State-of-the-art Green HRM System: Sustainability in the sports center in Malaysia using a multi-methods approach and opportunities for future research

Abstract While sustainability in sports centers has recently been clarified to speed up the sustainable societal transitions under the banner of “Sport for Sustainable Development”, it seems relatively small and in need of movement to generate a significant outlook. In pursuit of this aim, the research for this paper was built upon the discussion concerning “Green Human Resource Management” practices, which emerged with the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity theoretical lens to embed sustainability in such centers. It specifies a system of the key practices to implement a cleaner sustainability strategy within the sports center that has multiple effects at the macro, meso, and micro levels of society. In an attempt to address the lack of research on such a system, a novel multi-methods approach was implemented in three sections. The first section led to identifying an initial seven-factor structure based on factor analysis of a pilot study with ninety-seven respondents from the green community of Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Association. Next, interpretive structural modeling was performed using a survey of experts' judgment to develop the initial structure. Finally, structural equation modeling was considered to test the developed model. Upon validation of the proposed model, the results revealed a seven-factor interpretive structural equation model with four levels: “performance management”, and “player involvement and empowerment”; “culture and supportive climate”, and “pay and reward systems”; “attracting and selecting”; and “training and development”, and “union role in player involvement and environmental management”. The analyses indicated that there were strong relationships between these key practices throughout the system. The system highlighted practices toward correlating “performance management”, and “player involvement and empowerment”, which constitute the foundation for implementing the system. The research findings highlighted the importance of this system in making the transition to the notion of “sustainable center” in Johor Darul Ta'zim, as well as for other sports centers throughout Malaysia and other parts of the world. Future research directions are also discussed.