Emotional Exhaustion and Human Resource Management During Green Business Transition in Chinese Firms – A Mixed-Method Approach

ORCID

Abstract

The primary research aim of this thesis is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of employees’ green workplace emotional exhaustion (GWEE) on their green in-role behaviours and job satisfaction, and how three different green human resource management (GHRM) strategies can help reduce employees’ GWEE in Chinese firms. Two sequential exploratory mixed-method studies are conducted in this thesis. Study 1 aims to explore the employees’ understanding of GWEE and how their GWEE can affect their green in-role behaviours and job satisfaction. GWEE is a new concept which is proposed by this thesis, it is defined as a multidimensional psychological phenomenon that arises from the sustained cognitive, emotional, and ethical labour associated with fulfilling organisational sustainability practices. For Study 1, 20 semi-structured interviews with employees from Chinese firms are conducted to explore their understanding and experiences with GWEE. The findings indicate that GWEE is influenced by four different factors, which are used to design GWEE measurement scale. Following this, a survey study was conducted among 474 employees to test the research hypotheses established in this study. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the findings highlight the significant direct and indirect negative relationships between GWEE and both employee outcomes, with green passion acting as a mediating mechanism. Interview evidence further suggests that GHRM practices may serve as important tools for alleviating GWEE.Following this, Study 2 examines how three different GHRM strategies can help reduce employees’ GWEE in Chinese firms. Compared to GWEE, GHRM is a relatively well-established concept in corporate sustainability literature. GHRM is understood as the adoption of HRM practices to help employees increase their green knowledge, passion and engagement. Drawing on the ability–motivation–opportunity (AMO) framework, GHRM is conceptualised as ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing strategies in this thesis. Study 2 began with 39 semi-structured interviews with managers and employees to explore how each strategy is implemented in Chinese firms and to develop measurement scales based on this, followed by a two-wave survey of 594 employees across 13 firms. The results reveal that ability-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing GHRM strategies can reduce employees’ GWEE. Furthermore, employees’ resistance to change is found to moderate the relationship between GHRM ability-enhancing practices and GWEE but has no significant effect on the other two strategies.Based on these findings, this thesis makes several contributions to existing literature. First, this study develops the new GWEE and AMO GHRM strategy scales, which can be used for future corporate sustainability studies. Second, this study shows the negative relationship between employees’ GWEE and two different job outcomes, with the mediating role of green passion. Thirdly, this thesis finds the negative relationship between AMO GHRM strategies and employees’ GWEE. Finally, it confirms the boundary condition of employees’ resistance to change by showing its moderating role in the relationship between ability-enhancing GHRM strategy and GWEE.

Awarding Institution(s)

University of Plymouth

Supervisor

Lijun Tang, Jinhua Zhang, Margaret Prior

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2026

Embargo Period

2027-09-07

Deposit Date

September 2026

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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This item is under embargo until 07 September 2027

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