This study aims to investigate the impact of regulatory environmental pressure on employees’ green performance. It explores the mediating roles of socially responsible human resource (HR) practices and green performance management systems in enhancing environmentally responsible behavior. Using institutional theory and the abilities–motivation–opportunities framework, this study shows how external regulations and internal drivers collectively influence employees’ green performance.
This study adopted the cluster sampling technique to collect the data using a structured questionnaire. A total of 302 samples were collected from employees of textile small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A structural equation model was estimated using SPSS and AMOS to analyze the data.
The results revealed that regulatory green pressure has a positive impact on socially responsible HR management, green performance management systems and employee in-role green performance. The results also revealed that socially responsible HR have a positive mediating effect, whereas green performance management systems show no significance. This indicates the contextual challenges faced by the SMEs in integrating environmental objectives into core business and HR practices.
This study offers insight into how external regulatory pressure influences employee readiness to adopt internal policies and frameworks, enabling sustainable employee-level outcomes. However, the nonsignificant green performance management systems highlight the contextual constraints SMEs face in embedding environmental objectives into core business and HR practices, which require further research and capacity development.
