I love the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. The resilience
portrayed in that movie is a real depiction of the human capacity to overcome.
Personal resilience is the ability to endure hardship, to adapt to changes, and
to recover from trying situations[1].
It can be summarised in the context of four concepts namely: determination, endurance, adaptability and
recuperability [2].
Resilience is something that is
developed in all of us over time, and in most cases due to circumstances we
didn’t anticipate, or didn’t bring on ourselves. As individuals we are
constantly exposed to the risk of personal disruptions, and there are countless
scenarios that can cause major disruptions in our lives. As a country we are
exposed to the disruptions forced on us by our decision makers, and we are also
exposed to the decisions of other countries. As organisations, we face all of
the above mentioned disruptions as well as disruptions within markets and technology
etc. For all of this we must develop resilience so that we can move past the
point of just surviving, and press into growth and accomplishment.
Organisational resilience is a
pre-requisite of firm’s performance and innovation[3].
Organisational resilience should include all pillars of business itself, from
the individual to groups, systems, operations, physical material properties,
supply chain management, strategy, and innovation. It speaks to the ability of
these elements to weather systematic disruptions, but also their ability to
respond to new risk environments[4].
The resilience of an organisation depends on the availability and accessibility
of resources, as well as the organisation’s formal structures[5].
While strict processes and controls might work in times of stability, major
disruptions might require greater flexibility in order to survive[6].
If an organisation is not able to practically apply policies and procedures
during a fast moving crisis then these plans are rendered useless[7].
What a company therefore needs, is to develop an inherent resilience that can
support a quick response to large scale change during turbulent times[8].
People are still the driving force
of organisations and therefore a critical contributor to the total resilience[9].
When aggregated, these individual characteristics form the compositions of the
organisation[10].
Research also shows that while the characteristics of an individual speaks to potential for resilience, the combined characteristics
of a densely networked team, where openness and innovation is supported by the
organisation, allows these groups to tap into their collective resources,
process information, detect disruptions quickly, make sense of it, respond and
prevent it from spreading[11].
Relating to Figure 1 below, an organisation
must build their capacity to: ‘investigate,
to learn, and to act without knowing in advance what one will be called to act
upon’[12].
The ability to identify or detect disruptions and to take action is key in
organisational resilience, as well as creating proactive habits and having
effective feedback mechanisms[13].
Is the organisation learning? Some studies have shown that practical proactive habits
and behavioural preparedness in an organisation shows a positive association
with product innovativeness[14].
Innovating products reconciles the gap between the resilience capacity of an
organisation and the organisation’s performance[15].
In a behavioural context, you can
allow people to engage in disciplined creativity (learn resourcefulness),
increase their ability to respond to a drastic change in the course of action
(unscripted agility), increase their ability to take action before it is
needed, and steer away from over-learned and repetitive routines in crucial
departments[16].
Figure 1:Resilience
response framework (Burnard & Bharma, 2011)
In order to increase the
flexibility and resilience of your organisation, you can have a look at increasing
the following[17]:
- Decentralised decision making. Disruptions require organisations to adapt to decentralised decision-making so that the organisation can increase its responsiveness[18];
- Lower levels of formalisation. Case studies related to organisational resilience show that formal bureaucratic structures impede creativity and the adaptive behaviours necessary to be resilient[19];
- A higher degree of absorbency between different organisational boundaries or functions; and
- Establishments of collaborative partnerships. Many organisations and supply networks are interconnected and therefore they strongly affect the resilience of an organisation[20].
At workpoints we work to enable
organisations to facilitate these changes in behaviour. Using our platform,
organisations can emphasise, reward and acknowledge the key behaviours that
will lead to greater organisational resilience.
Estée is part of our Behavioural Specialist team here at Workpoints. She is our keen researcher, our problem-solver and our number one sports star.
Workpoints is a fully featured reward, recognition and incentives platform that provides you with the tools to create a high performance organisation. Our easy-to-use application integrates simply into any organisation and instantly encourages staff to do the daily grind with excellence and energy.
Visit www.workpoints.co.za for more info and a free trial!
Workpoints is a fully featured reward, recognition and incentives platform that provides you with the tools to create a high performance organisation. Our easy-to-use application integrates simply into any organisation and instantly encourages staff to do the daily grind with excellence and energy.
Visit www.workpoints.co.za for more info and a free trial!
References
Akgün, A. E., &
Keskin, H. (2014). Organisational resilience capacity and firm product
innovativeness and performance. International Journal of Production Research,
7543(September), 1–20. http://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2014.910624
Burnard, K., &
Bhamra, R. (2011). Organisational resilience: development of a conceptual
framework for organisational responses. International Journal of Production
Research, 49(18), 5581–5599.
http://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2011.563827
Taormina, R. J. (2015).
Adult personal resilience: A new theory, new measure, and practical
implications. Psychological Thought, 8(1), 35–46.
http://doi.org/10.5964/psyct.v8i1.126
Van der Vegt, G. .,
Essen, P., Wahlstrom, M., & George, G. (2015). Managing Risk and
Resilience. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 971–980.
http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6803.1979.tb00010.x
[1]
(Taormina, 2015)
[2]
(Taormina, 2015)
[3]
(Akgün & Keskin, 2014)
[4]
(Starr et al, 2003, Crichton et al, 2009 as cited by Burnard
& Bhamra, 2011)
[5]
(Van der Vegt, Essen, Wahlstrom, & George, 2015)
[6]
(Van der Vegt et al., 2015)
[7]
(Seville et all as cited by Burnard & Bhamra,
2011)
[8]
(Burnard & Bhamra, 2011)
[9]
(Van der Vegt et al., 2015)
[10]
(Van der Vegt et al., 2015)
[11]
(Carmeli, Friedman, Tidhler, 2013 as cited by Van der
Vegt et al., 2015)
[12]
(Wildavksy as cited by Akgün & Keskin, 2014. p.
6919)
[13]
(Burnard & Bhamra, 2011)
[14]
(Akgün & Keskin, 2014)
[15]
(Akgün & Keskin, 2014)
[16]
(Lengnick-Hall and Beck 2005; Lengnick-Hall, Beck, and
Lengnick-Hall 2011 as cited by Akgün & Keskin, 2014)
[17]
(Burnard & Bhamra, 2011)
[18]
(Van der Vegt et al., 2015)
[19]
(Van der Vegt et al., 2015)
[20]
(Van der Vegt et al., 2015)
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