Green Human Resource Management Practices, Organizational Innovation, and Environmental Performance in the Upstream Petroleum Sector in Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

Green human resource management (GHRM) has emerged as a strategic lever through which organizations translate environmental commitments into workplace behavior, yet its effectiveness in high-impact, resource-extractive settings remains poorly understood. Drawing on the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) framework, the resource-based view, and stakeholder theory, this paper develops and empirically illustrates an integrative model linking four GHRM dimensions : green recruitment and selection, environmental training and development, green performance management, and employee involvement to organizational innovation and environmental performance in Nigeria's upstream petroleum sector, via employees' pro-environmental behavior, with environmental management system (EMS) maturity proposed as a boundary condition. Because primary survey data collection in Niger Delta petroleum companies is an ongoing, resource-intensive undertaking, the analytical strategy is demonstrated using a calibrated simulation (n = 348) whose parameters reflect effect sizes reported in the extant literature; the results reported here are therefore illustrative rather than confirmatory. Hierarchical regression indicated that GHRM dimensions accounted for a significant increment in variance in organizational innovation (ΔR² = .13) and environmental performance (ΔR² = .14) beyond firm-level controls, and pro-environmental behavior partially mediated both relationships (indirect effects = .20 and .24, respectively; 95% bootstrap confidence intervals excluding zero). EMS maturity strengthened the GHRM behavior relationship. The paper contributes a context-sensitive, testable model for an understudied extractive-industry setting and offers guidance for petroleum-sector HR practitioners, regulators, and future empirical researchers.