Organizational resilience as paradox management: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

The study of organizational resilience has gained considerable attention in the past two decades owing to the dynamic nature of the business landscape. Researchers converge on the need for organizations to build resilience capacities that enable them to anticipate, cope with and recover from unexpected events and adversities. Resilience has been understood as the ability of organizations to anticipate, survive and thrive through shocks. This study aims to further our understanding of the resilience literature through a systematic review of 25 articles from selected databases of EBSCO host, Scopus and Web of Science. It aimed to glean insights from the organizational resilience literature by adopting a paradox perspective and locate a meaningful intersection of past literature. Towards this end, the studies included in the review are critically examined for indications of paradoxical tensions within discussing the processes of resilience. More than half of the records reviewed (61%) involve opposite but interrelated demands or paradox elements in their processual conceptualization of resilience suggesting a view of the resilience process as paradox management. Future research might merit from the empirical investigation of the link between paradox mindsets/capabilities and resilience process in different contexts and varied levels of analysis.