Purpose Support from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study establishes growth oriented management (GOM) as a key management capability to support employee growth. It also identifies employee resilience as a mechanism for growth in employees and examines its role in mediating the relationships between GOM and key employee outcomes: wellbeing and work engagement.

Design/methodology/approach This study draws on survey data (n=751) from white-collar employees in Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the study variables.

Findings Findings show GOM influenced wellbeing and work engagement, both directly and indirectly through employee resilience. This reveals more broadly that the unique combination of behaviors that comprise GOM plays a pivotal role in supporting growth-oriented outcomes in employees.

Originality/value This is the first empirical study on the impact of GOM on wellbeing and engagement, as well as on the mediating mechanism of employee resilience in these relationships. GOM is an innovative contribution to scholarship on employee and organizational development, reflecting the changing nature of management, and responding to the increasingly diverse development needs of employees.