Investigating the Impact of Organizational Resilience and Turnover in U.S. Local Governments: the Mediating Effect of Strategic Human Resources Management Practices

Abstract

Research on resilience has mainly focused on crisis, or disaster management. However, more recently the concept of resilience has emerged into management research and organization studies, with scholars examining how organizations can prepare for the daily challenges that come with an ever changing and complex environment, thrive and capitalize on change, and uncertainty. Against the challenges that come with change and a complex environment, organizations are looking for means to maintain staff performance, ensure high performance and employee wellbeing. Resilient organizations manage the everyday stressors, and help employees learn, adapt and bounce back from setbacks. Organizations should therefore proactively prepare for future challenges and change, and continuously review policies and practices to create positive and efficient work environments. What is largely missing from studies is the examination of organizational level resilience, and particularly the role that human resource management can play in attaining organizational outcomes. This research investigates organizational resilience and its impact on turnover in U.S. local governments, and the mediating effect of Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) practices. A survey questionnaire was distributed to HR Directors in U.S. cities’ to determine organizational resilience, application of strategic human resources management practices, and employee turnover rate in 2018 in selected cities. The research adopted the Resilience Benchmark Survey developed by Resilient Organizations (2012) which is a tool that measures organizational resilience by the leadership and culture, networks and relationships, and change readiness. From the structural equation (SEM) results, leadership and change readiness were negatively associated with turnover in U.S. cities, and the mediating effect of the three SHRM practices showed both positive and negative relationship with turnover. The findings from this research will help advance the existing literature and improve our understanding of organizational resilience and the role of strategic human resources practices on employee turnover. The research findings have significant implications for HRM practitioners and researchers, for example, HR practitioners that attend to factors that contribute to organizational resilience create an organization’s adaptive capacity for a range of day-to-day challenges in an ever- changing environment