Global Engineering Solutions Review

This literature review examines how Resilience Engineering principles can be combined with the Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), to ensure an adaptive HRM approach to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) working in a volatile environment, specifically in Saudi Arabia. SMEs, which constitute more than 99 % of all the private firms, have been greatly affected in the view of the Saudi Vision 2030 and the economic reforms that are being taken to revive the economy of the nation, such as labor localization (Saudization), shortage of talent, changes in regulations and shocks to the market. Resilience Engineering serves as an example of safety-critical industries that form the basis of an adaptability, anticipation, and robustness framework that can be strategically used within HR systems. The review critically assesses the empirical evidence of employee resilience, resilient HR practices, theory on dynamic capabilities according to the role of HR in promoting agility in the workforce, psychological capital, proactive crisis management. It highlights the research literature-gap in SHRM-resilience integration in the Arab SME setting, the literature contains few works, either longitudinal activities or studies focusing on the region. The scope of the study is to propose a conceptual framework that would integrate resilience throughout the employee cycle, as well as congruent with cultural and institutional realities of Saudi SMEs. The review concludes with research gaps including the absence of standardized measures of resilience and the paucity of empirical work on resilience and HRM within the GCC context which is only a starting point of future inquiry and practice with regard to strategic HR management in the context of resilience.