Workforce Resilience: Integrative Review for Human Resource Development

Abstract

Resilience is a concept of growing interest in the modern workplace. Multiple stakeholders, including policy makers, organizational leaders, human‐resource professionals, and employees discuss resilience as an essential element needed to effectively deal with unexpected and mind‐boggling changes that riddle the current workplace. These collective interests are commonly known as workforce resilience. However, there is a lack of consensus as to what causes and entails workforce resilience as well as how to best address the issue for leaders and employees alike. By comparing disciplinary perspectives of resilience and reviewing empirical studies, this study identifies core elements and drivers of workforce resilience in the context of organizational and human resource development. This study also clarifies how workforce resilience should incorporate policies and strategies at the societal and organizational levels together with organizational human‐resource interventions.

Resilience in Times of Global Pandemic: Steering Recovery and Thriving Trajectories

“…While acute stressors such as natural disasters normally elicit trauma responses, the recovery trajectories that follow are contingent on initial appraisals of the stressor and of the existing resources to cope with it. Scholars have recently suggested that individual appraisals of an acute stressor and its impact are likely disaster‐specific, domain‐specific, and the upshot of personal, social, and broader contextual factors (Bader et al, 2019; Fisher et al, 2019; Lim et al, 2020; Yao & Hsieh, 2019). For instance, an individual may perceive a global financial crisis as presenting a very different level of personal risk compared to an earthquake or a disease outbreak, and feel better equipped to deal with or even capitalise on one of these events compared to the others.…”

“…Recent scholarly works offer systematic, multilevel descriptions of resilience‐promoting resources, spanning team, organisational, and extraorganisational levels of analysis (e.g., Hartmann et al, 2020; Hartwig, Clarke, Johnson, & Willis, 2020; Lim et al, 2020). The resources most frequently cited as resilience‐promoting factors that develop capability and effectively address psychosocial risks include teamwork quality, a learning culture, participation in decision‐making, flexibility, role clarity, ongoing feedback, clear organisational communications, peer and leadership support, and developmental opportunities (e.g., Cooke, Cooper, Bartram, Wang, & Mei, 2019; Kuntz et al, 2017; Lim et al, 2020). Carvalho and Areal (2016) submitted a longitudinal analysis of the financial performance of organisations dubbed “best places to work”.…”

“…Mounting evidence, including the interview findings outlined, indicates that organisations that provide resources that match role and contextual demands effectively manage stress and steer recovery and thriving resilience trajectories in the aftermath of a major disaster (Tonkin, Malinen, Näswall, & Kuntz, 2018). The literature also suggests that the subjective experience of an acute stressor and of the resources available in the organisation determines subsequent behavioural responses, including resource utilisation, and may play a crucial role in facilitating positive resilience trajectories (Fisher et al, 2019; Lim et al, 2020). While some individuals perceive disasters that interfere with personal and work domains solely as events that introduce threats to wellbeing (e.g., technostress), others may also detect opportunities for change and growth (e.g., a chance to upskill tech competencies and increase efficiencies at work).…”

“…The extant evidence suggests that resilient organisations steer a thriving trajectory because they pre‐emptively build resilience capability, and subsequently engage in agile risk and resource management to ensure employees are well set to take advantage of opportunities and grow through a crisis (Lim et al, 2020). Hence, resilient organisations have preparedness factors that support recovery trajectories in the aftermath of a major disaster, and bank on this inherent resilience capability to explore avenues of innovation and flow into thriving trajectories (Nilakant et al, 2016).…”

“…Hence, resilient organisations have preparedness factors that support recovery trajectories in the aftermath of a major disaster, and bank on this inherent resilience capability to explore avenues of innovation and flow into thriving trajectories (Nilakant et al, 2016). The literature outlines a plethora of evidence‐based initiatives, practices, and systems linked to inherent resilience capability, including wellbeing and resilience interventions (Tonkin et al, 2018; Vanhove et al, 2016), strengths‐based competency development (Brunetto et al, 2019; van Woerkom, Bakker, & Nishii, 2016), ongoing feedback and recognition (Heath et al, 2020), learning cultures (Malik & Garg, 2017; Walker et al, 2020), agile leadership (Badu et al, 2020; Cooke et al, 2019; Kaiser, 2020), clear and supportive communications (Brooks et al, 2019; Meneghel et al, 2016), and technology infrastructure that supports effective knowledge management and social interactions (Charalampous et al, 2019; Lim et al, 2020). When these factors are in place, managers are better able to identify the risks linked to the crisis at hand, and to develop resources that uniquely fit its demands and constraints.…”