Assessing organizational resilience: an interactionist approach

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of organizational resilience in a structural context marked by complexity, change and distribution of activities between interdependent occupational groups. We adopt an interactionist approach, relying mostly on the works of E.C. Hughes and A. Strauss to show how articulation within and between groups can affect the achievement of organizational goals (safety and production) in the face of unexpected events. The paper is based on an empirical study of teams involved in major modernization projects of the rail transport system and facing critical, risky and very constrained work situations. Our empirical results describe in depth the nature of arrangements and negotiations made within and between occupational groups to articulate the work. We show how organizational conditions affect these arrangements and finally the resilience of the project organization and groups within it. We then discuss our results in four main points, aiming to give a more general scope to our results. Our first two points demonstrate how professional rivalries and asymmetric relations lead to a displacement in organizational goals and affect resilience. Our third point assesses the role and the limits of both informal and formal arrangements in articulation and resilience. We finally show how adopting an interactionist perspective questions the notion of resilience for an organization as a whole.

Aligning Organizational Pathologies and Organizational Resilience Indicators

“…Despite there is not a widely and accepted definition of organizational resilience, we agree with the authors that consider organizational resilience as an ability, capacity or capability to deal with disruptive events (Mallak, 1997;Hamel and Valikangas, 2003;Starr et al, 2003;Sheffi and Rice Jr., 2005;Jackson, 2007;Tillement et al, 2009;Hollnagel, 2010;LengnickHall et al, 2011;Manyena, 2006;Annarelli and Nonino, 2016;Linnenluecke et al, 2012).…”

What we know and do not know about organizational resilience

“…For example, resilience can be related to surviving or adapting to: disruptions (Bell, 2002;Horne III & Orr, 1998;Lengnick-Hall et al, 2011;, disasters or catastrophic events ; (Alblas & Jayaram, 2015); challenging conditions (Sutcliffe & Vogus, 2003;Vogus & Sutcliffe, 2007); disturbances (Hollnagel, 2010;Mamouni Limnios et al, 2014;Tillement et al, 2009); threats Dewald & Bowen, 2010) or changes (Fiksel, 2006;Mafabi et al, 2015;. However, some authors consider that these changes can also be opportunities (Ates & Bititci, 2011;Bhamidipaty et al, 2007;Dewald & Bowen, 2010), and resilient organizations take advantage of these opportunities.…”

Images Of Resilience: The Resilience Analysis Grid Applicable At Several Organizational Levels?

“…Resilience at recursive system levels of viable systems (Wreathall, 2008;Hollnagel et al, 2011) needs active coordination across all levels, activities and roles. Other authors (Størseth, 2009;Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001;Tillement et al, 2009) also point out the relevance of intra-and inter-organizational relationships and dynamics (mindfulness, success factors for resilience, communication, situational awareness, decision support and continuous workflow). Cooperating teams in the primary process need support from coordination and communication structures, which requires a higher levels of organization (Cornelissen et al, 2010), see figure 2.…”