Human resources' student's sensitivity to factors of sustainability

• Autor(a) principal: Pestana, M. H.
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Parreira, A. M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/12274
• topic: Employment; Work; Complexity; Social responsibility; Sustainability

This paper analyzes the sensitivity of college students to sustainability factors, including their definition of the concept and their perception of human resources management as a factor of sustainability. The prospects of the construct of sustainability – from the United Nations Conference in 1972, in Stockholm, to contemporary achievements and theoretical explorations-are reviewed as a conceptual framework. The research among college students has been developed along two lines: the study of their idea of sustainability; and the assessment of people’s management practices as a factor of sustainability. The research combined the use of a semantic differential questionnaire and a focus group to collect data and to complement the quantitative data with a more qualitative vision and understanding. The results consolidate the idea that: it is interesting to use the sustainability concept in combination with the complexity level of contexts; students of HRM are well informed about the concept; and that their attitudes on the subject are positive, as they are motivated to lead companies to adopt sustainable practices in human resource management, as an effective sustainability factor.