Employee–organization relationships as drivers of organizational resilience: A micro-foundational perspective

Abstract

Resilience has become a defining capability for organizations operating in increasingly turbulent, resource-constrained, and high-stakes environments. While scholars widely acknowledge the central role of employees in shaping resilient responses, the relational conditions that enable individual resilience to translate into organizational resilience remain insufficiently theorized. Drawing on relational perspectives and the dynamic capabilities framework, this study investigates how the quality of employee–organization relationships, captured through trust, mutual control, relational satisfaction, and commitment, affects both employee resilience and organizational resilience. We further assess whether these relationships amplify the contribution of employee resilience to the organization’s overall adaptive capacity. Using data from 90 employees in public hospitals, a context characterized by structural complexity, continuous strain, and tightly coupled work systems, we test a conceptual model via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results indicate that employee resilience significantly enhances organizational resilience and that high-quality employee–organization relationships exert strong direct effects on both constructs. However, these relationships do not moderate the employee-to-organization resilience link. We interpret this finding in light of institutional constraints and professional logics prevalent in public healthcare settings, where relational dynamics operate independently of managerial discretion. The study advances the literature by elucidating the specific relational conditions that support resilience at multiple levels and by challenging assumptions about their moderating role in complex public organizations.