Exploring the antecedents of organizational resilience practices – A transactive memory systems approach

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to explore individual- and firm-level antecedents of the ability of a manufacturing firm's personnel to collaborate and integrate knowledge for organizational resilience practices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply hierarchical regression analysis to study a sample of 192 European industrial equipment manufacturers. Data for each firm are collected from surveys of two key informants in each firm, as well as from public sources.FindingsFirms' personnel’s ability to integrate information and knowledge for organizational resilience practices was positively related with the extent of the head of manufacturing's network of personal contacts inside the firm. This effect was stronger in firms with more formalized job descriptions and clearly defined roles. The head of manufacturing's orientation to teamwork and cooperation impacted this ability only in firms that did not financially incentivize cooperation. The authors also found that cooperation incentives and role formalization directly relate to firms' personnel’s ability to integrate information and knowledge for organizational resilience practices.Originality/valueThe study proposes to study organizational resilience practices through a transactive memory systems lens. The study is also the first to link characteristics of individual managers to firm-level resilience practices by examining the antecedents of firms' ability to integrate information and knowledge to recover from operational disruptions. Furthermore, the study serves to enhance the knowledge of resilience practices by examining the role of firm-level antecedents and their interplay with characteristics of individual managers.

Strategic Management of Organizational Resilience (SMOR): a Framework Proposition

“…Our review indicates a considerable increase in the number of empirical studies in the last five years. These propose processes to enhance and improve organizational resilience, as well as adopting a proactive perspective, based on past learning, process innovation, redundancy, flexibility, financial and relational reserves, and metrics that identify potential risks (Andrew, Arlikatti, Siebeneck, Pongponrat, & Jaikampan, 2016;Burnard et al, 2018;Cotta & Salvador, 2020;Păunescu & Mátyus, 2020;Sawalha, 2015;Su & Linderman, 2016).…”

Operations adding value to society

“…Apart from the use of tangible resources such as additional inventory, capacity, and assets; the study highlights the importance of intangible ones such as the investment of management time and knowledge acquisition to reduce uncertainties related to the disruption. Cotta and Salvador (2020) on the other hand, focus on more operational aspects of organisational resilience in their article "Exploring the antecedents of organizational resilience practices -a transactive memory systems approach". Apart from investigating the antecedents of resilience practices, they further combine these with the individual characteristics of managers (heads of manufacturing) to understand their decisions when faced with operational disruptions.…”

“…Cotta and Salvador (2020) on the other hand, focus on more operational aspects of organisational resilience in their article “Exploring the antecedents of organizational resilience practices – a transactive memory systems approach”. Apart from investigating the antecedents of resilience practices, they further combine these with the individual characteristics of managers (heads of manufacturing) to understand their decisions when faced with operational disruptions.…”

Organisational resilience in the COVID-19: A case study from China

“…Furthermore, the existing literature on organisational resilience mostly focuses on corporate practices in Western developed countries (Cotta and Salvador, 2020;Kim, 2020), and fewer studies consider China's unique situation in organisational resilience research. Therefore, exploring organisational resilience in the Chinese management context is of both theoretical and practical significance.…”

“…As the background for these times, volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity have become the consensus norm of global change (Li, 2020 ), and some argue that the production, operation and living environment of enterprises are more unpredictable than ever before (Fan & Tian, 2019 ). Furthermore, the existing literature on organisational resilience mostly focuses on corporate practices in Western developed countries (Cotta & Salvador, 2020 ; Kim, 2020 ), and fewer studies consider China's unique situation in organisational resilience research. Therefore, exploring organisational resilience in the Chinese management context is of both theoretical and practical significance.…”