannot drive sustainability

agendas if these are not initiated from the executive level (DuBois and Dubois, 2012).

Training

Employee training has shown to be a crucial part of creating involvement around sustainability

work at the companies. Sustainability training increases consciousness among employees as

well as leaders. Further, sustainability training has shown positive developments of internal

relations, communication, and empowerment, motivating employees to develop ways of

working and consequently improving job satisfaction. (Dumitru et al., 2016) Moreover, studies

have shown that sustainability training has positive effects on job performance (Bin Saeed et

al., 2019). To ensure empowerment and involvement, sustainability training should be executed

at every organizational level (Daily et al., 2012).

Analysis of the previous research

The debate around sustainability has been ongoing for quite some time. However, sustainability

in the context of HR as a necessity of financial profit is more recent (Santana and Lopez‐

Cabrales, 2019). Also, the three dimensions of sustainability is also challenged in a study from

Järlström et al., (2018). The results of this research showed that sustainable HR includes,

instead of the societal three dimensions, four dimensions: Justice and equality, transparent HR

practices, profitability, and employee well-being. (Järlström et al., 2018). Therefore, it is safe

to say that sustainable HRM as a research field, has evoked interest, but the research is still

insufficient and struggling with answering what characterizes sustainable HR. In addition,

despite the efforts of multiple researchers, there is a remaining unclarity regarding how

13

sustainable HRM is different from the mainstream HR. However, one of the main

characteristics of sustainable HR is implementing HR functions in long-term (Stankevičiūtė

and Savanevičienė, 2018).

14

Methodology

In this section, the methodological framework of the study is presented. Discourse theory and

more specifically Foucauldian inspired discourse theory is applied in this study. The strategies

for the data collection, informant sampling, and data processing are presented to ensure the

trustworthiness and quality of the study. After the description of strategic methodological

choices, ethical considerations will be addressed.

Discourse theory

As its most common definition, discourse analysis has the aim to analyze the patterns of

language structures in different social contexts and to understand language as a system that

constitutes the social world, identity, and relations. (Winther Jørgensen & Philips, 2002).

Discourse analysis sets out to problematize the essence of phenomena and focuses on the pre-

understanding underlying the social constructions of reality (Börjesson, 2002) and meaning-

making in social life (Wetherell, Taylor and Yates, 2001). Discourse analysis is ontologically

social constructivist. Social constructivism rests on some general philosophical assumptions,

one being the skepticism of taken-for-granted knowledge. Our interpretation of our world and

knowledge should not be handled as an objective truth. Knowledge and knowing are seen as

products of our ways to categorize the world and products of discourses. (Winther Jørgensen

& Philips, 2002) According to social constructionist premises, knowledge is not just a

reflection of reality, rather it is discursively constructed in relation to both time and place

(Wetherell, Taylor and Yates, 2001). Knowledge is created in the social processes as well as

maintained through these, knowledge production is in other words a relational process. Because

discourse analysis aims at gaining knowledge regarding consequential bits of social life

(Wetherell, Taylor and Yates, 2001), social constructivism as an ontological point of departure

is emphasized in this research.

As reflections and negotiations regarding sustainable HRM is the main interest of this research,

a qualitative research approach is deemed appropriate (Creswell, 2013). More specifically,

qualitative discourse theory as a methodology is suitable when the researcher is interested in

the truths reproduced and how these truths operate in relation to specific discourses (Bolander

and Fejes, 2009). In the context of this research, discourse theory will allow for gaining an

understanding of how HR professionals construct and negotiate sustainable HR (Winther

Jørgensen & Philips, 2002). Implementation of discourse theory enables one to critically

15

analyze the taken-for-granted knowledge concerning sustainability and HR. In addition, the

knowledge and understanding that HR specialists have regarding sustainable HR can be seen

as a creation of social processes and social interaction, and therefore, discourse analysis that

has the ambition to critically examine these social processes is suitable to accomplish the aim

of the study. (Winther Jørgensen and Philips, 2002).

Foucault’s discourse theory

In this research, Michael Foucault's discourse theory is chosen to be the foundation for the

analysis of sustainable HRM. Foucauldian discourse theory investigates the relation between

power and knowledge, and how this establishes certain discourses as influential in certain times

and contexts (Börjesson, 2003), and the theory adheres to the general social constructionist

assumptions such as knowledge is not just a reflection of reality (Andersen, 2003; Winther

Jørgensen and Phillips, 2002). According to Foucault’s theory, power creates both our social

world and the ways the world can be talked about. Discourse is influenced by power, and

discourse creates us as subjects and the objects that we know something about. In other words,

our knowledge is related to power. (Winther Jørgensen and Phillips, 2002) Different from other

discursive analytical approaches, Foucauldian discourse theory shifts the attention from

‘language’ to ‘discourse’. In other words, the focus is not on the analysis of language, but

discourse as a system of presentations (Wetherell, Taylor and Yates, 2001).

Foucauldian discourse theory does not see actors as autonomous. Instead, actors influence the

structure and vice versa. Subjectivity in that sense constitutes the reality that exists when trying

to understand the ways in which people think and act. Therefore, subjectivity, according to

Foucault, is constructed by the actor, structure, and its relation to power and knowledge

(Larsson, 2001). Subjectivity is also influenced by the context of the time, culture, and history

(Börjesson, 2003). How power and knowledge are implemented is also an essential part of the

analysis of subjectivity (Larsson, 2001). Discourses shape the assumptions of logic and

determine what is conceived of as reality, but it also creates new logics and contextual

understandings. Therefore, every discourse has its own rules and assumptions regarding reality.

Foucault's fundamental concern was the questioning of discursive assumptions. Foucault also

investigated the concept of individual will and reason and, through his theorizing, revealed how

every expression is a product of discourse. Moreover, Foucault argued that discourses have

their own social rules that apply to those particular discourses. Foucault's theory has the

16

ambition to break down the barriers around objectivity and subjectivity and instead focus on

the discourses which are constructed in unconsciousness and by the individual in a specific

context. (Larsson, 2001) In addition, when Foucauldian theory is implemented, the silences

and tensions are seen as a reflection of the power relations and therefore interesting to analyze

(Rönnblom, 2014). In the context of this research, the analysis is done from the point of

departure of societal discourses regarding sustainability presented earlier under the heading

Contextualizing sustainability. By this, my point of departure is that the informants are seen to

understood as affected by the societal discourses of sustainability and moreover, activating and

negotiating these discourses in relation to HR. In other words, the informants are understood

to be influenced by these societal discourses and the context. These assumptions allow me to

analyze these activations but also the silences and tensions in relation to the societal discourses.

Sampling

The sampling strategy used in this research is a purposeful sampling (Creswell and Poth, 2018;

Bryman, 2012). Within purposeful sampling, the informant selection is based on criteria that

determine how well they can produce useful information regarding the topic of interest.

(Bryman, 2012). The selection of the companies was purposeful and based on the company's

sustainability profile. The chosen companies’ sustainability profile or agenda was evaluated by

reviewing available sustainability documents and the companies’ websites, where the

sustainability work is represented. A sampling of the companies emphasized both

heterogeneity (branch) as well as homogeneity (profiling as sustainable). The choice to select

different companies was based on the ambition to examine the possibility for different

discourses regarding sustainability in HR on different branches.

The next step was the sampling of participants. The goal while applying purposive sampling is

to sample informants strategically so that those sampled are relevant to the aim of the research.

Purposive sampling ensures the relevance of the research. (Bryman, 2012) The informants

selected are HR professionals from different companies and branches. The sampling size in

qualitative research may differ from study to study. Depending on the scope of the study and

ambition to compare between groups in the sample, more interviews will need to be executed

(Bryman, 2012). In this research, the sample size was six informants and the recruitment of

informants occurred by email. During the first contact, the informants were briefed about the

aim of the study. Further, anonymity was guaranteed for the informants as well as their rights

17

during the research. The informants received an information letter (appendix 1) with further

information regarding the interviews and the study. Also, ethical considerations were presented

at the beginning of every interview allowing the informant to invoke any considerations they

might have. Five interviews were carried out using the online communication application

Microsoft Teams and one was, due to technical issues, held over the phone. The informants 5

and 6 came from the same company and where therefore interviewed at the same time.

To ensure the anonymity of the company and the informants, the informants and the companies

are anonymized. The representation of the informants provides a background to the analysis of

the discourses, and therefore, it is important to provide information about the branches which

are presented in the analysis section of the research. Like mentioned earlier, the selection of

companies was based on their sustainability profile and the ambition was to interview HR

professionals from different branches. The informants in this research are:

Informant 1: Head of HR for food industry

Informant 2: Head of HR for a manufacturing industry

Informant 3: Head of marketing and quality for a recruitment company

Informant 4: HR-strategist in the water and waste industry

Informant 5: HR-generalist at a media company

Informant 6: CEO at a media company

The number of informants were based on considerations of saturation (Bryman, 2012). After

the last interview, the same topics were raised by the majority of the informants. Therefore, I

decided to not carry out further interviews.

Pilot study

One pilot interview was conducted to ensure the quality of the research questions (Bryman,

2012). The pilot interview was conducted via Skype and the informant got the information

regarding the aim of the research, the information letter and interview guide. The choice of

providing the interview guide as well, was based on the pilot interviewee’s wish. After the pilot

interview, the interview was transcribed and analyzed. The data of the pilot interview is not

used in the empirical data. The analysis of the pilot interview showed potential development in

the authors’ interview techniques. I noticed that I was being too directional and therefore,

18

leading the informant to give answers that would be in most favor of the research. Based on

the analysis, the interview techniques were discussed and developed together with the

supervisor. Instead of directional questions, I focused on open questions allowing the

informants to develop their thoughts instead of directing them. The interview questions turned

out to provide the empirical data that was desired, and thus, the interview questions were not

changed after the pilot interview.

Qualitative in-depth interviews

In-depth interviews are often described as a form of conversation with a purpose, influenced

by postmodern thinking on the nature of interviewing. In this research, a heuristic approach

where personal experiences are an essential part of the process and knowledge is created in

collaboration between the researcher and the interviewee is implemented. In other words,

empirics and knowledge are constructed in human interaction, although an in-depth interview

has little resemblance to everyday human interaction. (Legard, Keegan and Ward, 2003) In-

depth interviews comprehend knowledge as something that is created in a unique situation, and

therefore, an in-depth interview is appropriate when studying discourses. (Legard, Keegan and

Ward, 2003)

Open questions are applies in the interviews. One of the advantages is that the informants can

share knowledge that the researcher might not have, and therefore, new aspects around the

topics are accomplished. The informants can also answer on their terms, which creates rich

data for the researcher. Therefore, open questions is an optimal choice while applying discourse

theory. However, open questions do have their disadvantages. The method is time-consuming,

which is a challenge when the time is a limitation. Also, while implementing open questions,

one challenge for the researcher is not to influence the informant to give certain answers.

(Bryman, 2012)

During the in-depth interviews, the concept of sustainable HRM was discussed with the

informants. An interview guide was used during the interviews (appendix 2). Because the

context of this research is Sweden, the interviews were held in Swedish to ensure the quality

of the interviews. If the interviews had been held in English, the risk could have been that the

informants would have not been able to answer the interview questions in the same quality as

in Swedish. In addition, the recruitment of the informants could have been harder if the

19

informants had not been able to answer the question in their native language. The interview

started with personal factual questions, where the informants provided their personal

information, such as name and occupation. As mentioned earlier, all of the interviews were

carried out via Microsoft Teams or by phone. Face-to-face interaction was discouraged by the

university because of an ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. The interviews were taped with a

phone and a recorder to make the transcription process, and the coding, possible and more

relevant. The informants were asked for their permission before taping, which follows a proper

ethical framework in research.

Data collection and processing

The empirical data produced through the in-depth interviews were transcript and analyzed by

the author. The interviews were transcript to be able to implement thoughtful coding of the

data. The empirical data was deductively analyzed (Fejes & Thornberg, 2009) i.e. the analysis

was theory-driven, guided by Foucault’s discourse theory. The analysis focused on identifying

discourses activated by the respondents regarding sustainability and HR and how these

discourses are established from the societal discourses of sustainability. As mentioned earlier,

the discourse-analytical field is wide and has different approaches. However, Foucauldian’s

theory does not provide a toolkit for analysis and therefore, a Foucauldian inspired analytical

framework of discourse-power-knowledge is implemented in the data processing. The point of

departure for the coding process was an assumption inspired by a Foucauldian perspective,

namely that discussions of sustainability in HR relates to available societal discourses on

sustainability. In other words, I have in my analysis focused on which societal discourses on

sustainability the informants activated when making meaning of sustainability and HR, and I

have also analyzed the tensions and negotiations in this process of activating. (Bäcktorp, 2007)

In line with Bäcktorp (2007) I have understood the informants to simultaneously operate within

available discourses as well as continuously negotiating the limits and borders of these.

The coding process began during the transcription of the interviews. The transcripts were read

and re-read multiple times in order to gain an impression of the data (Magnusson and Marecek,

2015; Bryman 2012). To gain a systematic and structured overview of the material, an

analytical map was used to organize activated discourses that were brought up in the interviews

(appendix 3). The analytical map is based on the research questions and supported the analysis

of tensions and silences that were experienced, which are interesting from a discursive

20

analytical point of departure because these are reflections of power relations in the discourse

(Rönnblom, 2014). The most interesting and meaningful segments related to these discourses,

were copied into a new document. The abstraction level of the meaningful segments was lifted

by the condensation of the segments. The condensation of the meaningful segments was done

with the ambition to identify which discourses the informants activated. To ensure the

reliability of the coding process, I will provide examples of my coding process (see table 1):

21

Table 1: Example of the coding process

Examples from the interviews Condensation Discourses

Informant 2: Mmm… That is an

interesting question on how one

should… see sustainability and

HR… It can be seen from

different, well perspectives,

everything from… that you think

little more practical today… I

mean… How you do today,

everything from how you work

with marketing, digitalization,

meetup students, employer

branding, and the whole that

part… so… yeah, it depends

what you use for perspective…

Sustainability in HR has multiple

perspectives and practices

Sustainability as unsure given

Informant 1: “... I think the

most difficult challenge is really

to be… to find a sustainable

work environment for HR

specialists and salary specialists,

we are working on our lives,

there is so much to work with, it

never comes to an end with HR

issues, their will only come more

and more matters we get

involved, more questions from

the organization… so you must

not be afraid to work… ”

A challenge for HR is that there

is so much issues to work with

and the work load is never

ending

Sustainability as a good working

environment

22

Trustworthiness and quality

Reliability and validity are concepts that are often more used in quantitative research to

estimate the quality of the research. These are not directly suitable to assess in qualitative

research. (Fejes and Thornberg, 2009) Instead of the phrase reliability and validity, in

qualitative research it often uses the term trustworthiness (Rolfe, 2006). The point of departure

when the reliability and validity is evaluated in this research is the concept of trustworthiness

presented by Graneheim and Lundman (2004). According to Graneheim and Lundman, (2004),

trustworthiness includes the concepts of credibility, dependability, and transferability.

Credibility refers to how well the data and processes of analysis supports the aim of the research

(Graneheim and Lundman, 2004). When estimating credibility, the focus of the assessment is

how well the chosen method contributes to the aim of the study and if the research is seen to

study what it claims to do. Also the determination if the research questions have been answered

is part of estimating the credibility. (Fejes & Thornberg, 2009; Tjora, 2012) The credibility of

the research is ensured by presenting the point of departures and the course of actions. It is

important that the research follows the academic framework for good research and that the

research is rooted in previous studies (Tjora, 2012). To ensure the credibility of this research,

I have provided my course of actions regarding the choices of theory and method and presented

how the theory and method has been implemented during the coding and analysis process.

Also, the method for the data collection and the amount of data are important in establishing

credibility (Graneheim and Lundman, 2004). In this research, the aim is to study the

construction of sustainable HR from the perspective of HR professionals. Thus, the HR

professionals are the obvious choice in the choice of informants. In this study, the discourse

analytical perspective is implemented and in-depth interviews assimilate knowledge as

something that is created in a unique situation. Therefore, an in-depth interview is appropriate

when studying discourses. (Legard, Keegan and Ward, 2003) The amount of interviews were

based on considerations of saturation, which anticipated that the same topics were raised by all

of the informants. After completing five interviews, I made the conclusion that I had gained

enough data to be able to do credible research. Dependability requires that the researcher is

consistent in the choices the researcher makes, especially during the interviews, that the

interview questions are the same for every informant. (Bryman, 2012) The interview questions

are found in the interview guide (Appendix 2). The questions are in turn conducted to be wide,

23

which allows the informants to tell their unique story, which is a strength in this research.

(Graneheim and Lundman, 2004; Bryman, 2012)

Transferability is also included in the question of trustworthiness. Transferability anticipate the

extent that the findings can be transferred to other research settings. To ensure the

transferability, I have provided a clear and distinct description of the context of the research.

In addition, the selection and characteristics of participants, data collection and the analysis

processes is presented thoroughly. (Graneheim and Lundman, 2004) Transferability can also

be related to the theoretical understanding of discourses. I have based my discursive analysis

on a starting point that assumes that the informants, like other members of society and members

of the specific HR profession, relate to societal discourses of sustainability and the discourses

that are activated are related to the professional practice. Thus, there is reason to assume that

my results, although limited, can also be transferable to other similar activities, at least in a

Swedish context.

Ethics

Ethical considerations concern the research participants and data collection. The researcher has

the responsibility towards informants and the researcher is expected to strive for high quality.

The ethical requirements presented by the Swedish Research Council (2017) based on society’s

general ethical norms and values, provided the ethical framework and is implemented in this

research. This is in line with the ethical framework presented in Ritchie et al., (2014), who

presents the following as a framework:

● A research should be justifiable and not make unreasonable demands on informants

● Participation in the research should be based on consent

● Participation should be voluntary and free from pressure

● Unfavorable consequences of participation should be avoided, and risks of harm known

● Confidentiality and anonymity should be respected

As the point of departure from the framework presented by Ritchie et al., (2014) and Swedish

Research Council (2017), the following actions were implemented to ensure an ethical

research:

24

● When I had the first contact with the informants, I asked if they were interested to

participate in the research. Therefore, participation in this research is voluntarily.

● The informant received full information regarding their rights and the intention of the

research in the information letter (appendix 2). The information provided in the

information letter is based on the ethical framework by the Swedish Research Council

(2017).

● The informants were informed at the beginning of the interview of their rights regarding

end their participation at any time.

● In addition, they were informed about the anonymity of the informant and the company.

To protect the identity of the informants and provide confidentiality (Swedish Research

Council, 2017; Ritchie et al., 2014), informants’ names and companies are not revealed,

and therefore, the anonymity was secured.

In addition to these implementations, the topic of the research are not seen as sensitive or

harmful to the informants to discuss about. Thus, the unfavorable consequences are minimum

or not existing. On the contrary, some of the informants indicated how the interviews resulted

new thoughts around sustainability and made them reflect on the sustainability work driven in

the companies. In the following chapter, the results of the data collection and processing are

presented.

25

Results

In this section, the results are presented. The structure of this part of the research is based on

founded discourses of sustainable HR that were activated by the informants. In presenting the

result, I present quotes from the interviews, with the aim to reinforce the argumentation of the

discourses. The quotes represented in the sections are translated from Swedish to English.

Sustainability as an unsure given

Sustainability was defined and discussed differently by the informants. They generally

experienced challenges in activating all of the three societal discourses of sustainability (social,

economic, and ecological). The majority of the informants did activate the discourses of social

and economic sustainability. However, activation of the discourse regarding ecological

sustainability seemed not to be as available or seen as important: “The economic and the

environmental issues are in our thoughts with us of course, but maybe specially us, or our HR

focuses more on the social and economic sustainability…” (Informant 2, 202-204) Also, the

definition of sustainable HR proved to not be as widely known and thus equally difficult to

relate to. As mentioned earlier, all of the companies in this study have an outspoken

sustainability profile. However, sustainability was difficult to define by all of the HR

professionals therefore, sustainability in HR emerged as an unsure given. Despite the not being

able to clearly state what sustainability meant in their respective contexts, all of the informants

argued that they are working with sustainability in HR. To exemplify this, a quote from

informant 1 is provided. The informant describes how sustainability is not defined, but is seen

more as a framework in the company:

But as an answer to the last question how we define it, we haven’t

defined it (sustainability) like that, but it is more seen as a big

framework, I think, in which you can accommodate this with

transportation, quality of the products, food security, hygiene, good

workplace. there are so many parts in it so… but I have to think about

how to define it… yes, it is an input for me haha....(Informant 1, 137-

141)

Sustainability is seen to have an impact on every organizational level, from the organizational

culture to the quality of the products. However, it is not clear what sustainability is, in the

26

context of organizational culture. Informant 3 replied when asked about how the company’s

sustainability profile affects the HR work:

Well everything we do is as part of our culture and the power comes

from our employees so it's not ... it's ... it's like no other issue,

sustainability is like a part of us, it's not a separate issue ... (Informant

3, 102-104)

However, prompted by my question, informant 1 feels the need to define sustainability and

therefore indicates to take the matter further as an input to the company. Informant 2 also sees

sustainability as being a guideline to multiple functions in the company:

Aaa… yes so...yes… I’m trying to think what you want me to answer to

this… this with… so sustainability is about we have to take

responsibility in economic perspective, take social responsibility, that

we take our environmental responsibility and we can think from HR’s

point of departure so then… maybe for me… even if I always think

holistically it is a lot about the social responsibility... (Informant 2, 49-

53)

Both informants discuss sustainability as being part of the company strategy, but they also

struggle when discussing sustainability in the context of HR. Also, Informant 2 actively

attempts to decode the “right” answer to the question, which can be understood as a sign of

uncertainty. However, informant 2 does activate societal discourses of sustainability while

referring to different perspectives of sustainability. Both informants 1 and 2 considered working

with sustainability to be important and, therefore, it should be implemented at every level in the

companies. Furthermore, informant 2 indicates how sustainability in the context of the

informant’s company often focuses on social sustainability or social responsibility. This is also

expressed by informant 3, who recognizes the importance of working with sustainability,

especially in the sense of being an attractive employer. Moreover, informant 3 also recognizes

that the companies have to be conscious of what is meant with sustainability. Informant 3 said

the following:

27

Err… Yes, but it is part of the attractiveness, there is no way to deny

the fact that everyone who changes jobs now, want to work with a

company who work with sustainability for real, not just with “green

washing” and therefore, we must to do a difference, it is a crucial part

in being an attractive employer… like from the perspective of HR how

I see it. Purely spontaneous. (Informant 3, 134-138)

Being aware is not enough, it is also important with communication regarding the sustainability

work that the company engages in. Informant 3 also argues that the company should focus on

matters where the company makes the biggest difference: “...we have decided to take focus on

our area of expertise, and where we experience that we can do the biggest difference and that

is why we see that we can do the most in inequality and equality… “ (22-24) Like the quote

from informant 3 demonstrates, one challenge while working with sustainability is the fact that

it includes many possible focus that the company can work with. Therefore, this company has

decided to prioritize.. Like informant 3, informant 1 finds it difficult to give a specific field or

function regarding how sustainability from the perspective of HR is important, and what

sustainable HR in fact is:

Yes… but if I look at sustainability from the HR perspective we have

good prerequisites to work with sustainability in HR… HR is a really

wide field… Multiple different issues, everything from… employment,

recruitment, introduction, orientation, training, rehabilitation

processes… and payroll processes, closesure, so there is such a long

long chain of HR tasks but as an addition to that comes the issues

regarding culture, we have issues that refer to the labor law, we have

issues that affect economy so…(Informant 1, 232-239)

The quotes from informant 3 and 1 shows that sustainability is basically everything, but at the

same time, nothing. Both of the informants struggled to describe core characteristics of

sustainable HR, in the context of the company or more generally and further, how sustainability

can be seen to be part of all of the HR processes. Also, informant 2 showed how the questions

of what sustainability is in HR, is challenging. Informant 1 and informant 2 activates discourses

of social and economic sustainability:

28

That is an interesting question on how one should… see sustainability

and HR… It can be seen from different, well perspectives, everything

from… that you think little more practical today… I mean… How you

do today, everything from how you work with marketing, digitalization,

meetup students, employer branding, and the whole that part… so…

yeah, it depends what you use for perspective… (Informant 2, 34-38)

When asked about ecological sustainability, all of the informants, except informant 4,

expressed uncertainty. Ecological sustainability was argued to be something that is not on the

agenda of HR, or not being the focus of HR, as described by informant 2: “The economic and

even the environmental part of course, that we have those thoughts with us, but maybe specially

us or our HR focuses more on the social and economic (sustainability)...” (202-204) Despite

the uncertainty, most of the informants did state that they have good possibilities to work with

ecological sustainability in HR. The examples given of ecological sustainability was in most

cases about purchases, such as office supplies and foods.

So well… and ecological… so those matters we can affect, it is a lot…

it is like these...well purchases of things we are... responsible for like…

fruits and things like that and where we can make sure that they are…

local (Informant 5, 400-402)

This might be a result of the informant being aware of the importance of ecological

sustainability in general and thus, refusing to admit that maybe these matters are not core

activities of HR. In addition, informant 3 got confused when asked about ecological

sustainability and environmental goals. The informant answered the question by referring to

equality and diversity work done in the company:

Aliisa: Yeah okay… err… exactly… you told me earlier about your

environmental goals, could you tell me a little bit more about what kind

of environmental goals you have?

Informant 3: … some of these [goals] are about them carrying out an

equality lecture, for example at the office, and invite customers to it and

29

secondly, it is about that we should change our suppliers to a supplier

that has sustainability as a focus, so these goals that we are working

with are pretty diverse, I can’t describe everything, but they are local

smaller goals that everyone in that office is working towards… (107-

119)

To summarize, the informants indicate sustainability to be an important and obvious part in the

work of HR. The informants seem to be aware of the societal discourses of sustainability and

relate to these to some extent. Despite ecological sustainability being a significant matter in the

discussion of sustainability, the informants do not activate these discourses. In addition, the

informants struggle to give an extensive definition or name core functions of sustainability in

HR. Therefore, it can be argued that sustainability is everything but also nothing at the same

time and moreover, an unsure given.

Sustainability as a good working environment

Working environment was found to be the main focus of sustainable HR and was discussed by

all of the informants. Informant 1 describes that HR took “ [...] major responsibility in the matter

of a good workplace, in other words, if we have a good working environment which is good for

our employees, the employees enjoy working here and we live up to our employer promise”.

The good working environment was discussed in relation to social sustainability and supporting

it. A good working environment was argued to get the employees to enjoy working and motivate

the employees to work in the company. Having fun at work was also described as important to

the general work environment as was “work-life balance”. Informant 3 also argued that the

attractiveness of the company contributes to a good working environment, a view that was not

expressed by the other informants. Informant 3 described the company’s working environment

work as follows:

Well yes, it is especially like having… err… “work-life balance”

somehow… that we are… what we are supposed to be… we need to be

attractive as employers so that we… The employees are enjoying

working here and it has, I believe also that in this sustainability work

that we do is the creation of possibilities for employees to enjoy

30

themselves and enjoy working with us because we work with these

issues… (Informant 3, 38-43)

The sustainability work of HR was argued to be one of the key elements in the creation of a

good working environment. In the quote above, informant 3 tells how it is important to create

a working environment where the employees can enjoy themselves. However, while

developing the working environment, HR also faces challenges. One of the significant

challenges is the lack of resources given to HR. This was discussed by all of the informants

and especially in relation to health promotion and development of the working environment.

Informant 6 describes the challenge in the following way:

Every company has its limitations to how much money they can provide

to health promotion [...] but I think it is a lot about preventing things

too, that you put something more… those resources the company has

into the prevention as much as possible rather than just get the

resources… (Informant 6, 223-229)

The lack of resources can also be seen in the working environment of HR professionals.

According to informant 1, the workload in HR is never-ending, and being more active in HR

processes and company matters can result in even more work for the HR-professionals:

… I think the most difficult challenge is actually to be… to find a

sustainable working environment for HR specialist and wage

specialists, we are working ourselves to death, there is so much to work

with, HR questions never end, there is always new questions to work

with, and the more we get engaged, the more questions we get from the

organization…So you cannot be afraid to work… (Informant 1, 240-

245)

The fact that HR can get involved in all of the processes in one company can also be seen as a

challenge, especially from the perspective of HR professionals. The challenge is to maintain a

31

good working environment for HR professionals, while they are ensuring a good working

environment for the company and its employees. The working environment discourse was

found to be the most common discourse on sustainability in the material, but the discourse of

organizational culture as sustainability was also activated, when discussing issues closely

related to but also differing from issues of work environment. .

Sustainability as an organizational culture

Culture creation was argued to be a significant and important part of sustainability: “...to us it

is extremely important to work with the questions regarding core values, and I will return to it,

it is one of the company's overall goals ” (Informant 2, 143-145). As well as the good working

environment, a discourse of organizational culture was activated in relation to the social

sustainability. The culture of the company was based on the values of the company often

expressed through value words, logos, or slogans. Informant 2 talks about value creation, and

its importance for working environment, and how this is part of the work with social

sustainability:

“... we even have a logo that symbolize our company and that ... you

really know ... that we have a certain culture in the company. It is very

important that people feel good and feel comfortable with us and we

can see that because we measure that people actually do it. You have

to work a lot with these questions all the time, and it is clear, if we have

a lot of focus on sustainability and the social part of it, we get a lot of

credit but also possibilities to work with these questions...” (Informant

2, 146-152)

As the quote above represents, working with culture is seen as an important part of the

sustainable HR. This cultural creation is seen important part of employees enjoying working at

the company. How much the employees are enjoying working at the company is measured with

employee surveys. The employee surveys were brought up by all of the informants. The

employee survey results are seen as a legitimation of the sustainability work. When the

implementation of sustainability is a success, HR gets more possibilities to work with these

questions. Like informant 2, informant 1 described how the values of the company are the

32

foundation of the company culture. Informant 1 uses the term “culture trip” which can be argued

to refer to the ongoing development of the culture:

So that work has a very, very big role in the HR department, but then

we enter something we call for a “culture trip”. How we are to each

other [...] what are our value words, […] what does it mean to our

employees and for the employer, how we as an employer live up to this,

that is the huge HR issue, soft values. (Informant 1, 64-67)

Informant 1 also underlined the importance for the company to live up to its values. The

organizational culture is also something the employees should be proud of and HR has the

responsibility for these “soft values”. This quote exemplifies sustainability being everything

and nothing at the same time. However, the informant does note, the importance of including

employees in the development of the culture and working environment. Taking social

responsibility by developing the culture can also be argued to be part of sustainability, which

was also exemplified by informant 2:

… we take our social responsibility by serving “fika” every day, it is

super important! It may sound banal, but it is extremely important, it is

not only about getting “fika”, you get the sandwich, you get a cup of

coffee, it is about you getting away from your desk, you meet your

colleagues from other departments, you relax one minute. You talk

about something else, because when you then come back and continue

with the work, you have gotten new energy and, this sounds trivial, but

it is extremely important… (Informant 2, 155-161)

The company takes social responsibility by serving coffee and something to eat during a coffee

break. This is called “fika” which is a strong part of the Swedish culture, and therefore an

important part of the organizational culture in the Swedish context. The informant sees the

importance of the social coffee breaks in the company because the employees have an

opportunity to take a break from the work and socialize with other employees. The motivation

for the coffee breaks is that the employees thrive working at the company. However, the

informant is aware that this part of the culture might be seen as something trivial. Thus, one of

33

the challenges while working with the development of and with organizational culture is that

it might not be seen as important.

Sustainability as health promotion

The importance of sustainability and health was brought up by most of the informants.

Informant 5 discussed the importance of having healthy employees and how HR can support

the health of the employees in the long term: “...like our work with health promotion,

everything is based on the creation of healthy employees who are feeling well and who are

given the conditions to do a good job in the long-term...“ (Informant 5, 90-92). Also, informant

4 argued that health promotion is important and is one of the approaches to ensure a healthy

work-life balance. Employees should be able to cope with the work and also have the energy

to do other things in life. Informant 4 also saw that HR has a significant responsibility in health

promotion, which is important to ensure good health also after retirement. Therefore, it was

argued that HR should work long-term with health promotion but also work-life balance:

We work, especially from the HR’s perspective, much with health

promotion. And then it has, what our CEO often says, is that everyone

that works in our company, that you have to manage with your work

days but you also have to have energy to manage your free time as well

which is… Positive. And with that said, also work life as a whole, should

be in that way that when you go home with pension so you should not

be so worn-out that you don’t… (Informant 4, 55-60)

As informant 4 argued, HR has a significant part in developing long term health promotion in

the company. Informant 5 supported the argument that long-term health promotion contributes

to healthier employees, but also to employees who can perform better at their work:

...like our work with health promotion, everything is based on the

creation of healthy employees in the long-term who are doing well and

get prerequisites to be able to do good work… (Informant 5, 90-92)

The physical health of the employees is also supported by different kinds of health promotions.

Informant 4 argued that it is important to include exercising and mindfulness training into

34

everyday work and in that way, contribute to a good working environment and also better work-

life balance. Therefore, informant 4’s company had decided to give employees the possibility

to exercise during the workday. In informant 4’s company, the office has its own gym and

different types of health promoters instructing activities during and after the workday

(Informant 4, 61-71). The HR involvement in health promotion and physical activity was

argued to be a result of the societal discourse of workplace health and health in general. This is

how informant 4 describes why health promotion and working environment have become so

important in companies:

Yeah, it really feels like a positive organization that takes these matters

into account, these matters are a trend in the society, to be more active

and exercise more, but that a company gets so involved and helps the

employees, helps employees to be that (active) for real. (Informant 4,

86-88)

The societal trend of a healthy lifestyle might be seen as one of the reasons why HR sees the

importance in it. However, it seems clear that the main motivator is the fact that good health

promotes better work results and maintaining good balance between work and free time, thus

it is activated as a discourse of sustainability.

Sustainability as equality and diversity

When asked what the informants think when they think about sustainability and HR, most of

the informants activated discourses of equality or diversity as one focus in HR. Equality and

diversity work being legislated in Sweden but also influenced by global actors, it was also

argued to be a part of sustainable HR: “...we base our sustainability work on the global

sustainability goals and we have chosen to take actions where we feel we can make the biggest

difference, which is within inequality and equity… (Informant 3, 21-24). In Sweden, equality

and diversity have their points of departure in the Swedish Discrimination Act (SFS2008:567)

and the Equality Act (SFS1991:433). In addition, the equality work the companies implement

can be argued to be part of CSR. Equality and diversity sets out to ensure the same opportunities

to all employees in the company and also has its connection to the working environment. The

work to ensure equality and diversity in the company is described as part of a sustainability

agenda:

35

Gender equality and equal treatment..…the payroll processes, it is

associated with equality and equal treatment and to ensure that the

employees at the company have the same conditions and opportunities

when it comes to, really all the issues related to work and the

workplace, and that we work with it in many different ways, also based

on our, our department and the processes we have ... so there is a lot

that is linked to sustainability…(Informant 5, 49-55)

Equality and diversity are, according to the informants, implemented in multiple operational

HR functions, like recruitment and wages. In addition, the equality and diversity work is about

prevention of maltreatments and grounded in the legal requirements put on employers:

From the perspective of HR we have … well one of the processes is that

for example our equality and diversity work that we carry on and it is

in accordance with the discrimination grounds and the discrimination

law but we look at different areas, such as salary levels, recruitment

and the areas, where we are bound by law to look into it, but there we

do ensure that women and men really do have the same opportunities

but also on the basis of other discrimination grounds that we work

preventively and with active measures and with activities… (Informant

5, 74-85)

Equality and diversity work is also seen as an important part of the employer brand. This was

brought up by informant 2 who is the head of HR at a male dominated manufacturing company

aiming to be an attractive employer for women as well as men:

...what is important, what we stand for, is that we write (adverts) how

we strive for diversity, everyone is welcomed to apply for a job with us

so in that what we put out in writing, we assert this aspect, we try to be

seen together with recruitment and in different places, today you have

social medias but we try to present us, how should I put it, in pictures

we use men and women, our own employees, both women and men when

we take pictures, you understand what I mean, but we think that it is

36

really important for us that we strive towards equality, we are one …

quite male dominant world but we do have over 20 % women who work

in this company and it is because we work with employer branding…

(Informant 2, 177-186)

Informant 2 told how the company has a goal to support the development of equality in the

branch and the society. According to informant 2, one way to do it is to highlight equality while

marketing the company. Informant 2 also argues that this is important to be able to make a

difference in the male dominant field. In the matter of informant 2’s company, more girls and

women want to participate in technical education and therefore, the company sees an

opportunity to support the development of equality in the branch. The CSR work is done by

sponsorships and being active in different settings, where female students are participating.

Informant 2 describes the CSR work the company is involved in:

When we sponsor we always think about equality. We go into projects

where we motivate girls to seek technical education. We took part on a

mentorship program last year, so we work really broadly with these

issues (170-172) [...] it is something that we need to work with in

general to get women to apply for a bit more male jobs, when we look

for certain type of operators so it's clear that we have more men than

women but we have a few women and it's because we are so involved in

school from the second grade, but sure, we have the same challenges

that everyone else has today…(Informant 2, 238-242)

The equality work is both an internal and external matter of sustainability and was discussed

in the relation to social sustainability and CSR. It is seen important to ensure the same

opportunities to everyone in the company, but also, it is seen as a long-term societal

involvement. Informant 2 also recognized that equality is a global issue and should be on the

agenda in companies generally.

Sustainability as employer branding

Sustainability as employer branding was brought up by the majority of the informants as an

important part in constructing sustainable HR: “...above all, I think about employer branding,

37

our way of living up to the employer promise… (Informant 1, 90-91). Employer branding was

seen as a part of the social and economic sustainability of the company. The matter of employer

branding was constructed by informants as internal communication of the sustainability work

and the external employer brand that is becoming increasingly important because of increased

competition for competent employees. With the internal employer branding, the informants

referred to the importance of knowing their own companies’ values and the ability to transfer

these values to everyday work at the company. How these values were transmitted to the

workplace, were in most cases measured through employee surveys. The internal employer

branding was described as:

“...our way of living up to the employer promise and then the question

is what promises we give. We have done a survey 2018-2019 and we

have looked at our err ... what you see with us as an employer from

outside, what do you think internally and how we control the

management, the management team that we promise as the employer

and it is clear, a lot is related to leadership, work environment issues…

” (Informant 1, 92-95)

As the quote exemplifies, the sustainability agenda is important to communicate both internally

and externally, and HR has an important role in this communication. However, the main focus

of the employer branding proved to be the external employer branding. The external employer

branding that the informants discussed was in relation to the expectations of being a good

sustainable employer. The informants expressed that sustainability work is important to

communicate externally because companies are expected to take action regarding

sustainability:

...we also need to make these issues much more visible and highlight

them, because people think that these are very important issues, so we

always have to be able to communicate what we do because we do very

good things… (Informant 5, 211-213)

Informant 4 raised the matter of sustainability in relation to societal challenges, that set

requirements on companies to make sustainability a priority. A company’s sustainability work

is seen as important especially nowadays because of the competition between companies and

38

because of the lack of a competent workforce. Therefore, the employer branding is seen as more

significant than earlier and HR plays a significant part in the creation of an attractive employer

brand:

I also thought from the outset as well… thus this whole challenge

considering the competent workforce that exists in society so that… that

many companies, not only within the same industry but generally as

well… need to retain and engage but also attract the right competence...

so there you also see big (changes)... so when it comes to how to work

with those questions it has become so much more important and a

priority, more than ever before ... and, HR has a significant role, it is

us who runs different processes regarding how it is at the workplace,

how it is to work right there… (Informant 5, 246-253)

As the quotes above show the sustainability agenda is important to communicate as a part of

the employer brand. It can also be argued that motivation for the development of employer

branding is part of the economical sustainability of the company. When implemented

successfully, the employer branding improves possibilities for more successful recruitments

with the right competence, and people are feeling more trust towards the employer, which

results in employees being more likely to work at the company longer. The informants evaluate

that HR has good opportunities to work with employer branding.

... you don’t think that as an employer and this here has become like a

minor “wake up call” for us at HR, that shit, all the other companies

have started to work with (sustainability in) employer branding and we

don’t have any strategy for it, we don’t get the competences to the extent

that we are looking for, so we have… we at HR have rolled up our

sleeves and in 2016-2017 and said we need to make an active effort

here to see how we stand in relation to the other employers to see how

strong our employer brand is, what do we need to work on to become

even stronger as well as potential employers, we want talented people

to apply for us… (Informant 1, 177-185)

39

It is argued that the companies have to work with employer branding because of the new

requirements from the society and job-seekers. Competent workforce is seen as a limited

resource that the companies have to impress by an employer brand that is attractive. The

sustainability aspect is seen to be the economic sustainability, but also the sustainability work

is one aspect that the companies do highlight.

Sustainability as good leadership

Lastly, the discourse of sustainability as good leadership is presented. This discourse was

discussed in relation to social sustainability. Good leadership was argued in HR to be important

and it was further argued that HR has a significant function to support leadership. Informant 6

evaluates the support: “...and even in leadership I think is important to include to the aspect

that it is about… today so we discuss a lot of sustainable leadership and not only leaders but

also the support to the leaders which HR function also have” (Informant 6, 61-63) The support

of the leadership was not something new to HR, but the discourse of sustainable leadership is

more novel and only activated by informants 5 and 6. Other informants focus on different ways

of supporting leadership and how efficient support to the leaders affects the company and the

employees. Informant 2 told about the different approaches taken to ensure the quality of

leadership in the company:

Oh, we work a lot with questions regarding leadership, we started a big

leadership program regarding leadership development… err… and it

is something that HR work is incredibly focused around, is that they

strategically work with developing the leaders, also in our daily work

we coach leaders but strategically so with a lot of leadership

development, we want to have a "one voice leadership" in terms of

leadership in our company and what is important to us … (Informant 2,

82-87)

As well as informant 6, informant 2 indicates that HR has an important strategic role to ensure

good leadership in the company. The quality of leadership is evaluated by employee surveys.

Often the surveys focused on measuring leadership and working environment. The results are

used to improve the leadership and give support to the leaders who might have aspects they

need help with. HR has a strong analytical role in determining what aspects are important to

40

improve the leadership and working environment. Informant 5 described the role of employee

surveys as following:

...it is important in many aspects, when it comes to sustainability,

especially with the employee survey, because there we investigate

everything from the working environment to how people experience

jargons and possibly to have people exposed to harassment but also the

leadership so we have so obviously an own index that we are looking at

and where again the same managers different managers may need

support in the work and the results in different ways and there we also

come in as one as a partner in that job… (Informant 5, 145-151)

To ensure the good leadership in the companies, the leaders are able to attend different

leadership training programs. Further, informant 5 argues that good leadership creates a so-

called “sustainability chain” because good leadership advocates a better working environment

and health at the company:

...the support that the leaders receive and the conditions the leaders

have for being a good leader in turn can be good leaders for their team.

It becomes like a sustainable chain in some way, like from the work

environment aspects and health aspect as well… (Informant 5, 65-67)

HR’s role in sustainable leadership is to support the leader and work proactive. Thus, HR has

to be attentive at all times. As an example, informant 5 talked about preventing sick leaves of

the employees by having different strategies for these types of situations. Informant 5

explained:

Yes, and typical examples of the preventive measures are for example

in rehabilitation where we follow up both recurring short-term

absence... and as soon as someone has been sick a certain number of

days a little longer, we at HR support the managers in developing some

strategy of like giving a little heads-up to the manager that now your

co-workers have been gone six times… (Informant 5, 100-105)

41

HR’s role in the support of leadership showed to be mostly predict situations in long-term,

where leaders might need support. One aspect of this is to measure the experiences of

employees or to use statistics from the employees. By supporting the leaders, HR argues it to

be one factor to improving the sustainability and well-being of the employees.

Summary

The results present how sustainable HR is constructed and negotiated by the informants. The

definition of sustainability in HR is still not comprehensive, yet used in daily HR work. The

main focus of sustainable HR was argued to be the working environment, culture, employer

branding, leadership, health promotion, and work around equality and diversity which were

discussed to be part of the social sustainability of the company. The discourse of working

environment showed to be the most superior one of the discourses related to social

sustainability.

42

Analysis and discussion

In this section, the results will be discussed and the research questions will be answered. Firstly,

a general discussion of the results in relation to theory and previous research is carried out

under the headings social, economic, ecological sustainability, and CSR. Secondly, the

research questions are answered. Lastly, I reflect on my methodological choices and

suggestions for future research.

HR and social sustainability

Social sustainability relates to the sustainable social development that ensures good health,

education, justice, human rights and the needs of the individual. The results show that the

activated discourses are overwhelmingly related to and negotiated in relations to social

sustainability. The fact that HR’s main focus is in fact social sustainability, is supported by

previous research, (Stankevičiūtė and Savanevičienė, 2018). Developing the culture, employer

branding and leadership are contributing factors in creation of a good working environment

and moreover, social sustainability of the company. Sustainability as working environment was

commonly discussed and here HR had an important operative role in maintaining and

developing structures and practices. The improvement of the working environment showed to

be driven by company’s values and culture. This showed to be in line with Lo et al., (2012)

who argue that social norms support sustainability agendas and are vital for implementation of

sustainability. An important part of a good working environment was the employees’ well-

being, and organizational culture the informants argued, supported this. Health promotion is

also argued to be important because health is seen as important in the society today. Working

environment, culture creation and health promotion was constructed to be the main focus of

socially sustainable HR, but it can be questioned if the aspect of sustainability has changed

how these matters are operationalized or implemented.

Sustainable leadership was also discussed by all of the informants and constructed as an

important part in the implementation of social sustainability. HR has a significant role in

supporting leaders. Not only supporting the leaders, it was argued that HR has possibilities to

influence leaders to implement sustainability in different kinds of ways in the company. This

is in contrast to DuBois and Dubois (2012) that argues that HR does not have a proactive role

in sustainability initiatives. This study rather points to the role of HR in initiating sustainability

agendas. The informants did identify a challenge regarding how HR is perceived by leaders.

43

HR is often anticipated to promote soft skills and therefore, their suggestions can be easily

overlooked. Hence, the informants argued that employee surveys are important for the

employees and leaders, but also for the HR. The employee surveys were used as a tool for HR

to gain more legitimacy for their suggestions. For example, by reviewing the employee surveys,

HR can determine if leaders are in need of support with challenges they might face and get the

resources needed to ensure the support. Moreover, a challenge regarding the leadership is

according to DuBois and Dubois, (2012) if the company’s preferred leadership style is not

successfully implemented on every level of the company. None of the informants discussed

this challenge. After analyzing how the informants discuss the role of HR in relation to leaders

and employees, it can be argued that the informants see the HR role to be supporting the

employees rather than the leadership. The focus of HR seemed to be in the improvement of the

environment of the work and the personal health of employees. The leadership seemed

something that should be evaluated and developed to ensure the good environment for the

employers. This is not supported by the previous studies, rather the opposite, for example in

DuBois and Dubois (2012) research, it is argued that the main function of the HR is in fact to

support the leadership.

The discourses of health promotion, diversity and equality was much more activated by the

informants than previous research would suggest. One possible reason for this is the context of

this research contra the context of the previous research. The only reviewed study that gave

support to the health promotion and matters of diversity and equality was the Finnish study by

Järlström et al., (2018). Sweden and Finland are both Nordic countries and have ranks high in

surveys of social welfare and equality and therefore, it can be argued that the context of the

study possibly has an impact on how sustainable HR is constructed (Järlström et al., 2018). In

addition, the informants did not activate a discourse of training in the context of sustainability.

Training was reviewed in previous studies and indicated to be one of the ways to implement

sustainability in the companies (Bin Saeed et al., 2019; Daily et al., 2012; Dumitru et al., 2016).

Training was only activated in relation to development of leadership.

The informants also give an impression that the social sustainability work is seen as a social

obligation and something needed to ensure a good working environment for the employees.

However, some of the HR processes described by the informants are derived from

legitimization. Thus, it can be argued that the informants considered sustainable HR to be

something that is already mandatory because of the legislation. For example, diversity and

44

equality work are legally regulated in Sweden, through the Swedish Equality Act

(SFS1991:433) and Discrimination Act (SFS2008:567). Also the law of sustainability reports

(SFS 2016:947) sets requirements for certain companies to present the sustainability work of

the company. Therefore, the question remains if this type of sustainability work would be done

if these legitimizations would not be in place.

HR and economic sustainability

Economic sustainability refers to the sustainability with the goal to ensure economic growth

without harming the environment. Economic sustainability was often described as a goal of

social sustainability or put differently, when HR succeeds in long-term social sustainability, it

has its economic benefits. Employer branding was argued to be the one significant part of

creating economic sustainability from an HR perspective. The sustainability work was

discussed to be important because the competition of the companies and the companies have

to be more attractive than the competitors. The importance of being an attractive employer is

supported by the research by Tang et al., (2018) who argue that sustainability profiles attract

job-seekers, especially the younger ones. Sustainable recruitment was also a topic discussed by

many informants, as a way to increase economic sustainability. To be successful in

implementing HRs sustainability agendas, the HR needs to have enough resources. However,

as mentioned earlier, HR activities are resisted because of the shortage of proof that the

implemented HR strategies are in fact making a difference. Therefore, the different types of

certifications are used to highlight the success of HR functions. These certifications also

seemed to be used to promote the sustainability work of the company.

Silences: HR and ecological sustainability

Ecological sustainability considers the assumption that nature and environmental resources are

not limitless. Therefore, the companies as well as the individuals have to protect them and use

them rationally. The environmental or green HR, was not as activated discourse as the social

and economic sustainability in HR, like presented in the results section, and this is analyzed to

been the silence discourse of this thesis. Previous research (Renwick et al., 2013; and Tang et

al., 2018) in the field of sustainable HR highlights the environmental aspects of HRM. In

addition, green HRM is an academic field that has been of academic interest only recently

which could be one explanation to relative silence around ecological sustainability in this

research. The only informant that could give multiple examples of how HR can influence green

45

sustainability in the company was informant 4. However, informant 4 works in a company

where green sustainability is the core business and therefore, it is reasonable that environmental

sustainability is a core value and extensively implemented in the company. Beside informant

4, environmental sustainability was not argued to be as significant part of the HR work. The

reason why the environmental sustainability issues were not activated by most of the

informants can be because matters of environmental impacts of the company is not on the table

of HR. This is supported by Järlström et al., (2018) where the researchers argued that ecological

sustainability is not a matter of HR. However, most of the informants were talking about

making better choices while choosing suppliers and trying to support the employees to avoid

unnecessary traveling. These matters were also seen as a part of environmental sustainability

but the informants did not see it as an “important” part of it. Often these matters were only

mentioned because the informant did not find anything else to say and felt obligated to relate

to the ecological sustainability discourse. It can be questioned that if environmental

sustainability is not part of the core values of the company, the matter can be seen as extra

effort and therefore not prioritized.

HR and CSR

In previous studies, CRS showed to be related and part of the environmental management of

the company. A different pattern emerged in this research, where the discourse of CSR was

strongly related to the equality work of the companies. The CSR work of the companies was

mostly discussed in relation to sponsorships and supporting equality in one specific branch,

namely the manufacturing business, where women were underrepresented. It can be argued

that the company who activates the discourse of CSR in this research had the motivation to

improve the equality in the male dominant fields of work. This is supported by Whitfield and

McNett (2013) who argued that CSR is related to improving the lives of the communities in

which companies do business. This type of CSR can also be argued to be external, not internal.

The internal CSR was not mentioned directly by any informant.

In this section, the results have been discussed in relation to theory, societal discourses, and

previous research. The analysis presents that HR professionals activate the societal discourses

of sustainability, and social sustainability is seen as the most important one within HR.

However, the analysis shows how HR construct sustainability as implemented in basically

every HR process and it is seen as an important part of HR, yet the understanding of

46

sustainability is not comprehensive and that is why activation of some societal discourses was

a challenge.

How is sustainable HRM discursively constructed among HR

professionals?

Sustainable HR is about creating a good working environment in the long-term for the

employees of the company. The work is influenced by societal trends and dictated by

legislation. The working environment discourse showed to the superior one and the other

discourses were negotiated in relation to working environment. Development and improvement

in the other discourses was seen to contribute to good working environment. HR is seen as an

active actor in the creation of a sustainable working environment, but HR also has its

limitations. The limitations became visible mostly in relation to resources that HR has little

influence over, like funding. Thus, the power to improve sustainable HR that was first argued

to be in the hands of HR, proved to be located elsewhere. The actions HR was willing to

implement, had to be carefully presented to the rest of the company. However, HR had some

influence over companies’ sustainability strategies. It seemed that HR had to be extremely

motivated and proficient in the terms of evaluating what are the challenges on the labor markets

for the specific company. This legitimization of HR functions were often related to the

economic benefit of the company. As a result, HR professionals have to be extra motivated to

push matters of sustainability forward and be able to present, how these matters of

sustainability will benefit the company’s economy.

Social sustainability is seen as a natural part of sustainability in HR and as discussed, it supports

the economic sustainability of the company. What is seen as societal sustainability was in this

research the discourses around working environment. In the Swedish work context the issues

around health promotion, equality and diversity was also seen important in the aspect of social

sustainability. However, these matters are in fact requirements in the terms of Swedish

legislation. Therefore, the sustainability aspect of it can be questioned. However, this research

shows clearly how the context affects the construction of sustainable HR. The discourses

around equality, diversity and health promotion was not supported by the prior research in

green or sustainable HRM.

47

How do HR professionals negotiate what sustainable HRM means in

the context of their own companies?

HR professionals do experience challenges while working with sustainability in HR and as

mentioned earlier, one of the main challenges is resources. Also, the status of HR often has its

challenges not being as measurable and therefore, motivating new HR practices seemed to be

a challenge. The HR actions was negotiated in relation to economy and certifications.

Certifications was negotiated as legitimating the results of the successful HR work as well as

the sustainability status of the company. In other word, the legitimacy of sustainable HR was

seen to relate to how well it is contributing to the economical profit of the company.

Environmental sustainability was not seen to be the main focus of the HR and HR professionals

did not see themselves to play a significant part in improving the ecological sustainability of

the company. However, the informant did try to negotiate the ecological sustainability and this

can be argued to be because they felt obligated to it. That said, it can be argued that the

informants were aware of the societal discourses and, therefore, felt the need to relate to all of

the discourses of sustainability.

While working with social sustainability, HR professionals did experience great possibilities,

almost too great, which brings a challenge for HR professionals to ensure a sustainable working

environment for the HR. When asked about the possibilities, it seemed clear that the

opportunities are great as long as the limitations was considered. However, what motivates HR

employees to keep up the work and be inspired in developing it was not discussed by the

informants. The motivation of HR professionals was almost seen as undeniable because none

of the informants discussed how to work with the motivation of HR professionals, or who is

seen responsible to develop the working environment of HR professionals. Instead, it was

mentioned how everyone who wants to work in the field of HR have to be ready to work hard

and not afraid to have a lot of work to do all the time. The question remains how to motivate

and ensure a good work environment for the HR professionals?

Methodological reflection

One limitation in this research is the fact that the difference between mainstream HR and

sustainable HR was not asked from the informants. Like Stankevičiūtė and Savanevičienė,

(2018) analyze in their research, it remains unclear how the mainstream HR and sustainable

HR are different and there is a risk for “old wine in new bottles” -situations (Stankevičiūtė and

48

Savanevičienė, 2018, 7). This limitation was acknowledged in the analysis phase of the five

interviews, and because of the time limitations, there was not time to conduct further

interviews. The informants did not separate these issues, and it can be questioned if these are

even separate matters or if sustainability already is a natural part of HR. Alternatively, it can

be questioned if the HR’s operative functions have remained the same, but because

sustainability has become part of the business world and created demands both from the

employees as well as from the customers, HR also has to relate to these societal expectations.

When the mainstream HR functions are reviewed in relation to Agenda 2030, part of these

goals have already been part of the mainstream HR. Thus, the question if sustainable HR is in

fact mainstream HR.

Like every method, also discourse analysis, has its challenges. First of all, Foucauldian

discourse theory has been criticized because it tends to absorb too much into ‘discourse’

(Wetherell, Taylor and Yates, 2001). Therefore, it is important for a researcher to present the

frame for the discourse, which is done in this research when the societal discourses of

sustainability was presented. Secondly, discourse analysis does not have a clear course of

actions to analyse the data (Bäcktorp, 2007). To overcome this challenge, the researcher must

make a clear demarcation and be transparent while collecting and analyzing the data. (Winther

Jørgensen & Philips, 2002) Therefore, I have been transparent and argumentative while I

presented my theoretical and methodological choices. Another limitation when Foucauldian

discourse theory and analysis is implemented is that the way in which discourses are

historicized by Foucault and knowledge is argued to be historically and culturally specific. In

other words, something that is seen as a ‘truth’ on one specific time period and context is not

necessarily the case in other context or a time period. (Wetherell, Taylor and Yates, 2001)

Therefore, one limitation is the fact that the results can be argued to be valid only at the certain

context and time. However, this is not seen as a problem, because I see that knowledge is not

valid other than at present. We are constantly learning new things from the research are done

in the academic field and the ‘truth’ is ever changing.

Being a master’s thesis, the biggest challenge in this research was the limited time. During this

limited time, I challenged myself to work with a theory and a method that I have never used

before. Before this research, I did not have any major experience of discourse theory or any

other qualitative research method. However, the qualitative research method was the most

suitable for the aim of the research and therefore, a better choice. Also the on-going Corona

49

pandemic caused a lot of new arrangements. First of all, like mentioned, the interviews were

held phone or by Microsoft teams. This made the transcription of the interviews more

challenging and I was not able to analyze the body language of the informants. This can be

seen as a limitation. (Bryman, 2012)

Implication for further research and practice

The difference between mainstream HR and sustainable HR is interesting to do further research

on. This is also supported by Stankevičiūtė and Savanevičienė, (2018) who points out that the

characteristics of sustainable HR is still unsolved. As in this study, the informants did not

succeed to separate these two concepts, if it is even possible. Therefore, it would be interesting

to do further research on if these are even two different types of HRM. In practice, if the

companies would define sustainability in more specific terms in their company’s context, it

would most likely contribute to a more structural way to work with sustainability. As this

research points to, sustainability is seen as an important part of HR work, but the research also

showed the problem with sustainability not being defined. Without the definition, sustainability

might been seen just framework, simultaneously including everything and nothing.

50

References Active Sustainability. (2017). What is sustainability?

https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-development/what-is-sustainability/

(Accessed 2020-05-18)

Ahmad, S. (2015). Green Human Resource Management: Policies and practices. Cogent Bus.

Manag. 2, 1030817.

https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2015.1030817https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12147

Andersen, N. (2003). Discursive Analytical Strategies. Bristol: Policy Press.

Arbetsmiljöverket. (2020). https://www.av.se/ (Accessed 2020-05-03)

Bin Saeed, B., Afsar, B., Hafeez, S., Khan, I., Tahir, M., Afridi, M.A. (2019). Promoting

employee’s proenvironmental behavior through green human resource management practices.

Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 26, 424–438. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1694

Bombiak, E. (2019). Green human resource management – the latest trend or strategic

necessity? Entrep. Sustain. Issues 6, 1647–1662. https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2019.6.4(7)

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2017). Human Resources Management. London: Palgrave.

Bright Planet. (2020). Varför arbeta med hållbarhet? https://www.brightplanet.se/varfor-

hallbarhetsarbete/ (Accessed 2020-05-18)

Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bäcktorp, A. (2007). When the First-World-North Goes Local: Education and gender in post-

revolution Laos. Doctoral dissertation, Umeå University: Faculty of Social Sciences, Umeå

University.

Borjesson, M. (2003). Diskurser Och Konstruktioner. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

51

Daily, B.F., Bishop, J.W., Massoud, J.A. (2012). The role of training and empowerment in

environmental performance. Int. J. Oper. Prod. Manag.

https://doi.org/10.1108/01443571211226524

DuBois, C.L.Z., Dubois, D.A. (2012). Strategic HRM as social design for environmental

sustainability in organization. Hum. Resour. Manage. 51, 799–826.

https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21504

Dumitru, A., De Gregorio, E., Bonnes, M., Bonaiuto, M., Carrus, G., Garcia-Mira, R.,

Maricchiolo, F. (2016). Low carbon energy behaviors in the workplace: A qualitative study in

Italy and Spain. Energy Res. Soc. Sci., Energy Transitions in Europe: Emerging Challenges,

Innovative Approaches, and Possible Solutions 13, 49–59.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2015.12.005

Ehnert, I., Parsa, S., Roper, I., Wagner, M., Muller-Camen, M. (2016). Reporting on

sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the

world’s largest companies. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 27, 88–108.

https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1024157

Elkington, J. (1994). Towards the Sustainable Corporation: Win-Win-Win Business

Strategies for Sustainable Development. Calif. Manage. Rev. 36, 90–100.

https://doi.org/10.2307/41165746

Fejes, A. and Thornberg, R. (2009). Handbok I Kvalitativ Analys. Stockholm: Liber.

Framtidsstigen. (2017). Vad menas med hållbart? https://framtidsstigen.se/varfor-

hallbart/vad-menas-med-hallbart/ (Accessed 2020-05-18)

Fridays for Future. (2020). https://fridaysforfuture.org/ (Accessed, 2020-05-07)

Företagarna. (2019). Vad är hållbart företagande?

https://www.foretagarna.se/innehallsbank/riks/2019/mars/vad-ar-hallbart-foretagande/

(Accessed 2020-05-18)

52

Graneheim, U.H., Lundman, B. (2004). Qualitative content analysis in nursing research:

concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ. Today 24, 105–

112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2003.10.001

Grolleau, G., Mzoughi, N., Pekovic, S. (2012). Green not (only) for profit: An empirical

examination of the effect of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment.

Resour. Energy Econ. 34, 74–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2011.10.002

Howard-Grenville, J., Buckle, S.J., Hoskins, B.J., George, G. (2014). Climate Change and

Management. Acad. Manage. J. 57, 615–623. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.4003

John, S., Björkman, I. (2015). In the eyes of the beholder: the HRM capabilities of the HR

function as perceived by managers and professionals. Hum. Resour. Manag. J. 25, 424–442.

https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12078

Järlström, M., Saru, E., Vanhala, S. (2018). Sustainable Human Resource Management with

Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective. J. Bus. Ethics 152, 703–724.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3310-8

Kramar, R. (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human

resource management the next approach? Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 25, 1069–1089.

https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.816863

Larsson, H. (2001). Iscensättningen Av Kön I Idrott. En Nutidshistoria Om Idrottsmannen &

Idrottskvinnan. Stockholm: HLS Förlag.

Legard, R., Keegan, J. & Ward, K. (2003). In-depth interviews. In J. Lewis & J. Ritchie

(eds.), Qualitative research practices: A guide for social science students (pp. 138-169).

London: SAGE Publications.

Lo, S.H., Peters, G.Y., Kok, G. (2012). Energy-Related Behaviors in Office Buildings: A

Qualitative Study on Individual and Organisational Determinants. Appl. Psychol. Int. Rev.

61, 227–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00464.x

53

Magnusson, E., Marecek, J. (2015). Doing Interview-based Qualitative Research: A

Learner’s Guide. Camb. Core. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107449893

Mariappanadar, S. (2003). Sustainable human resource strategy: The sustainable and

unsustainable dilemmas of retrenchment. Int. J. Soc. Econ. 30, 906–923.

https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290310483779

Paillé, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O., Jin, J. (2014). The Impact of Human Resource Management

on Environmental Performance: An Employee-Level Study. J. Bus. Ethics 121, 451–466.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1732-0

Portney, K.E. (2015). Sustainability. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Regeringskansliet. (2016). Ett hållbart arbetsliv. Regeringskansliet. URL

https://www.regeringen.se/regeringens-politik/arbetsmiljostrategin/ett-hallbart-arbetsliv/

(Accessed 2020-05-02).

Regeringskansliet. (2018). Handlingsplan Agenda 2030.

https://www.regeringen.se/rapporter/2018/06/handlingsplan-agenda-2030/ (Accessed 2020-

05-02)

Regeringskansliet. (2015). 17 globala mål för hållbar utveckling.

https://www.regeringen.se/regeringens-politik/globala-malen-och-agenda-2030/17-globala-

mal-for-hallbar-utveckling/ (Accessed 2020-05-26)

Renwick, D.W.S., Redman, T., Maguire, S. (2013). Green Human Resource Management: A

Review and Research Agenda*: Green Human Resource Management. Int. J. Manag. Rev.

15, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00328.x

Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., Ormston, R. and McNaughton Nicholls, C. (2014). Qualitative Research

Practice. London: SAGE.

54

Rolfe, G. (2006). Validity, trustworthiness and rigour: quality and the idea of qualitative

research. J. Adv. Nurs. 53, 304–310. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03727.x

Rönnblom, Malin. (2014). Ett urbant tolkningsföreträde? En studie av hur landsbygd skapas i

nationell policy. Umeå universitet: Umeå centrum för genusstudier.

Santana, M., Lopez‐Cabrales, A. (2019). Sustainable development and human resource

management: A science mapping approach. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 26,

1171–1183. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1765

SFS 2016:947 Lag om ändring i årsredovisningslagen

SFS 2019:286 Lag om ändring i årsredovisningslagen (1995:1554)

SFS 1991:433 Jämställdhetslagen

SFS 2008:567 Diskrimineringslagen

Shen, J., Dumont, J., Deng, X. (2018). Employees’ Perceptions of Green HRM and Non-

Green Employee Work Outcomes: The Social Identity and Stakeholder Perspectives. Group

Organ. Manag. 43, 594–622. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601116664610

Stahl, G.K., Brewster, C.J., Collings, D.G., Hajro, A. (2019). Enhancing the role of human

resource management in corporate sustainability and social responsibility: A multi-

stakeholder, multidimensional approach to HRM. Hum. Resour. Manag. Rev.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100708

Stankevičiūtė, Ž., Savanevičienė, A. (2018). Designing Sustainable HRM: The Core

Characteristics of Emerging Field. Sustainability 10, 4798.

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124798

55

Statsrådets kansli. (2017). Hållbar utveckling https://kestavakehitys.fi/sv/hallbar-utveckling

(Accessed 2020-05-18)

Stefano, F.D., Bagdadli, S., Camuffo, A. (2018). The HR role in corporate social

responsibility and sustainability: A boundary-shifting literature review. Hum. Resour.

Manage. 57, 549–566. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21870

Swedish Research Council. (2017). Good Research Practice. Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet.

Tang, G., Chen, Y., Jiang, Y., Paille, P., Jia, J. (2018). Green human resource management

practices: scale development and validity. Asia Pac. J. Hum. Resour. 56, 31–55.

https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12147

Tjora, A. (2012). Från nyfikenhet till systematisk kunskap: Kvalitativ forskning i praktiken.

Lund: Studentlitteratur.

United Nations. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals.

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/ (Reviewed 2020-03-02)

Wetherell, M., Taylor, S., and Yates. S. (2001). Discourse Theory and Practice. London:

Sage Publications.

Whitfield, R., McNett, J.M. (2013). A Primer on Sustainability: In the Business Environment.

New York: Business Expert Press.

Willard, B. (2012). The New Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a

Triple Bottom Line. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers.

Winther Jørgensen, M. and Phillips, L. (2002). Discourse Analysis As Theory And Method.

London: Sage Publications.

World Ocean Review. (2015). https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-4/concepts-for-a-better-

world/what-is-sustainability/ (Reviewed 2020-05-18).

56

57

Appendix 1 Information letter

Hejsan!

Jag heter Aliisa Uotila och jag läser för närvarande på Masterprogrammet i Ledarskap och

organisation vid Umeå universitet. Under våren genomför jag en studie som kommer att

redovisas i form av en masteruppsats. Studiens syfte är utforska relationen mellan HR- och

hållbarhetsarbete. Eftersom du arbetar med HR inom en organisation som har en uttalad

hållbarhetsprofil hoppas jag att du är villig att dela med dig av dina erfarenheter.

Etiska principer kommer att vägleda studien vilket innebär att du utlovas anonymitet och du

kan när som helst avsluta din medverkan utan närmare motivering. Intervjun uppskattas ta

ungefär en timme.

Om du accepterar att delta i studien ber jag dig kontakta mig så snart som möjligt för bokning

av datum och tid för intervju. Intervjuerna är planerade att genomföras vecka 12-14. Intervjun

kan genomföras på din arbetsplats.

Studien genomförs under handledning och om du har några frågor kan du antingen kontakta

mig eller min handledare, Ann-Louise Silfver.

Med vänlig hälsning

Aliisa Uotila

58

Appendix 2 Interview guide

Hållbar HR

Informera om deltagande

Frågeställningar

RQ 1: How is sustainable HRM discursively constructed among HR professionals?

RQ 2: How do HR professionals negotiate what sustainable HRM means in the context of

their own companies?

Bakgrund

Vad heter du?

Vilken roll har du på företaget?

Hur länge har du varit anställd på företaget?

Intervjuteman

Hållbarhet och HR (Vad och hur?)

Berätta om ditt företags hållbarhetsprofil.

När du tänker på hållbarhet och HR, vad tänker du då? (RQ1)

Vad betyder ordet “hållbarhet” i ditt foretag/din organisation? (RQ1)

Hur påverkas HR-arbetet av företagets/organisationens hållbarhetsarbete/profil? (Hur stöttar

HR din företagets hållbarhetsprofilen?) (RQ1)

(Här kan du också ha ARUBA i bakhuvudet: Attrahera, Rekrytera, Utveckla, Behålla,

Avveckla)

59

● Rekrytering

● Kompetensutveckling av medarbetare

● Organisationskultur

● Återkoppling och utmärkelse

Förhandlingar (Varför?)

Vilka möjligheter anser du att det finns medans man jobbar med hållbarhet inom HR? (Finns

det några fördelar med att kombinera hållbarhet och HR? Vilka? Hur då? (RQ2)

Vilka är utmaningar när man jobbar med hållbar HR? (RQ2)

Om du tänker utifrån social, ekonomisk och ekologisk hållbarhet, hur kan HR spela roll?

(RQ2)

60

Appendix 3 Analytical map

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

An

aly

tica

l m

ap

RQ

1

Co

nst

ruct

ion

s of

sust

ain

ab

le H

R

- G

ener

all

y

- In

th

eir

HR

pra

ctic

es

RQ

2

Neg

oti

ati

on

s

Po

ssib

ilit

ies

RO

2

Neg

oti

ati

on

s

Ch

all

eng

es

Ten

sion

s

(bet

wee

n e

.g.

soci

eta

l

dis

cou

rses

an

d t

he

“st

ory

lin

es”

of

the

resp

on

den

ts

Sil

ence

s

So

ciet

al

dis

cou

rses

(fro

m p

rev

iou

s

rese

arc

h,

Ag

end

a 2

03

0

etc.

)

Oth

er n

ota

ble

issu

es/d

iscu

rsiv

e co

nst

ruct

ion

s

Dis

cou

rse

s in

th

e

emp

iric

al

mate

ria

l

- C

ult

ure

- W

ork

-lif

e

bal

ance

- C

ert

ific

ati

on

s

Str

ate

gic

HR

- R

ecr

uit

men

t

- E

mp

loy

er

bra

ndin

g

- T

rain

ing

Reco

urs

es

- E

co

no

mic

al

- E

mp

loy

ees

- T

ime

Eq

uali

ty a

s

eco

log

ical

su

stain

ab

ilit

y

Eco

logic

al

sust

ain

abil

ity

EC

OL

OG

ICA

L

HR

is

no

t se

en

as

a b

ig a

cto

r in

th

e

ecolo

gic

al

sust

ain

ab

ilit

y

Su

stain

abil

ity

in

HR

is

seen

as

spra

wli

ng

are

a

E

qu

alit

y

- L

egis

lati

on

- S

oli

dari

ty

T

he u

nd

erst

and

ing

of

the

imp

ort

ance

of

sust

ain

ab

le H

R

fun

ctio

ns

in o

ther

par

ts o

f th

e

org

aniz

ati

on

Eco

logic

al

sust

ain

ab

ilit

y

as s

sy

no

ny

m

for

gen

era

l

sust

ain

ab

ilit

y

The

po

ssib

ilit

ies

wh

ile w

ork

ing

wit

h

sust

ain

able

HR

SO

CIE

TA

L

Inte

rnal

an

d

exte

rnal

sust

ain

ab

ilit

y, th

e

main

focus

of

HR

Su

stain

abil

ity

in

HR

is

seen

as

a

“m

ust”

L

eader

ship

-

Su

pp

ort

T

he H

R’s

pro

ces

ses

are

no

t m

easu

rab

le

Su

stai

nab

ilit

y

amon

g t

he

emplo

yee

s in

HR

The d

efi

nit

ion

of

sust

ain

abil

ity

EC

ON

OM

ICA

L

HR

as

a

supp

ort

ive

fun

cti

on

Pri

ori

tizi

ng

H

ealt

h p

rom

oti

on

and w

ell-

bein

g

T

he c

hall

eng

e t

o

see

the c

onn

ecti

on

bet

wee

n H

R a

nd

sust

ain

ab

ilit

y

H

ow

th

e

sust

ain

abil

ity

ag

en

da

is

foll

ow

ed i

n

ev

ery

lin

e o

f th

e

org

aniz

ati

on

Fo

cu

sing

on t

he

are

as o

f

sust

ain

abil

ity

wh

ere t

he

HR

can

make t

he b

iggest

d

iffe

rence

61