A system uses a transaction manager for supporting resource enlistment synchronization on an application server with a plurality of threads. This system also includes a plurality of wrapper objects, each of which wrapper object wraps a resource object associated with the application server. Upon receiving a request from a thread to enlist a resource object in a transaction, the transaction manager first checks with a wrapper object that wraps the resource object to see if there is a lock being held on the resource object by another said thread in another said transaction. If there is a lock, the transaction manager allows the thread to wait and signal the thread once the lock is freed by another said thread in another said transaction. Otherwise, the transaction manager grants a lock to the thread and holds the lock until an owner of the thread delists the resource object.