Sensemaking and Resilience for Human Resources in Crises: Lessons From Crisis-Purposed Organizations

Abstract

Reviewing the best practices in crisis-purposed organizations is useful to help organizations better react to crises. The purpose of this research is to use the COVID-19 pandemic to better understand sensemaking and resilience by carefully studying crisis-purposed organizations for insights. We find that labor market myopia interferes with an organization's crisis response. An organization may overcome labor market myopia by leveraging HR strategies that emphasize agility and resilience and by adapting to technological changes. We focus on military special operations as the primary example of crisis-purposed organizations, but also refer to wildfire fighters and other emergency responders. These organizations differ in how they recruit and qualify participants, but they all suggest approaches for organizations whose primary focus is something other than crises, but who will face crises in any event.

How COVID-19 Changed the Field of Human Resource Management

“…Employees were impacted differently by the pandemic, and these differences were present in employees' financial, social, technological, and family support needs (Daniels et al, 2022, p. 196). Rich et al (2022), state, "The pandemic has significantly increased the amount of stress and anxiety for workers. In addition to the direct stressors induced by health concerns associated with COVID-19, many workers are facing challenging, ambiguous, conflicting, and often unreasonable job demands.…”

“…According to Baker (2021), "The pandemic has increased the trend of employers playing an expanded role in their employees' financial, physical and mental well-being". Rich et al (2022), state, "Employees will likely require more emotional support from their employers in general, and organizations need to focus on the mental health and well-being of their employees" (p. 87).…”

“…Researchers have noted this transition. Many organizations did not consider Human Resources as a strategic function before the COVID-19 pandemic (Rich et al, 2022). Farshchi (2020) notes that before the pandemic, some dismissed the Human Resource function as merely hiring, firing and compliance, "Now, Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) have become linchpins in how businesses respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic" (p. 1).…”