Adaptive resilience as a process: Evidence from an extreme event

Abstract

Some organisations prosper during extreme crisis events, whereas others never recover. Extant scholarship on organisational resilience development does not address how organisations develop adaptive resilience during extreme crisis events. This research study investigated how adaptive resilience – as a type of resilience on a spectrum of organisational resilience – developed in response to an extreme crisis event, namely the COVID-19 pandemic. A multiple case study qualitative research design was used to investigate a complex, multifaceted phenomenon in a real-life context. Thirty interviews were conducted with executive leaders from five different organisations to gather data on adaptive resilience development. Findings from the research indicate that organisations that develop specific organisational resilience capacities are able to adapt and thrive in a new organisational reality. The capacity to adapt or thrive is defined as adaptive resilience, conceptualised as a dynamic, socially constructed process of developing positive organisational adaptation and growth triggered by a disruptive crisis event. Three intertwined microprocesses for the development of adaptive resilience were identified, namely shared sense-making, relational capital, and collective problem-solving. It is proposed that adaptive resilience is collectively developed before, during, and after an extreme crisis event and that adaptive resilience becomes salient in a crisis. The study’s findings contribute to scholarship and business practice. Concerning scholarship, the study contributes to organisational resilience theory by conceptualising the development of adaptive resilience through its microprocesses, which is limited in literature. In a world of unanticipated crises, organisations must develop resilience to cope with adversity. From a business practice perspective, this research offers concrete, practical processes for the collective development of adaptive resilience before, during, and after a crisis event.