Coping with COVID-19 – Which Resilience Mechanisms Enabled Austrian Nonprofit Organizations to Weather the Pandemic Storm?

Abstract

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.

Financial management of the Savings and Credit Cooperative in periods of uncertainty

“…No obstante ello, se ha encontrado que las entidades empresariales pueden adaptarse a las adversidades propias de una crisis. Se requiere, entre otros factores, contar con líderes que de manera dinámica y proactiva reconstituyan la organización, reajusten sus políticas y procedimientos operativos, agilicen la toma de decisiones y que éstas se ejecuten de forma eficiente [20]. Se reconoce entonces que, a pesar de los impactos negativos, las situaciones de emergencia y desastres permiten un margen de oportunidades que debe aprovecharse para el aprendizaje y crecimiento organizacional [21].…”

“…Evidencia pues, que la gestión referida a la evaluación en el otorgamiento de los créditos y su posterior recuperación mediante la cobranza no es eficiente y se constituyen en debilidades que, en una situación de crisis extrema, se potencian. Así, además de los factores determinantes antes indicados, para superar con éxito periodos críticos, también es necesario reforzar las habilidades del capital humano [36], reajustar las políticas de gestión y la organización para adaptarse de manera proactiva al nuevo contexto [20].…”

Nonprofit governance in times of Covid-19: should organizations change their practices and strategy in the middle of a crisis?

“…In analyzing the resilience of arts and cultural NPOs, Herrero and Kraemer (2022) mention their associated capabilities, while Plaisance (2022c) emphasizes that governance difficulties prevented NPOs from adapting to the crisis. Stötzer et al (2022) expand on this by framing leaders and governance as resilience mechanisms. More recently, Esteves et al (2023) explore the role of “crisis leadership competencies” in developing strategies to ensure the viability and sustainability of NPOs.…”

“…There is a consensus in the recent literature that governance is one of the first levers to be activated to manage these issues and be able to rebound (Esteves et al , 2023; Huang, 2022; McMullin and Raggo, 2020). We already know that governance matters in crisis management (Marx and Davis, 2012) and, in the case of the pandemic, good governance leads to flexibility and adaptability (Plaisance, 2022a; Stötzer et al , 2022). However, there is little evidence about the flexibility and adaptability strategies that leaders might follow to survive the crisis.…”

Resilience: A Critical Appraisal of the State of Research for Business and Society

“…NPOs are different from many other organizations since they are strongly mission driven. Stötzer et al (2022) shed light on how NPOs were coping with disruptive extreme context and which mechanisms they developed in order to maintain service delivery to serve the vital needs of clients. Based on a qualitative content analysis interviewing nonprofit executives, the paper explores the impact of the pandemic on Austrian NPOs active in health and social care in terms of contextual challenges faced.…”