Responsible leadership and organizational sustainability performance: investigating the mediating role of sustainable HRM

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of responsible leadership in impacting organizational sustainability performance grounded in the stakeholder theory. Further, it delves into the underlying mechanism that accentuates the link between responsible leadership and organizational sustainability performance via mediating role of sustainable HRM practices within the organization.Design/methodology/approachThe study follows a cross-sectional research design using data collected via questionnaire-based survey from employees working in top 100 NSE listed organizations in India. The proposed hypotheses of the research were tested using SPSS Process Macro.FindingsResults depicted that there is a direct relationship between responsible leadership and organizational sustainability performance. However, the relationship is better explained with a mediating role of sustainable HRM practices within the organization.Practical implicationsThe study is helpful for the practitioners to understand the instrumentality of responsible leadership and sustainable HRM practices within Indian organizations. Moreover, the study promotes the relevance of achieving sustainability-oriented goals of the organizations.Originality/valueThe study fosters the limited research on the integration of leadership style and HRM function. The results further add to literature on sustainable HRM by studying its antecedents and consequences.