Employee resilience: an emerging challenge for HRM

Given turbulent economic times, the concept of employee resilience is receiving increasing attention in many organisations. This paper brings the discussion of employee resilience into the field of human resource management (HRM). We explore the foundations of resilience in theories of positive psychology and the conservation of resources (COR); we discuss its relevance for HRM and develop a set of testable hypotheses to guide future research. The first key finding of this paper is that the concept of resilience can be developed from strong theoretical foundations. Second, a coherent set of resilience-enhancing HR practices have the potential to contribute to employees’ psychological capital, attitudes and behaviour, and to organisational performance not only in turbulent circumstances but also during periods of relative calm. Given the theoretical framing, formal resilience training should be viewed as a single component of a broader, coherent set of resilience-enhancing HR practices.

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