Employee Experience Capital and Organizational Performance: An Integrated Framework for Understanding Workplace Resource Systems in Digitally Transformed Organizations

Contemporary organizations face the complex challenge of integrating diverse workplace resources—spanning digital tools, inclusive practices, sustainability initiatives, and well-being programs—into coherent systems that simultaneously support employee flourishing and organizational effectiveness. This theoretical paper develops the concept of Employee Experience Capital (EEC), defined as the integrated configuration of organizational resources that shape employees' holistic work experiences and generate sustainable competitive advantage. Drawing on Job Demands–Resources theory and the Resource-Based View of the firm, this paper identifies seven illustrative dimensions of EEC—digital autonomy, psychological safety climate, sustainability alignment, human–AI collaboration, restorative work design, learning climate, and well-being support systems—and provides systematic theoretical justification for their selection based on Self-Determination Theory's basic psychological needs framework. The paper proposes that EEC influences organizational performance through two empirically distinguishable mediating pathways: work meaningfulness (a cognitive-evaluative pathway) and experienced vitality (an affective-energetic pathway). Specific propositions predict which EEC dimensions more strongly affect each pathway. The framework advances theory by demonstrating how ostensibly disparate organizational practices function as an integrated resource system with emergent properties. The paper acknowledges boundary conditions, engages with competing theoretical perspectives, and discusses potential tensions and dark sides of EEC dimensions. Implications for research methodology and organizational practice are discussed.