Practitioner’s View on Sustainability and HRM

Abstract

This chapter illustrates how the theoretical concept of Sustainable human resources management (Sustainable HRM) can be implemented in a medium-sized enterprise. Based on the resource-dependence view and the concept of sustainability a practical approach for human resource management is described. Following the example of a bank as a knowledge-intensive service company with a particular focus on employees, as the core resources, the conceptualization and implementation of an integrated framework of Sustainable HRM is drawn from a practitioner’s view. The human resources are regarded as the essential substance of the bank’s business helping to categorize all HRM initiatives in the clusters “substance maintenance” and “substance supply” based on an integrated system of “substance steering”. In order to make this approach meaningful for business practice, examples of implementing sustainable leadership, occupational health management and family-and-career/work-life-balance are illustrated.