Individual Resilience in the Organization in the Face of Crisis: Study of the Concept in the Context of COVID-19

Abstract

In the context of a health crisis of unprecedented magnitude that we have experienced such as COVID-19 we join the efforts of practitioners and researchers to answer the question: ‘What is the organizational context that promotes individual adaptation in a context of adversity?’. Specifically, our research aims to explore organizational practices that promote individual resilience in a COVID-19 crisis situation and in a Tunisian context. Therefore, we believe that the paradigm (resilience in the face of the COVID-19 crisis) and the context (Tunisian) both constitute the originality of our article. Our research contribution consists in demonstrating that the company has a managerial need to strengthen the psychological protective factors of its employees, which will promote their individual resilience in the organization. This necessarily leads it to develop the individual’s defense mechanisms against trauma, psychological reconstruction and post-resilience learning. This modeling of resilience allowed us to observe and recognize it in sixteen Tunisian companies by using a qualitative study based on sixteen semi-structured interviews analyzed by the ‘Nvivo 12’ software in order to explore the functioning of individual resilience in a real organizational context.

Knowledge acquisition and precautionary behaviors for individual resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of rural Latin America

“…Arild and ElvestadAalberg, 2012 , Cato et al, 2020 , Corral-Verdugo et al, 2021 , Hui et al, 2021 , Li et al, 2020 , Mokline and Abdallah, 2021 , Patel et al , Pugno, 2009 , Rebecca et al, 2021 , Robin and Kelly, 2021 , Rosero-Bixby, 2006 , Shiovitz-Ezra and Litwin, 2012 , Souch and Cossman, 2020 , Wang et al, 2019 , Zurab, 2008 .…”

The Mechanisms of Collective Resilience in a Crisis Context: The Case of The ‘COVID-19’ Crisis

“…At the heart of Weick ( 1987 , 1988 , 1993 , 2003 ), reflections on the reliability of organizations is the construction of sense making by individuals and the collective, vigilance and resilience. Organizational resilience means nothing more than to study it through individuals who make up the organization through their collective (Mokline & Ben Abdallah, 2020 ).…”

“…Indeed, despite Tunisia being one of the countries most affected by the health crisis, little research has been carried out on managerial responses to this health crisis (Mansour & Ben Salem, 2020 ). Even the little work done so far on resilience to the Covid-19 crisis is still in an embryonic phase and the quality of their results is still poorly understood (Mokline & Ben Abdallah, 2020 ). In the Tunisian context, we believe that we are the first to research the effect of collective resilience on the ability of companies to cope with the COVID-19 crisis.…”

A Conceptual Model of Adaptive Protective Factors for Migrant Workers

“…Rutter (1987) defines resilience as follows: ‘Individual differences play a beneficial impact in people’s responses to stress and hardship’ (Reis et al, 2004). Resilience is defined as an assessment of protective factors (such as defensive capacities) that allow a theoretical estimate of an individual’s capacity to adapt to and resist psychological stress (Mokline & Ben Abdallah, 2021). ‘The significant protective factors are those that diminish the shock of menace, decrease the possibility of successive reactions, enhance confidence and self-ability, and escort to favourable outcomes’, according to Szerman (2006, p. 23).…”

“…‘The significant protective factors are those that diminish the shock of menace, decrease the possibility of successive reactions, enhance confidence and self-ability, and escort to favourable outcomes’, according to Szerman (2006, p. 23). Variables are connected to the entity and its capital, factors linked to the dynasty surroundings, and factors associated with the extra-domestic social milieu (as well as the firm; Mokline & Ben Abdallah, 2021).…”