The literature on resilience has focused predominantly on the consequences of resilience for the resilient individuals themselves. Yet, current theorizing on workplace events suggests that the disruptive and critical nature of demonstrating resilience is likely to draw the attention of other employees. We explore these interpersonal dynamics surrounding resilience by developing and testing a model that delves into the consequences of employees observing their coworkers' resilience. Our model is rooted in Affective Events Theory, proposing that the multiplex nature of resilience drives both positive (inspiration) and negative (anxiety) emotional repercussions for observers, and that these emotions have downstream consequences for the observer’s attitudes (stress mindset) and behavior (adaptive performance). Using a combination of lab and field studies, we find that observing resilience elicits feelings of inspiration, but that it can also draw out feelings of anxiety when the observer perceives themselves as being dissimilar to the resilient individual. In turn, these feelings of inspiration and anxiety were associated with the observer having a more, or less, positive attitude toward stress, respectively, which ultimately influenced their adaptive performance in the workplace. We discuss how our research provides a rich avenue for future research on the social dynamics surrounding employee resilience.
