Individual and Organizational Resilience: Relationships, Antecedents, and Consequences

Abstract

Resilience in socio-technical systems has a myriad of manifestations and outcomes that are often not made explicit in the literature. This drawback might be a source of misunderstandings and hinder the design of work systems supportive of desirable resilient performance. Two crucially distinctive manifestations refer to individual and organizational resilience. This study presents a model of how these two types relate to each other and how they relate to antecedents and consequences of resilience. To this end, we carried out a case study of freight road transport, emphasizing the truck drivers' perspectives. Data collection included 14 interviews with drivers and managers of logistics operations, in addition to non-participant observations of drivers' workplaces. Based on a thematic analysis, the model was developed consisting of seven themes: work constraints, investments, individual resilience practices, organizational resilience practices, operational efficiency, human costs, and overall costs. The first two themes are antecedents and the last three are consequences of resilience. The main relationships between the themes are presented as seven propositions for theory-testing. The model suggests three main approaches for a balanced distribution between individual and organizational resilience. These approaches consist of: tackling work constraints, especially production pressures; investing in organizational practices adopting a long-term view; and promoting individual practices that proactively support health and safety. The truck drivers' study offers examples of the applicability of these approaches.