Resilient Organizations

What differentiates resilient organizations from those that are not? Do we need to wait until a crisis strikes to see how resilient an organization is? Resilient Organizations draws on primary research to reveal the answers to these questions and provides practical ideas and actions to make your own organization more resilient. Organizational resilience is about creating organizations with the agility to adapt to unexpected challenges and the capacity to seize opportunity out of adversity. Dr Erica Seville, founder of the Resilient Organizations research programme, provides readers with the essential knowledge required to enable organizations to thrive in a world of change and uncertainty. Drawing on a decade of research, her team have identified 13 indicators to diagnose an organization's resilience. Resilient Organizations draws out the top five ingredients and shows how organization resilience is a capability that can and must be proactively fostered and maintained over time. Using case studies, diagnostic tools and key actions and initiatives to develop and maintain organizational resilience, Resilient Organizations is essential reading for everyone tasked with developing strong organizations that can survive and thrive in crisis and change - from risk, resilience and business continuity professionals to leadership and management teams.

This open access book brings together scholars in the fields of management, public policy, regional studies, and organization theory around the concept of resilience. The aim is to provide a more holistic understanding of the complex phenomenon of resilience from a multi-sectorial, cross-national, and multidisciplinary perspective. The book facilitates a conversation across diverse disciplinary specializations and empirical domains. The authors contribute both to theory testing and theory development and provide key empirical insights useful for societies, organizations, and individuals experiencing disruptive pressures, not least in the context of a post-COVID-19 world. Diverse chapters are held together by a clear organization of the volume across levels of analysis (resilience in organizations and societies) and by an original perspective on resilience derived from an extended review, by the editors, of the existing literature and knowledge gaps, according to which each of the individual chapter contributions is positioned and connected to.

Much of the fear and uncertainty surrounding the global recession is concerned with the adverse impact it will have on organisations and society. However, recessions are nothing new. We know from past experience that when a recession is over, there always emerge organisations and individuals who have not only survived but have thrived. They often emerge stronger, fitter and better performing. Developing Resilient Organizations argues that one of the fundamental keys to survival in these circumstances is resilience or mental toughness. It can make challenge and change an opportunity rather than a threat. The book addresses a wide variety of organizational issues including motivation, performance, staff retention, behaviour, trust, attention span and teamwork. With case studies from leading organizations across the public and private sector internationally, it will show you how to develop organizational performance, well being and a positive approach to adversity and change in your organization.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A "RESILIENT" ORGANIZATION? It means you are not a prisoner of past performance, good or bad; you don't rely on the right leader alone for success but build the capability to be resilient into the organization. You constantly rehearse the culture of anticipating and responding to change, and you innovate even when you don't yet need to. You don't just survive, you thrive--amidst challenge and opportunity. This essential guide, written by a renowned expert in global resilience strategy, shows you how to be smart about success and failure. With these field-tested forward-focused tools, you can: SURVIVE SHOCKS AND SETBACKS TURN THREATS INTO OPPORTUNITIES ANTICIPATE CHANGE BEFORE IT HAPPENS ENSURE YOUR SUCCESS IS SUSTAINABLE As a bonus, the book features Postcards from the Resilient Edge, a powerhouse selection of frontline lessons from leading corporations that demonstrate ways you can marshal skill and master luck to take control of your organization's destiny. THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO THE NEW RESILIENCE MOVEMENT One of the most powerful trends born of the New Recession, resilience has become the operative word for business leaders and entrepreneurs facing an unpredictable market. On the forefront of this movement, global innovator and strategy consultant professor Liisa Välikangas has created a step-by-step system of proven survival strategies you can put into action immediately. Whether you need to bounce back from a downturn, take the fight to new competitors, or change your game plan at a moment's notice, The Resilient Organization shows you how to rethink your current strategies--and rebuild your company’s foundation--using four basic tools . . . INNOVATION with high impact and low overhead DESIGN that is robust, sustainable, and evolvable ADAPTABILITY to changing circumstances STRENGTH in the face of adversity By creating a culture of resilience in your organization, you'll be prepared for any challenge the future might hold. The Resilient Organization's fascinating case studies provide real-world examples of resilience in action: how to recover faster from hardships, how to experiment on new opportunities in a timely manner, how to avoid repeating bad business decisions, and when to scrap old strategiesthat just don't work anymore. Using the timetested principles of resilience, you can find golden opportunities in any situation--whether it's tough competition, reduced resources, or a roller-coaster market. If you're strategically resilient, you not only survive crises, but you can turn these crises into opportunities. LIISA VÄLIKANGAS, PH.D., is professor of innovation management at the Aalto University School of Economics (formerly Helsinki School of Economics) in Finland. She is the cofounder and president of Innovation Democracy, a nonprofi t global organization dedicated to supporting local innovation and entrepreneurship. Her research on innovation, strategy, and organization has been published in Harvard Business Review, MIT/Sloan Management Review, and The Wall Street Journal. With Gary Hamel, she coauthored the Harvard Business Review article "The Quest for Resilience" and cofounded the Woodside Institute, a research organization dedicated to advancing management innovation. Professor Välikangas currently divides her time between Helsinki and California.

In Holding Fast the stresses faced by caregiving organizations are identified and appropriate strategies for tackling these to create a resilient, effective organization are discussed.

This book argues that employers’ organizations are resilient organizations that adapt to changing circumstances by developing new practices. Adaptation has been prompted by changing economic and social contexts, including state interventions and union activities. Contexts vary over time, across countries and world regions. The purpose of the book is to explore these variations and their impacts on employer organization. The book covers the following themes across four book sections: theoretical perspectives on employer collective action; employers’ organizations in different types of capitalism; different types of employers’ organizations; and international and comparative employer interest representation. Theoretical explorations examining employer power, political preferences, meta-organizing, and ideological foundations are complemented by studies of employers’ organization in China, Denmark, Australia, Germany, Turkey, Canada, and the UK. Different types such as regional and international employers’ organizations are also examined. The book is one of the few edited volumes to examine employer collective action within work and employment, and is the first since 1984 to consider western and non-western contexts. The book will be of interest to employment relations and sociology of work researchers, scholars, advanced students, and practitioners as it brings new perspectives to an understudied actor in employment relations: employers’ organizations.

In an era of raging commoditization and eroding profit margins, survival depends on resilience: staying one step ahead of your customers. Sure, most companies say they're "customer-focused," but they don't deliver solutions to customers' thorniest problems. Why? Because they're stymied by the rigid "silos" they're organized around. In Reorganize for Resilience, Ranjay Gulati reveals how resilient companies prosper both in good times and bad, driving growth and increasing profitability by immersing themselves in the lives of their customers. This book shows how resilient organizations cut through internal barriers that impede action, build bridges between warring divisions, and transform former competitors into collaborators. Based on more than a decade of research in a variety of industries, and filled with examples from companies including Cisco Systems, La Farge, Starbucks, Best Buy, and Jones Lang LaSalle, Gulati exploresthe five levers of resilience: · Coordination: Connect, eradicate, or restructure silos to enable swift responses. · Cooperation: Foster a culture that aligns all employees around the shared goals of customer solutions. · Clout: Redistribute power to "bridge builders" and customer champions. · Capability: Develop employees' skills at tackling changing customer needs. · Connection: Blend partners' offerings with yours to provide unique customer solutions.

Moving towards resiliency is more than just implanting policy and procedure; it is a process that takes organizations on a winding path requiring patience and tolerance. A good deal of learning will have to take place during the trip and that is why it is necessary to have patience and tolerate the learning process. Organizational Resilience: Managing the Risks of Disruptive Events - A Practitioner’s Guide provides essential management tools that ensure you will succeed in moving an organization towards becoming more resilient. The book explains organizational resilience and how to manage risk through the use of the ANSI/ASIS SPC.1-2009 Standard. It outlines a concise, clearly understandable approach to successfully addressing the various challenges and techniques necessary to plan, prepare, and implement organizational resilience management in any organization. The authors cut through the complexities and identify the key issues and methods for successful implementation. They focus on organizational resilience management as an integral component of an overall business and risk management strategy. They also explore how organizational resilience creates value for the organization and can be applied to both the private and public sectors. Building a resilient organization is a cross-disciplinary and cross-functional endeavor; therefore "practitioners" may come from a variety of disciplines, all of which contribute to helping the organization achieve its objectives. This book provides valuable and much-needed guidance that enables practitioners to achieve the desired goals of effective organizational resilience through cost-effective methods.