Organizational Resilience
In 2019, Dr. Stephanie Duchek, Department Chair of Business Administration for Brandenburg University of Technology published her research study on organizational resilience. In it, she defined:
This echoes 2017 research of David Denyer, Ph.D. at Cranfield University. Denyer is a world leader in research and education on strategy, agility and resilience. He defined organizational resilience as “the ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and adapt to incremental change and/or sudden disruptions to survive and prosper.” And, that successful leaders need to balance the tensions or paradoxes of being both defensive and progressive as well as being consistent and flexible. Additionally, he recommended leaders follow a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) methodology for consistency and a change management based, 4Sight [Foresight, Insight, Oversight, Hindsight] methodology for flexibility, especially in complex matters.2 Organizations identified in Denyer’s study as Best Practice in Organizational Resilience include Infosys, Baiada, NxtraData, SAP and Ciena.
Howard Kerr, CEO of BSI (British Standards Institution) stated that Denyer’s study, which was in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit, found that “nine in ten (CEOs) saw resilience as a priority for their business, while eight in ten believed it to be indispensable for long-term growth… a resilient organization is one that not merely survives over the long term but flourishes. We believe that mastering Organisational Resilience offers the best opportunity to pass the test of time, unlocking future prosperity and securing longevity.”
The research to support a business case for the imperative of organizational resilience is compelling. At The Human Resource Consortium, we see organizational resilience as a vital building block to developing organizational sustainability. And, that people and organizations, much like gemstones, originate around the world, manifest in varying degress of resilience, sizes, shapes and colors and are utilized and deployed in variety of ways.