Common Good HRM

Empowering People – Transforming Organizations – Uniting Society

__________________________________________________________________________________

What is Common Good HRM?

Aust, Matthews, and Müller-Camen (2020) introduced the Common Good HRM (CGHRM) concept in 2020. They propose CGHRM as an "outside-in," multi-stakeholder paradigm that redefines the purpose of human resource management away from pure financial gain toward actively contributing to solving societal and ecological grand challenges.

More recently, Matthews and Muller-Camen (2025) define it as “a critical-pragmatic and relational multi-stakeholder approach to work and employment relations, characterized by an outside-in perspective that emphasizes the importance of common good values and the societal purpose of Human Resource Management (HRM) in enabling maximum stakeholder empowerment. This approach aims to enhance an organization's socio-ecological impact by fostering and encouraging individual and collective engagement and action”(p. 416).

Based on an analysis of the merging literature, Muller-Camen, Neubauer and Swart (2026) propose that CGHRM has four main principles (1) an outside-in sustainability orientation, (2) a normative foundation grounded in common good values and purpose, (3) participatory governance through stakeholder inclusion and workplace democracy and (4) collective action and stewardship.

References

Aust, I., Matthews, B., & Muller-Camen, M. (2020). Common good HRM: a paradigm shift in sustainable HRM?. Human resource management review, 30(3), 100705. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053482218303917

Matthews, B., & Muller-Camen, M. (2025). Sustainable HRM – a critical and commons-centric perspective. In: Collins, D., Wood, G. & Szamosi (Eds.) Human Resource Management -a critical approach (3rd ed.) (pp. 407-422). Routledge.

Muller-Camen, M., Neubauer, S. & Swart, J  (2026), From Control to Co-Creation Reconceptualizing Common Good HRM Through an HR Ecosystem Perspective, Presented at BAM Conference Royal Holloway, September 2026.