The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global crisis affecting the work and partially the existence of businesses, governments, administrations and nonprofit organizations (NPOs). The latter not only faced severe challenges themselves, but also play(ed) a major role in fighting the pandemic, especially those offering services in social and health care. Maintaining service delivery under pandemic conditions to serve the often vital needs of clients requires (organizational) resilience. This concept generally relates to the ability to withstand adversity, to adapt in a turbulent environment and respond to (disruptive) change. Based on a qualitative content analysis of 33 interviews with nonprofit executives, this paper explores the impact of the pandemic on Austrian NPOs active in health and social care in terms of contextual challenges faced. Our study contributes to (nonprofit) resilience research and extreme context research literature as it illustrates how NPOs coped with this disruptive extreme context. Our findings show which resilience mechanisms (i.e. all kinds of resilient behavior, resources and capabilities) were helpful in overcoming pandemic challenges and getting through these hard times.

Dynamic capability research increasingly seeks to identify mechanisms founding dynamic capabilities because this microfoundation provides options for influencing the application of dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities in turn support organizations to achieve continuous organizational change. We pursue deeper insight into the microfounding mechanisms of dynamic capabilities with regard to management-related variables. Survey data from hot spots of refugee crisis 2016 all across Austria allow us to examine how managerial mechanisms on microlevel and dynamic capabilities on macro-level are linked and particularly how managers can influence the application of dynamic capabilities. Data evaluation is based on mediation analysis. Study reveals that participative leadership fosters dynamic capabilities of NPOs active in refugee aid. Further, we provide evidence that the manager´s perception, how self-determined he/she is and how impactful his/her actions are, enhances the application of dynamic capabilities.

Disaster management research increasingly focuses on how to collaborate with emergent volunteers in order to support formal disaster agents in the nonprofit sector (Whittaker et al. in Int J Disaster Risk Reduct 13:358-368, 2015; Strandh and Eklund in J Conting Crisis Manag 26(3):1-9, 2017). In a disaster context, we regard emergent collaboration between these agents as an appropriate approach for structured self-organization (Simsa et al. in Nonprofit Volunt Sector Q, 2018. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0899764018785472) and hence for providing sustainable disaster relief. Our research seeks to identify which factors facilitate such emerging collaborative efforts. Using survey data from Austrian refugee migration in 2015/2016, we examine how social capital components affect the collaborative efforts between nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and emerging volunteers on a team level. Data evaluation is based on regression analysis. We provide empirical evidence that social capital components like 'avoidance of misunderstanding' and 'interaction frequency' enhance the collaborative efforts between NPOs and emergent volunteers. Furthermore, the study highlights the roles of 'emotional intensity' and 'intimacy' in collaborative disaster relief performance.

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It increasingly solidifies in research that both vertical and shared leadership are necessary for coping with extreme contexts (Vessey & Landon, 2017; Gibson et al., 2015; Hannah et al., 2009) but corresponding research is still in its infancy. Thus, we explore these two leadership types related to team performance in extreme contexts, illustrated by European refugee crisis in Austria. Methodologically, the paper draws on a sequential explanatory design of a mixed-method-study consisting of a mediation analysis and a qualitative study based on 57 problem centered interviews of relief teams in refugee camps all over Austria. Findings show that both leadership types are important to ensure team performance in extreme contexts. On the basis of clear condition and goals provided by vertical leadership, shared leadership in its mediating role enables the necessary common understandings, synchronized actions, flexibility, and trust to deal with the challenges.