Unpacking the Mixed Influences of Sustainable Human Resource Management on Employee Resilience: Effects of Challenge–Hindrance Appraisal and Trait Mindfulness

ABSTRACT Grounded on the transactional theory of stress, this study seeks to establish a theoretical framework that simultaneously investigates the benefits and costs of sustainable human resource management (HRM) in developing employee resilience through the parallel paths of challenge–hindrance appraisal. Also, this study investigates the moderation role of trait mindfulness on the sustainable HRM–employee resilience link. We collected three‐wave data from 348 employees in Shenzhen, Changsha, and Wuhan in China. Our results have acknowledged that there are two countervailing pathways linking sustainable HRM to employee resilience: a positive path via challenge appraisal and a negative path via hindrance appraisal. Additionally, we elucidated that trait mindfulness buffers the negative indirect effect of sustainable HRM on employee resilience via hindrance appraisal. Interestingly, we failed to verify the strengthening effect of trait mindfulness on the link between sustainable HRM and challenge appraisal.