Facing sustainable human resources management with the dimension of discourse and action through the lens of organizational hypocrisy

This study examines Sustainable Human Resource Management with its economic, environmental and social dimensions and evaluates the differences between discourse and action through the lens of organisational hypocrisy. Thus, it seeks to understand whether Sustainable HRM activities are implemented as a result of some obligations or because they are internalized. Data was collected from companies and their employees listed in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) Sustainability Index. The discourse is identified through content analysis of 36 sustainability reports, while the action via the responses of 414 employees to a structured questionnaire. The findings suggest that the traditional capitalist approach remains valid and leads to hypocrisy in organizations, even when Sustainable HRM is passively accepted. Businesses in Türkiye still need to fully internalize the Sustainable HRM approach, which suggests the need for stricter regulations rather than voluntary efforts. This research contributes to the literature by addressing Sustainable HRM with its “economy-environment-society” dimensions, responding to the need to understand Sustainable HRM approaches in countries with different contexts, and examining Sustainable HRM within the scope of organizational hypocrisy.