The Role of HRM in Building Resilience: The Relationality Imperative in Times of War

ABSTRACT The increase in natural and manmade disasters around the world in which organizations need to operate has brought the concept of organizational resilience to the forefront. To understand the role that HRM can play in fostering resilience in extreme contexts, we adopt a resource‐based lens through the conservation of resources theory, to explore how organizations protected, gained, and retained employees as their most valuable resources in the face of the extreme context of war. Specifically, we investigated the underlying mechanisms that allowed organizations operating in the extreme context of the Syrian civil war, to increase their and their employees' resilience through their HR departments. Using a qualitative interpretive approach based on the narratives of HR managers and employees working in Syria during the civil war, we explore the role of HRM in building individual and organizational resilience. Our findings point to two mechanisms that HR departments relied on to protect resources and acquire new ones. First, HR departments adopted relationality practices, enacted by their managers, focused on investing in employees' psychological capital and wellbeing. Second, HR departments leveraged technology for recruitment and training purposes to attract and develop employees. Additionally, the extreme context characterized by scarce resources may have triggered the “strategification” of HR departments and transformed them, into strategic partners playing a critical role in their respective organizations' survival. We contribute to the literature on organizational resilience by highlighting the important relational role HRM can play to foster individual and subsequently organizational resilience.