Digital transformation is imperative for organizations to adapt to the digital era and gain new competitive advantages. Given the pivotal role of employees, it is particularly crucial to internalize organizational strategic intentions into employees' cognition and behavior. Recognizing the influential role of human resource management (HRM) in shaping employee cognition and behavior, we deployed HR attribution theory and conducted a two-stage survey involving 110 senior managers and 682 employees from 110 enterprises undergoing digital transformation to examine the impact mechanism and boundary conditions of digital HRM on employee reactions to change. The study reveals that digital HRM influences employee reactions to change through HR attributions. Paradoxical leadership not only moderates the relationship between digital HRM and employees' HR attributions, but also moderates the indirect effects of digital HRM on employee reactions to change through HR attributions. This study not only broadens the understanding of the mechanisms and boundary conditions related to the influence of digital HRM on employees' cognition and behavioral responses, but also provides new insights for managers to seek inspiring employees' bottom-up supportive behaviors toward organizational digital transformation.
