Stakeholder harm index: A framework to review work intensification from the critical HRM perspective

• Sustainable HRM
• Stakeholder harm index
• Negative externality of HRM
• Harm of HRM

This multiple disciplinary research attempts to theoretically develop a stakeholder harm index to capture and catalogue psychological, social and work related health aspects of harm of high performance work practices (HPWPs) on stakeholders (employees, their families and the community) from the negative externality perspective. An understanding of the harm of HPWPs will facilitate the role of sustainable HRM in improving the ethics of care for the stakeholders while achieving organizational financial performance. The usefulness of the stakeholder harm index in capturing the harm of an HPWP is illustrated using a review of the critical HRM literature on work intensification. Results from the literature review reveal that the stakeholder harm index provides an important framework for capturing the comprehensive harm and the associated social costs of work intensification based on welfare loss for the stakeholders. Empirical and practical implications to capture the harm and the associated social costs of harm are discussed.