The mediating role of <scp>HRM</scp> outcomes in the relationship between employee development and company performance results: A study with a sustainable <scp>HRM</scp> perspective on Central European <scp>MNCs</scp>

Abstract The main goal of the article is to determine the mediating role of human resources management (HRM) outcomes in the relationships between employee development (ED) and company performance results and to establish whether there are any identifiable regularities in this scope in the pre‐pandemic and pandemic period of COVID‐19, the latter being understood as a crisis period, in the headquarters (HQs) and foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs). Additionally, the article aims to undertake an interpretation of the obtained research data from the perspective of sustainable HRM. The empirical research encompassed 200 MNCs with headquarters in Central Europe. The research encompassed 200 MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. For statistical analysis, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling was used. The results indicate that HRM outcomes serve as a positive intermediary and this mediation is stronger in crisis times. The findings enrich both theory and practice, providing a solid framework for incorporating sustainable HRM into organizational strategic management, including ED, especially in MNCs, to boost performance and resilience. An innovative aspect is the application of employee key performance indicators as the efficiency index to study variable effects.