Designing a Green Human Resource Management Policy-Making Model in Municipalities of the Country

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design a model for green human resource management (GHRM) policy-making in the country’s municipalities, using a mixed-method approach. The statistical population in the design phase included faculty members specializing in public administration and urban planning in higher education institutions, mayors and senior managers of the country’s municipalities, as well as experts and specialists in the research topic. In the validation phase, professors in the fields of public administration and urban planning at higher education institutions in Mashhad were included, and in the quantitative phase, all senior and middle managers from 13 municipal districts of Mashhad and 22 affiliated municipal organizations totaling 354 individuals participated. In the qualitative phase, 19 experts were selected through snowball sampling. In the validation phase, 17 experts were chosen using purposive sampling, and in the quantitative phase, 185 participants were selected by cluster random sampling based on Cochran’s formula. For data analysis, the qualitative phase employed the grounded theory method following Corbin and Strauss (1998), using open, axial, and selective coding with semi-structured interviews as the data collection tool. In the validation phase, the Delphi method was applied in three stages using an expert evaluation checklist analyzed in SPSS. In the quantitative phase, structural equation modeling was conducted using a 118-item questionnaire in SmartPLS software. To ensure validity and reliability in the qualitative section, necessary checks such as credibility (expert review), confirmability (expert audit), and consensus methods were applied. During the validation stage, the content of the expert evaluation checklist was confirmed for clarity and comprehensibility by several academic and organizational experts, and its reliability was established through the test–retest method with a coefficient of 0.88. In the quantitative section, questionnaire validity was confirmed through face, content, and construct validity (with convergent validity ranging from 0.557 to 0.736 and discriminant validity greater than inter-construct correlations). Reliability was verified using factor loadings of items, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for components (ranging from 0.734 to 0.835), and composite reliability (ranging from 0.834 to 0.893). According to the findings from the qualitative and validation phases, the final model comprised 11 main categories and 27 subcategories, as follows: causal conditions (1. value-orientation weakness, 2. policy vacuum, 3. managerial unawareness, 4. cultural resistance, 5. lack of infrastructure); contextual conditions (1. organizational structure, 2. institutional capacity, 3. municipal economic situation, 4. organizational culture, 5. influence of stakeholder groups); core category (central phenomenon) (1. the process of designing green HRM policy, 2. mechanisms for implementing green HRM policy); intervening conditions (1. top management support, 2. information technology infrastructure, 3. legal and regulatory support, 4. acceptance of organizational changes, 5. HR experts’ competencies); strategies (1. green training and empowerment, 2. green recruitment and selection, 3. green performance evaluation, 4. green rewarding and motivation, 5. employee green commitment and participation); and consequences (1. effectiveness of green policy, 2. urban environmental sustainability, 3. employee organizational commitment, 4. municipal reputation and public image, 5. organizational innovation in HRM), with 118 indicators. The results of the quantitative phase confirmed that the dimensions and components of the research model were validated in the real statistical population (Mashhad Municipality).