Greening the Workforce to Green the Supply Chain: A Study on Green HRM practices and their impact on Sustainable Supply Chain Performance

Sustainable supply chain performance increasingly depends on environmentally skilled employees, making Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) essential for embedding ecological responsibility across organizational operations and supply chain activities. This investigation evaluates how GHRM practices influence Sustainable Supply Chain Performance (SSCP), assessing internal and external Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) mechanisms using advanced analytical modeling within an academic business-analytics setting. A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in the Department of Business Analytics and Supply Chain Management, Southern Arkansas University, from June to December 2024. A total of 33 graduate students enrolled in business analytics and supply chain management courses participated in the study and completed a structured instrument measuring green recruitment, green training, green performance management, employee involvement, internal and external GSCM practices, and sustainability outcomes. All quantitative values reported below are illustrative placeholders only and will be replaced after analysis of the actual dataset. Hypothetically, mean scores may include green recruitment at 4.12 ± 0.58, green training at 4.25 ± 0.62, and green performance management at 4.03 ± 0.55. Illustrative correlations may show strong associations with SSCP, such as training–SSCP (r = 0.63, p = 0.002), recruitment–SSCP (r = 0.57, p = 0.008), and employee involvement–SSCP (r = 0.52, p = 0.014). A simulated regression may indicate that GHRM explains 38% of the variance in SSCP (R² = 0.38, p = 0.001), increasing to 52% when internal GSCM is added (ΔR² = 0.14, p = 0.015). Illustratively, 20 of the 33 respondents (60.6%) could demonstrate high SSCP alignment. Actual results will depend on empirical analysis. Overall, GHRM appears to support improved sustainable supply chain performance through capability development and environmentally aligned employee behaviors; however, definitive conclusions require statistical verification using the real dataset.