Organizational resilience: proposition for an integrated model and research agenda

Abstract

This theoretical essay seeks to shed light on and synthesise the concept of resilience in relation to employees and organisations and to propose an integrated analysis model. The results include a research agenda embracing methodological aspects and thematic connections, which can contribute to an expanded debate on the construct of resilience that involves differentiated levels of analysis. A historic review of the concept’s discussion and its specificities are presented, including the following organisational resilience constructs. The first is the procedural, dynamic and ecosystemic capacity activated by people (i.e. individual resilience) and processes (i.e. systemic resilience) in the face of adversity. The second is the generation of responses that facilitate the recovery of balance. The last construct is healthy adaptation through key elements’ activation through subjective (i.e. internal) and objective (i.e. external) plans, which can be reinforced or renewed during the entire process. This approach thus ensures the sustainability of resilience-related results and/or the expansion of individuals and organisations’ capacity for resilience.