Psychological Safety as the Missing Link: A Conceptual Framework Linking Digital Human Resource Management (HRM) Practices to Employee Engagement in UK Higher Education

Background: Despite the investment made by UK HEIs in digitally mediated HRM‚ staff engagement in the sector continues to fall․ This paper proposes a qualifying condition on which most studies failing to find an increase in engagement for digital HRM rest‚ a mediator (psychological safety) of the digital HRM or engagement relationship․
Methods and findings: The study brings together the existing literature on digital HRM‚ psychological safety and employee engagement to consider the impact of psychological safety on employee engagement in the UK HE․ It is among the few studies that explicitly argue in favour of the psychological safety hypothesis‚ as opposed to the job demands-resources model‚ social exchange theory‚ perceived organizational support and organizational trust․The study presents four propositions‚ with boundaries‚ that can translate arguments into an empirical research agenda․
Conclusion: Digital HRM does not produce engaged employees automatically. Practices that are experienced as transparent, equitable, and empowering contribute to greater psychological safety and employee engagement, whereas those perceived as surveillance-driven or coercive diminish these outcomes.

Human resource management, digital HRM‚ psychological safety‚ employee engagement‚ higher education‚ digital transformation‚ artificial intelligence in HRM

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