Circular Economy and Human Resources: Global Perspectives

Sustainability has become a prominent concern in the modern world of human resource management and requires attention. This study emphasizes the importance of integrating environmentally sustainable technologies into a circular economic system, highlighting the necessity of execution. This study conducts a thorough analysis of the current literature to explore the relationships between green human capital, green innovation, and the circular economy. It illuminates the manner in which these numerous components, when combined, contribute to sustainable development. “Green human capital” refers to the distinct qualities, knowledge, and skills that individuals possess to promote environmental sustainability. It plays a crucial role in fostering environmentally friendly innovation. Green innovation is a crucial element in the advancement of the concepts underlying the circular economy. This is achieved by creating and applying inventive products, techniques, and practices that reduce the environmental impact. The circular economy model aims to achieve the objective of decoupling economic growth from resource consumption by advocating for the reuse, recycling, and regeneration of resources. According to the results of this study, allocating resources to environmentally aware employees may improve a company's ability to participate in sustainable innovation, therefore speeding up the shift towards a circular economy. The findings emphasize the crucial importance of environmentally conscious human resources and innovation in promoting sustainable development. Additionally, it offered valuable perspectives for legislators and organizational leaders who are dedicated to environmental conservation.

Sustainability and circular economy principles are more important in today's business space. Integrating circularity into HRM will augment the attraction of the best talent, retain competent employees, foster employee skills enhancement and engagement, align their performance with sustainability goals, promote cross-functional collaboration, and strengthen the process. Further, it helps with creativity and aims for the organization's long-term environmental impact and economic resilience. It also outlines the circular economy concept, its relevance to HRM, and the potential benefits of integrating circular practices into HR processes. Digitalizing the HR process for circularity boosts efficiency, allows data-driven decision-making, makes provisions for remote working and collaboration, and facilitates learning and development. By leveraging digital technologies, HR can drive organizational change towards sustainability and circularity, empowering employees to have a positive environmental and social impact. The chapter also focuses on digitalizing human resources in the context of developing circular practices for sustainability. This chapter is helpful for HR professionals, sustainability practitioners, and organizational leaders who seek to leverage digitalization to advance circular practices and achieve sustainable business goals.

As global business is evolving with growing digitization, the integration of circular economy principles into human resource management has become inevitable. This study focuses on the legal framework and regulations that underpin sustainable workforce strategies from a global perspective. Exploring how employment laws and policies can be aligned with CE goals to promote sustainability, resource efficiency, and environmental stewardship, is undertaken herein. Precedents and case studies from various countries highlight the diverse approaches to implementing CE practices within human resource policies. By discussing the role of labor laws that facilitate the transition to a CE and addressing issues such as employee training and development, sustainable workplace practices, and the legal implications of circular business models. The chapter also considers the challenges and opportunities that arise when integrating CE principles into HR strategies, including compliance with international labor standards and the impact of regulatory changes on global workforce management. Through a wide-ranging analysis of legal considerations, this chapter divulges how organizations circumvent the complexities of sustainable workforce management in the milieu of the CE. It offers practical recommendations for policymakers, business leaders, and HR professionals seeking to foster a sustainable, resilient, and legally compliant workforce in a rapidly changing global economy.

In today's rapidly changing workplace environment, organizations are adopting innovative workplace designs and strategies to improve employees’ satisfaction and performance. One emerging concept is the circular workplace, which emphasizes sustainability, flexibility, and continuous improvement of workplace design and practice. The chapter examines the complex relationship between employee happiness and turnover intentions in circular workplaces, conducts a comprehensive review of existing literature, and argues that organizations need to address these interdependent issues strategically. This review provides a view of how the circular working principle affects the well-being of employees and reduces turnover intentions. Furthermore, this chapter provides an overview of the current literature and provides an overview of the role of employees’ welfare in reducing turnover plans and improving overall organizational performance. This study identifies key themes and trends in existing research, highlighting the multidimensional nature of employee well-being encompassing physical, psychological, social, and environmental factors and its impact on turnover intentions. The chapter comprehensively explains how these factors influence employees’ decisions to stay with or leave an organization.

The value of circular strategies is parallelly related to organizational sustainable performance and human existence. Thence, contemporary managers apply divergent circular tactics to cultivate good behavior among stakeholders. However, a gap exists in traditional managerial focus where social sustainability is less prioritized compared to the other wings of sustainability. Based on a semi-systematic literature review, this chapter aims to draw a new perspective on circular human resource management under the phenomenon of circular thinking. Persuading innovation is a unique advent of demarcating circularity whereas preliminary finding reveals interconnection within plentiful elements of HR succession like upgrading skill capabilities, team or employee motivation, and talent management to continuously ensure the flow of circular actions. Studies support that a high-performing circular thinking team not only contributes to cost reduction and resource utilization but also promotes a healthy and safe workplace and reflects strong environmental commitments. A detailed process further explains how managers can foster circular behavior in the workplace. Besides, a vivid conceptual model illuminates ways through which circular thinking radiates common well-being or social sustainability at large. Consequently, the study outcome will enlighten diverse stakeholders ranging from managers/team members to policymakers. Nevertheless, such exploration will influence future researchers, academicians, and readers in general to explore the textual implications of the current study by developing strategic models, theories, and deploying new policies to form an action-led circular thinking human capital.

In today’s vibrant business landscape, organizations are progressively turning to employee voice as a catalyst for fostering resilient strategies and facilitating change adoption. This study investigates the role of resilient strategies like felt obligation, support, and psychological safety in improving voice behavior of employees. within the academia of northern India, with an emphasis on the key factors of felt obligation for constructive change psychological safety and perceived organizational support. The research on employee voice was conducted on HEI faculties in the northern region of India with the help of a standardized questionnaire distributed with the help of online platforms. The collected data from 500 HEI faculties from north India, analysis of which was done using PLS-SEM software. Findings indicate that perceived organizational support, an obligation for constructive change, psychological safety, and affective commitment are significant contributors to employee voice behavior. In addition, affective commitment and obligation for constructive change mediate the relationship between POS and employee voice behavior. Moreover, felt obligation for constructive change and psychological safety also mediated the relationship between affective commitment and employee voice behavior.

In today's rapidly evolving organizations, characterized by increased diversity driven by immigration, technological advancements, and globalization, organizations face the challenge of effectively managing pluralistic environments. This necessitates the expansion of innovative competencies and talent across individual, managerial, as well as organizational levels to maintain competitiveness. Cultural intelligence (CI) emerges as a critical concept for fostering better integration of diversity and promoting competency in diverse teams. This paper explores the role of CI in facilitating diversity integration and managing competencies within pluralistic workplaces. Drawing from a comprehensive review spanning from 2012 to 2023, encompassing 22 selected papers, the study presents insights into the nuanced relationship between CI, diversity integration, and competency development. Additionally, it introduces a theoretical model to clarify how cultural intelligence (CI) affects the integration of competencies and diversity within the Circular HR framework. By synthesizing literature and the author's perspective about pluralistic teams, this work provides practical suggestions for managers with the objective of enhancing team development and management policies. Competency and diversity remain key to the realization of excellence in organizations, and this research provides important input for how organizations can handle current challenges toward the opening of an era of Circular HR.

This chapter investigates the interplay among leadership, feedback processes, and circular economy principles in global organizational contexts. Departing from conventional approaches that often oversimplify feedback, our findings highlight the pivotal role leaders play in orchestrating feedback interventions, shaping both the delivery and perceived value of performance insights. It is argued that feedback, when strategically designed, can shift employees’ day-to-day behaviors toward resource efficiency and waste reduction—two cornerstones of circular economy initiatives. Moreover, our results challenge the assumption that encouraging feedback-seeking invariably leads to favorable organizational outcomes, revealing how cultural norms, perceived utility, and organizational climate all factor into the feedback process. By analyzing leadership constructs alongside feedback valence, follow-up, and feedback-seeking behaviors, pressure points were identified where leadership style can either amplify or undermine sustainability objectives. This research suggests that leveraging feedback as a targeted tool, rather than subsuming it under broad leadership behaviors, can catalyze cross-functional collaboration, innovation, and collective momentum for circular solutions. Ultimately, the study provides actionable insights into designing performance management practices that align individuals, teams, and broader stakeholder networks around a shared vision of regenerative, resource-conscious business growth. Findings underscore the need for leaders to cultivate feedback cultures that genuinely bolster globally relevant circular economy imperatives.

This chapter explores the application of adaptive leadership principles to the challenges of transitioning towards circular economies. As organizations and societies grapple with the complex task of shifting from linear to circular economic models, there is a growing need for leadership approaches that can navigate the adaptive challenges inherent in this transformation. The chapter examines how key concepts from adaptive leadership theory, such as distinguishing between technical and adaptive challenges, mobilizing collective action, and managing systemic change, can be effectively applied in circular economy contexts. It discusses the theoretical implications of this intersection, including the need for more systemic, process-oriented, and distributed understandings of leadership. The chapter also outlines practical implications for leaders, emphasizing the importance of developing enhanced diagnostic skills, creating effective “holding environments” for stakeholder engagement, and fostering cultures of experimentation and learning. Finally, it proposes avenues for further research to deepen our understanding of effective leadership in sustainability transitions. By bridging adaptive leadership theory and circular economy practice, this chapter contributes to both leadership studies and sustainability management, offering insights into how leaders can more effectively drive the transition towards more sustainable and regenerative economic models.

This case study explores the impact of strategic decision-making in entrepreneurship within the green business sector of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with an emphasis on its contribution to sustainable economic development. Through the examination of Two distinct entrepreneurial ventures, the study highlights how strategic leaders use innovation, vision, and stakeholder collaboration to drive sustainability within the UAE’s green economy. Key findings suggest that strategic decision-making plays a pivotal role in shaping organizational culture and fostering resilience in the face of environmental and economic challenges. The cases demonstrate how entrepreneurs align their business strategies with sustainability goals, supporting the UAE’s broader objectives of economic diversification and environmental stewardship. This research offers valuable insights for entrepreneurs and business leaders navigating the complexities of the green sector, emphasizing the essential connection between strategic decision-making and the promotion of sustainable practices using principles of circular economy. The study concludes with recommendations for future research on decision-making frameworks that can advance sustainable entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

The achievement of circular economy goals relies on strong business-stakeholder engagement. Stakeholder trust and confidence are influenced not only by a business’s sustainability efforts but also by the effectiveness and accuracy of its ESG (environmental, social, and governance) disclosures. Several organizations have weakened their stakeholder relationships because of poor, inaccurate, or fraudulent ESG disclosure thus impeding their progress to circular economy goals. Building on earlier research, this chapter examines the main components of effective ESG reporting, as well as best practices for ESG reporting and communication. The findings and conclusion of this chapter stress that ESG reporting must be effective and accurate in promoting stakeholder confidence that is likely to stimulate organizational stakeholders to collaborate and become engaged in organizational sustainability initiatives and, eventually, contribute to the accomplishment of circular economy goals. This chapter's insights would be valuable for organizations that are new to ESG reporting and communication, as well as business executives, strategists, and sustainability managers that want to improve their ESG disclosure. It aims to assist organizations in advancing or initiating ESG disclosures, as well as adding to the expanding corpus of research on the topic.

Indigenous people’s tribes have lived side by side for a long time in every part of the country. While sustainability, entrepreneurship, and culture have all received individual attention, they have seldom been considered in tandem. This paper proposes culturally sustainable business as a novel theoretical framework for this emerging field. Despite all the obstacles, indigenous communities have the potential to lay the groundwork for a prosperous business environment. In this essay, we use multiple mini cases to demonstrate how indigenous communities can gain from being seen as an essential component of the corporate ecosystem, which can positively affect both the community and the business community. According to our claims, industry, nation, firm, and society are the four layers of shared value that indigenous communities can build. The researchers in this study drew heavily on bibliometric analysis and data collected from official government websites and academic literature evaluations. The essay goes on to detail how the indigenous inhabitants of India are fighting for the preservation of their heritage and the environment.

Meeting the needs of the ever-growing population without putting the risk on the future generation is the need of the hour. The linear business model has put a strain on scarce resources. The new way around has been proven to be the circular business model that keeps the resources in a loop and the ecological costs low. The study aims to discover the latest developments, challenges, and value creation for stakeholders due to adopting the circular model. It looks into how the circular model is adopted in a developing country like India. To achieve objectives, the entire research has relied on secondary data. The study is a general descriptive review and has relied on articles, reports, and experts’ opinions. This study looked into the most recent advancements in the circular-economy concept, like circular supply chains, resource recovery, product life extension, sharing platforms, and product-as-a-service. In developing nations such as India, implementing the circular model presents several problems, the most significant of which are a need for more awareness, inadequate rules and regulations, and improper supervision and control of the waste management practices of the informal sector. Further research can be carried out by selecting any of the circular business models and analyzing the level of success achieved by those models.