Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Some organisations prosper during extreme crisis events, whereas others never recover. \nExtant scholarship on organisational resilience development does not address how \norganisations develop adaptive resilience during extreme crisis events. This research study \ninvestigated how adaptive resilience – as a type of resilience on a spectrum of organisational \nresilience – developed in response to an extreme crisis event, namely the COVID-19 \npandemic. \nA multiple case study qualitative research design was used to investigate a complex, \nmultifaceted phenomenon in a real-life context. Thirty interviews were conducted with \nexecutive leaders from five different organisations to gather data on adaptive resilience \ndevelopment. \nFindings from the research indicate that organisations that develop specific organisational \nresilience capacities are able to adapt and thrive in a new organisational reality. The capacity \nto adapt or thrive is defined as adaptive resilience, conceptualised as a dynamic, socially \nconstructed process of developing positive organisational adaptation and growth triggered by \na disruptive crisis event. \nThree intertwined microprocesses for the development of adaptive resilience were identified, \nnamely shared sense-making, relational capital, and collective problem-solving. It is proposed \nthat adaptive resilience is collectively developed before, during, and after an extreme crisis \nevent and that adaptive resilience becomes salient in a crisis. \nThe study’s findings contribute to scholarship and business practice. Concerning scholarship, \nthe study contributes to organisational resilience theory by conceptualising the development \nof adaptive resilience through its microprocesses, which is limited in literature. In a world of \nunanticipated crises, organisations must develop resilience to cope with adversity. From a \nbusiness practice perspective, this research offers concrete, practical processes for the \ncollective development of adaptive resilience before, during, and after a crisis event.
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6979739592