Human Resource Management (HRM) and the Role of Knowledge Transfers to Achieve Sustainability

Abstract

This chapter analyzes at how the sustainability debate has influenced HRM and CSR developing into green HRM (GHRM) and how knowledge transfer developments can be linked to this. The empirical research includes data collection from six coastal and rural tourist establishments in northern Norway and one capital and knowledge intensive company in aquaculture (smolt production). Both types of companies are severely dependent on sustainability and environmental issues but in very different ways and they also handle GHRM differently. Contextual factors reveal that the companies' resources, knowledge level/content, market situation and relation to the public sector are more diversified than generally understood in the research literature. The role of knowledge transfers in sustainability developments are fundamentally influenced by social media and the developments to Web 4 and the Internet of Things. The companies investigated are aware of this, but they have not so far been able to integrate this in their GHRM developments.