Relationship of professional identity and efficacy of Chinese public university lecturers under the appointment system in sustainable human resource management

For Chinese university lecturers, implementing sustainable human resource management (SHRM) is particularly critical. China's higher education is going through an essential stage of appointment system reform aiming to overturn the traditional civil service status of university lecturers and introduce a more flexible work and talent management mechanism to universities to international teaching standards; lecturers also raise concerns about their professional role, educational mission, balance of rights and interests, and the reshaping of the evaluation system. Based on the resource-based perspective and psychological contract theory, this study aimed to explore the relationship between sustainable human resource management (SHRM) and lecturers' professional identity in the context of China's appointment system, focusing on analyzing the moderating role of lecturers' self-efficacy. This study used a quantitative research approach to collect survey data from 610 lecturers at public colleges and universities in China. The data were analyzed with a structural equation model to test the hypothesized relationships. SHRM was directly and positively related to lecturers' self-efficacy and sense of professional identity and indirectly improved sense of professional identity by enhancing self-efficacy. The findings are consistent with existing literature, emphasize the importance of SHRM in promoting lecturers' career development, and provide empirical support for applying SHRM in the context of Chinese higher education. The study provides recommendations in three dimensions: Government, University, and Faculty. It provides guidance for strategic reform of human resource management in higher education, faculty career development, and improving education quality.