High-performance work system and organizational resilience process: The case of firms during a global crisis

Owing to consecutive global crises (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple regional wars), interest has grown in understanding and promoting organizational resilience. There is scant knowledge about how a human resource management (HRM) system can foster organizational resilience. This study examines the role of a high-performance work system in the organizational resilience process during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on two properties of the resilience process: stability during the jolt phase and flexibility during the turnaround phase. We test our hypotheses using quarterly sales data from 268 Korean firms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings show that an high-performance work system reduces the severity of loss during the jolt phase (i.e., it maintains stability) through an increased climate of trust and enhances the scale of recovery during the turnaround phase (i.e., it improves flexibility) through an increased climate of innovation. We advance research on HRM, organizational resilience, and crisis management, showing how an HRM system can foster two essential properties for the resilience process to unfold effectively over time after the onset of a crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).