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Common Good HRM

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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.

Common Good HRM Research at the Institute

Leading up to the development of Common Good HRM (CGHRM) Members of the Institute took an active role in the development of the field of Sustainable HRM. Examples are the widely cited SHRM report by Cohen, Taylor and Muller-Camen (2012) as well as the first Special Issue on Green HRM (Muller-Camen et al. 2011). Over the years, the limitations of the inside-out oriented Sustainable and Green HRM concepts became more and more obvious and about ten years ago three book chapters (Matthew et al. 2018, Muller-Camen et al. 2019, Muller and Camen 2018) laid the foundation for the development of a humanistic and purpose-driven HRM that we initially called Truly Sustainable HRM.

The true beginning of CGHRM was in 2020. In a collaboration with Ina Aust (University de Louvain) we wrote a conceptual paper for HRMR where we identified CGHRM as a paradigm shift in Sustainable HRM. This article has not only received more than 1000 GS citations but also lead to a number of articles in highly ranked journals discussing as well as defining CGHRM. Members of the Institute initiated the first SI on CGHRM (Aust, Cooke, Muller-Camen and Wood 2024) and in several book chapters linked the concept to critical HRM (Matthews and Muller-Camen 2015), positive psychology (Matthews, Muller-Camen and Wieland 2025), purpose (Matthews, Muller-Camen and Lemanski 2025), diversity management (Matthews, Neubauer, Vatansever and Bratton 2026) and migration (Matthews, Scharwächter, Neubauer and Bratton). We have also presented papers at conferences where we examine CGHRM in the context of resonance theory (Matthews and Muller-Camen 2022) and HR ecosystems (Muller-Camen, Neubauer and Swart 2026). Furthermore, since 2022 the Institute has organized the annual online International Common-Good HRM Conference https://www.wu.ac.at/persm/common-good-hrm/conference-2026  and members have established a Common Good Management network https://www.commongoodnetwork.net/.

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

Aust, I., Cooke, F. L., Muller-Camen, M., & Wood, G. (2024). Achieving sustainable development goals through common-good HRM: Context, approach and practice. German Journal of Human Resource Management (ABS 2), 38(2), 93-110. https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022241240890

Cohen, E., Taylor, S., & Muller-Camen, M. (2010 / 2012). HR’s role in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. SHRM Foundation. Alexandria. (522 citations including 2010 Executive and 2012 Full Report)

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.

Matthews, B., Muller-Camen, M., & Lemanski, M. (2025). SDGs and HRM from a changing purpose of the firm perspective. In: Aust, I, Cooke, F.L., &  Semeij, J. (eds) The Elgar Companion to Human Resource Management Beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 342-354). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035308729.00034

Matthews, B., Müller-Camen, M., & Wieland, J. (2025). Game, set and match! Creating an organizational growth mindset and positive organizational behavior through Common-Good HRM. In: Cooper, C. L., Subhendu, P. & Raul, V. R. (eds) Advancing Positive Organizational Behaviour, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032619385

Matthews, B., Neubauer, S., Vatansever, C. and Bratton, A. (2026),From Common Gender to Gender Commons? Rethinking HRM in terms of Common Good for Gender Equality. In Claes, M.T., Hermann, A., and Perez, A.R. (eds). Gendered Navigation of Power. World Scientific Publishers.

Matthews, B., Obereder, Aust, I. & Muller-Camen, M. (2018). Competing Paradigms: Status-quo and Alternative Approaches in HRM. In D. Renwick (Ed.), Contemporary Developments in Green Human Resource Management Research (pp. 116-134). Routledge.

Matthews, B., Scharwächter, B., Neubauer, S., and Bratton, A. (2026) The grand challenge of integrating Migrant Workers: A Common Good HRM Perspective. In Cary L. Cooper (ed), Challenges and Prospects of the 21st Century Workplace: A Global Perspective, Routledge.

Muller-Camen, M. & Camen, J. (2018). Sonnentor and the Economy of the Common Good In E. O'Higgins  and L. Zsolnai (Eds.), Progressive Business Models: Creating Sustainable and Pro-social enterprise (pp. 123-142). Palgrave MacMillan.

Muller-Camen, M., Jackson, S. E., Jabbour, C. J., & Renwick, D. W. (ed.) (2011). Special Issue Green Human Resource Management. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 25 (2), 99-195.

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.

Müller-Camen, M., Weibler, J., Matthews, B., & Riess, C. (2019). Transformationen im Personalmanagement: Die Beispiele Sonnentor und Tele Haase. In Luks, F. Chancen und Grenzen der Nachhaltigkeitstransformation (pp. 79-93). Springer Gabler.