Integrating dynamics and agency: A mechanism for HR to enhance sustainable employee wellbeing for the common good

It is widely accepted that employee wellbeing is a pressing concern for HRM. Poor workplace wellbeing bears substantial societal costs; it is one of the roots of grand challenges of wellbeing and decent work. Enhancing sustainable employee wellbeing is therefore a way for HRM to contribute to the common good (CGHRM). There is a lack of understanding of how to practice CGHRM. Furthermore, existing HRM/wellbeing models lack attention to employee agency and fail to fully reflect the dynamics of the workplace. As such, their explanatory value is limited. To address this gap, drawing on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) as a middle-range theory and incorporating insights from multi-disciplinary research, we provide a theoretically grounded account of the explanatory mechanism of reciprocal determinism through which a HRM system of practices shapes sustainable employee wellbeing. Our framework highlights the interplay between the theorized causal mechanisms, CGHRM values and principles and an HRM system of practices, offering a dynamic, socially embedded, and agentic explanation. An applied example of a CGHRM system of practices for wellbeing illustrates the theorized mechanism. Our conceptualization and framework underscore the benefit of middle-range theorizing and a focus on explanatory mechanisms, which are largely overlooked in HRM research to date. We further suggest that middle-range theorizing can advance the field and help bridge the “knowing-versus-doing-gap”.