Natural Volatiles and Essential Oils: A Human Resource Management Interpretation within Wellness-Oriented Production Systems (2022)

Abstract

By the early 2020s, natural volatiles and essential oils had moved beyond niche markets to become embedded within global wellness, pharmaceutical, and lifestyle industries. Academic discussions during this period, however, continued to privilege technical efficiency, chemical composition, and market expansion, while paying comparatively limited attention to the human systems sustaining these activities. This paper develops an interpretive human resource management (HRM) perspective on the essential oils sector as it existed in 2022. Rather than reiterating established HR definitions, the study positions workforce capabilities, embodied skills, and well-being-oriented work practices as central organizing principles of production. Drawing selectively on strategic human capital logic, sustainability-oriented employment thinking, and well-being scholarship, the paper advances the argument that organizational outcomes in this sector are inseparable from how labor is organized, protected, and developed. The contribution lies in reframing essential oils production as a human-centered system rather than a purely technical process, thereby extending HRM scholarship into a context rarely examined in management research.