Framing Sustainability at Work: A Preliminary Integrative Mapping Review of HR Communication, Psychological Mechanisms, and Employee Green Behavior
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Abstract
This preliminary integrative mapping review examines how sustainability communication within human resource management (HRM) is associated with employee psychological mechanisms, pro-environmental work behavior, and employee and organizational outcomes. Two complementary Scopus search streams conducted on 5 August 2026 identified 848 records. After removing two duplicates and one non-English record, 845 titles and abstracts were screened using workplace, sustainability, communication, and employee-outcome criteria. Twenty-five records were retained for abstract-level descriptive mapping, thematic coding, and theory-based integration. Full-text eligibility verification, formal quality appraisal, and independent double coding were not completed; therefore, findings are interpreted as provisional patterns rather than definitive systematic-review evidence. The mapping indicates that sustainability communication functions as an embedded HRM architecture shaped by message clarity, credibility, framing, source, channel, dialogue, and consistency with enacted HR practices. Cognitive, affective, motivational, and social-organizational mechanisms, including role clarity, processing fluency, green self-efficacy, trust, organizational identification, and moral obligation, help explain employee responses to sustainability signals. Green leadership, psychological climate, HRM-system strength, organizational culture, and industry conditions act as boundary conditions, while ambiguity, symbolic messaging, and perceived greenwashing may produce adverse responses. The review proposes a provisional five-stage framework linking sustainability intentions, communication signals, employee interpretation, psychological mechanisms, pro-environmental work behavior, and employee and organizational outcomes. Further full-text verification and formal quality appraisal are required to validate the framework.
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