Resilience and the (micro-)dynamics of organizational ambidexterity: implications for strategic HRM

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, resilience has emerged as a seminal and important topic linked to calls for adaptability, well-being and organizational performance. Extant strategic human resource management (HRM) literature and practices have developed many insights into resilience. However, overall, they have a propensity to conceptualise resilience as being associated with ‘macro-’ and ‘extreme’ situations. This paper complements the prevailing perspective by developing a micro-focus on resilience through the conceptual framework of organizational ambidexterity surfacing under-examined individual resilience in connection with HRM practices. Methodologically, the paper adopts a qualitative approach presenting data from two illustrative contexts: an ‘everyday’ quasi-governmental institution and a prima facie ‘extreme’ pan-international military organization. Using template analysis, a number of valuable themes and similarities are identified. The findings and discussion underline the managerial challenges in handling organizational ambidextrous dynamics and tensions surrounding resilience, positive and sceptical approaches in relation to individual and organizational stances towards HRM practices. As such, the results point at value in HRM managers and practices recontextualising and appreciating ‘extremes’ and resilience more as an everyday (rather than exceptional) phenomenon wherein myriad micro-moments are highly significant in constructing and influencing macro-contexts. This also implies a need to see cynical resistance as normative rather than automatically negatively.     

From immersion to intention? Exploring advances in prosocial storytelling

Little empirical work has explored the psychological processes triggered by immersive technologies and how they might lead to more effective desirable prosocial outcomes. Thus, the current study explores two different modalities for presenting 360 videos—YouTube and head-mounted display (HMD)—as strategies for engaging audiences with cause-related stories. Across three stories, using these technologies led to the highest levels of presence, but there was no association between presence and increased attitudes towards the story content. Only narrative engagement impacted prosocial attitudes towards the video content. Data suggest that regardless of the technology used, telling engaging narratives that increase the viewer's self-efficacy is key to behavioral intentions—immersive technologies help viewers feel closer to the physical location of the narrative, but not the narrative itself.     

‘RESILIENCE’ IN ORGANIZATIONAL ACTORS AND REARTICULATING ‘VOICE’: Towards a humanistic critique of New Public Management

Assumptions of resilience are frequently made about organizational actors, both by scholars and practitioners. It is argued that resilience is unlikely to be the usual outcome from the trauma routinely confronted in organizational life. It is suggested that ‘assumptions’ of resilience stem from either a reification of what is perceived to be a highly desirable trait in organizational actors or a lack of acknowledgement of what, if recognized, would be regarded as an ‘unthinkable’ aspect of organizational life. Managers are unlikely to recognize and admit that the pain they inflict on others in the name of efficiency, organizational down-sizing and out-sourcing will contribute to long-term changes in organizational actors. It is also likely that, while coping skills and resources may be sufficient to equip individuals for the myriad problems they routinely face, even the ‘successful’ actor may not remain unscathed. Some of the negative organizational outcomes of this unthinking ‘assumption’ of resilience are canvassed and suggestions are made as to what strategies may ameliorate the situation. A rearticulation of actors' ‘voice’ in formal organization, at a time of a hegemonic dominance of economic rationalism, is especially overdue.     

The oxymoron of ‘sustainable oil production’: the case of the Norwegian oil industry

Many oil companies have adopted the concept of sustainable development and claim that their production is sustainable. This might seem odd given that the oil industry depletes a non‐renewable resource and that oil production also contributes to climate change. This paper analyses how the industry attempts to resolve this paradox, using the Norwegian oil industry as a case study. It is demonstrated how four rhetorical operations are used. By employing the topic of definition, the industry argues that it is sustainable because it (1) strives to cut its emissions and (2) manages oil resources with a long‐term perspective until such time as technology will provide solutions. The industry then uses the topic of comparison to (3) discredit other energy sources as ‘unrealistic’ options and (4) compare the production in Norway with more polluting oil production elsewhere. Understanding this type of rhetoric is crucial for validating or criticizing the sustainability claims of the industry. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Conceptualizing and measuring “industry resilience”: Composite indicators for postshock industrial policy decision-making

Can resilience be a relevant concept for industrial policy? Resilience is usually described as the ability of a socioeconomic system to recover from unexpected shocks. While this concept has caught the attention of regional economics researchers seeking to understand the different patterns behind regional recovery after a disruption, it is increasingly recognized that resilience can have policy-relevant conceptual applications in many other regards. In this paper, we apply it to industries and define the “industry resilience” concept and measurements. Our contribution is twofold. Theoretically, we frame industry resilience as a useful conceptual framework for policy-making to support the selection of industrial policy targets that are more capable of recovering after unexpected shocks. In addition, industry resilience can mitigate government failures by supporting decision-makers in promoting both economically and socially sustainable structural change. Methodologically, building on post-2008 U.S. data, we develop two composite indicators (CIs) to separately analyze quantitative and qualitative postshock variations in sectoral employment. Such CIs support policy-makers in visualizing sectoral performances dynamically and multidimensionally and can be used to compare each sector both to other sectors and to its counterfactual. Our results highlight that sectors react heterogeneously to shocks. This points to the relevance of tailoring vertical industrial policies according to sector features and the aims of industrial policy initiatives.     

Building resilience for sustainability of MSMEs post COVID-19 outbreak: An Indian handicraft industry outlook

The handicraft business constitutes concept selling rather than mere product selling, which is highly dependent on demand. Handicrafts' Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have an expanding market in developed countries. The impact of the pandemic on this industry is severe due to the industry's informal nature and seasonal demand. The survival and resilience of these handicraft MSMEs face many challenges in the post-COVID-19 outbreak. The focus of the present study is to understand and analyze the key challenges for building resilience in handicraft MSMEs by scrutinizing the existing literature and interactions with stakeholders. EFA and the Grey DEMATEL approach are used to analyze the challenges for the adoption of resilience. EFA is used to categorize the challenges into various dimensions. The study has divided the challenges for the inclusion of resilience into survivable, sustainable, and viable categories using EFA to plan for short- and long-term business growth. Grey DEMATEL is being utilized for understanding these contextual relationships for each resilience dimension. Grey systems theory is a methodology that enables the incorporation of improbability and vagueness into the analysis. Findings of the study revealed the influencing challenges for each of the dimensions such as competition from machine-made products, insufficient government support and incentives for export, and inefficient managerial concern and response to internationalization as the prominent challenges. The results of this study illustrate the causal relationships amongst the identified resilience challenges to the various stakeholders. These findings offer practical insights for the government to allocate resources and impose measures to ensure resilience, as well as understanding the cause-effect relationship. Managerial implications and Policy insights for building the resilience of handicraft MSMEs are discussed in detail.     

Mapping the relationships between high-performance work systems,employee resilience and engagement: a study of the banking industry in China

Abstract

There is now growing interest in employee resilience in the organizational context and its contribution to organizational performance. However, little is known the extent to which high-performance work systems (HPWS) contributes towards enhancing employee’s resilience as well as their levels of engagement. This study examines the relationships among HPWS, employee resilience and engagement, using a sample of 2040 employees in the Chinese banking industry. Drawing on the job demands-resources model and strategic/high-performance human resource management theory, we develop three hypotheses to test the relationship between HPWS and employee resilience, resilience and employee engagement, and the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between HPWS and engagement. All hypotheses are supported and suggest that HPWS can be used as a job resource to positively affect resilience and subsequently employee engagement. The key message of the paper is that employee resilience can be viewed as a set of skills and attributes that can be developed through the effective use of HPWS to benefit both individuals and the organization.     

Inclusion and inclusion management in the Chinese context: an exploratory study

This study explored the concept of inclusion at both the individual and the organizational levels in the Chinese context. Using interview data from managers and employees of 12 companies located in China with various ownership structures, we conducted content analysis and found similarities between Chinese and Western conceptions of inclusion, as well as some unique characteristics of China. In addition, we identified seven inclusion management practices and three challenges for implementing inclusion management. Finally, the conceptions of inclusion were different across organizational positions and firm ownerships. Overall, this study sheds light on the understanding and management of inclusion for both Chinese companies and multinational companies in China and lays the foundation for future research.     

Extreme Weather Events and the Critical Importance of Anticipatory Adaptation and Organizational Resilience in Responding to Impacts

Growing scientific evidence suggests that more frequent and severe weather extremes such as heat waves, hurricanes, flooding and droughts will have an increasing impact on organizations, industries and entire economies. These findings call for the development of theoretical and practical frameworks to strengthen the capacity of organizations to respond to such impacts. Yet despite the need to understand what is required to build anticipatory adaptation and organizational resilience to expected impacts, the organizational theory literature offers only limited insights. This paper proposes a comprehensive conceptual framework of organizational adaptation and resilience to extreme weather events for addressing the effects of ecological discontinuities in organizational research and strategic decision‐making. Implications and suggestions for future research are offered. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Building traits for organizational resilience through balancing organizational structures

This paper describes and explains how balancing organizational structures can build traits for organizational resilience. Organizational resilience is a holistic and complex concept. In this paper, we move beyond focusing on sudden and disruptive events in favour of anticipating the unexpected in daily organizing. Organizational resilience is understood here as building traits of risk awareness, preference for cooperation, agility and improvisation and is analysed by means of a longitudinal qualitative case study. The paper contributes to the field by showing how balancing organizational structures can foster organizational resilience traits. We show that power distribution and normative control can create preparedness for unexpected events and foster action orientation at the same time as supporting organizational alignment.     

From the invisible hand to the gladhand: Understanding a careerist orientation to work

This article explores the concept of a careerist orientation to work, which is defined as the propensity to pursue career advancement through non-performance-based means. A scale is developed to measure this concept using a sample of 227 business school alumni. Exploratory empirical data suggest that careerism is associated with consistently more negative job attitudes, a greater desire to advance and to change jobs, and more frequent promotions. Implications of a careerist orientation to work for both individual career management and organizational career development are discussed.     

Bouncing up: The development of women leaders’ resilience

Although there are preliminary indications that resilience is a key factor for women on their way to top leadership positions, research on this topic is scarce. To narrow this research gap, we applied an exploratory interview study focusing on the development of women leaders’ resilience. We conducted 25 biographical interviews with women in top leadership positions in medium and large companies listed in Germany. Through a qualitative content analysis, we identified three critical phases for the development of women leaders’ resilience—early life, early career, and upper leadership—as well as phase-specific resilience factors—i.e., individual, situational, and behavioral factors. We integrated these findings in a process model that provides insights into the interlinkages of the different phases and factors and can serve as a starting point for future research.     

Strategic entrepreneurship and competitive advantage of established firms: evidence from the digital TV industry

Although strategic entrepreneurship in established firms is recognized as a vital source of sustainable competitive advantage, this field has no clearly developed research paradigm. This study proposes a conceptual framework to investigate dimensions of strategic entrepreneurship and its function in sustainable competitive advantage of established firms in a modern volatile environment, through the lens of the dynamic capability view. By conducting a systematic literature review of previous research documents and considering conceptual interrelationships between strategic entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities, we propose categories that comprise dimensions of a firm’s strategic entrepreneurship: environmental sensing, opportunity seizing, strategic flexibility, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning. We establish a conceptual framework of strategic entrepreneurship in which entrepreneurs’ managerial capabilities of environmental sensing, opportunity seizing, strategic flexibility and entrepreneurial orientation closely interact with organizational learning, thereby facilitating sustainable performance of established firms. Following empirical studies of established firms in the digital TV manufacturing industry, the proposed conceptual framework suggests that each dimension of strategic entrepreneurship plays a critical role in competitive advantage of firms. In addition, case study results indicate that a firm’s position and evolutionary path form antecedent factors influencing entrepreneurs’ managerial capabilities and organizational learning of established firms.     

CONTRADICTORY COUPLINGS: PROFESSIONAL IDEOLOGY IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL LOCALES OF NURSE TRAINING

Nursing is a contemporary occupation which has developed an explicit ‘professional project’. In the UK this has centred around an occupational ideology which stresses managerialism and credentialism. This occupational ideology comes into contradiction with older conceptions of professionalism which are couched in vocational terms. The vocational meaning is shown to be situated and reproduced in organizational locales which serve to undercut the managerialist and credentialist meanings. The focus of these cross-cutting meanings is the interpretation of a ‘good nurse’. Using a ‘negotiated order’ perspective, focusing on ‘contradictions’, case study material suggests that there are important gaps between formal representations of the professionalism project and the actual, situated practice of ‘nursing’. For trainee nurses these gaps are particularly apparent. In day-to-day organizational life they have to negotiate contradictory conceptions encountered in the diverse locales of ward work and nurse training. In addition, the different meanings may be encountered even in the same locales.     

A transaction cost approach to a paradox in international marketing

Why do firms that make specific downstream investments as they start international operations, sometimes turn to more market-like arrangements as they gain international experience and their international sales increase? This paradox in international marketing is the key question to be addressed in this article. We use the concept of dynamic or temporary governance costs to examine the paradox. The pattern of internationalization in the Norwegian farmed salmon industry provides an example whereby Norwegian exporters established their own sales offices in several international markets in the early stages of internationalization, but subsequently disintegrated vertically and came to rely on more market-like arrangements. An analysis of the internationalization of this industry suggests that, over time, the market provided better capabilities than vertical integration. This reduced the transaction costs, thus making vertical disintegration an efficient strategy.     

Organizational learning and compensation strategies: Evidence from the Spanish chemical industry

This study explores the role of compensation strategies in promoting organizational learning capability. By analyzing a sample of 111 Spanish firms from the chemical industry, we highlight how compensation strategies can be used to influence employees' commitment to learning and shape their understanding of the overall purpose of the organization. We also show that inappropriate strategies can lead to short‐term efficiencies but damage longer‐term learning. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Time is of the essence: Improving the conceptualization and measurement of time

We advance the understanding and measurement of the concept of time by offering a taxonomy of four distinct time constructs: duration, frequency, timing, and sequence. On the basis of a literature review of human resource management and allied fields (i.e., organizational behavior, industrial and organizational psychology, general management, entrepreneurship, and strategic management studies), we offer recommendations on how to measure each construct as well as illustrations drawn from different domains and theories on how these recommendations can be implemented. In addition, for each construct, we offer specific, practical, and actionable recommendations regarding critical design choices, dilemmas, and trade-offs that must be considered when investigating time conceptually and empirically. We discuss these recommendations in the form of a sequential decision-making process that can be used as a roadmap by researchers. We hope our conceptualization and recommendations will serve as a catalyst and useful resource for future conceptual and empirical research that aims to formulate better time-sensitive and temporally falsifiable theories.     

Integrating sustainability and resilience in the supply chain: A systematic literature review and a research agenda

Sustainability has emerged as an important industrial strategic outlook expanding beyond organizational boundaries to include the supply chain. Simultaneously, the industry has also been faced with supply chain resilience concerns. Research on the intersection of supply chain sustainability and resilience is nascent and is a consequence of their observed mutual influences. However, confusion about concepts, implementation methods, and measurements of sustainable and resilient supply chains remains. This study completes a systematic literature review that critically examines several major observations and directions. We find the concept of sustainable supply chains is more established, and general agreement on its theoretical foundations exists. Supply chain resilience is relatively less mature. The nexus and relationships between the two topics are often incoherent: there is confusion on sustainable and resilient supply chains establishment; there is no clarity on what practices could jointly advance both areas. A major conflict exists since sustainability generally focuses on efficiency, while resilience seeks effectiveness. We recommend studies to analyze implementation relationships and impact. We also observe that performance measurement systems should be developed to assess supply chain sustainability and resilience performance taking with explicit consideration time horizons considered in these measures.     

Sensemaking on the Shop Floor: Narratives of Knowledge in Organizations*

ABSTRACT This paper explores the role of narratives in organizational inquiry and knowledge work. Following the tenets of the phenomenological method, the paper digs into the ‘life world’ of organizations in order to capture the taken for granted stream of everyday routines, interaction, and events that constitute both individual and social practices. An empirical case study examines the narrative‐based processes of sensemaking and knowledge acquisition in the setting of a traditional pressing plant at Fiat Auto, Italy. The focus of analysis is on how a best performing team engages in the resolution of disruptive occurrences on the shop floor. Through the deconstruction of narratives underlying problem‐solving activities, the case identifies a distinctive mode of investigation conceptualized as ‘detective stories’. The detective's method highlights the interplay between time and narrative in shaping the interconnected processes of organizational knowledge creation, utilization, and institutionalization. More generally, the findings of the paper stress the importance of conjectural knowledge and common‐sensical wisdom in the everyday life of organizations.     

Newcomer and Organizational Socialization Tactics: An Interactionist Perspective

During the past 15 years, organizational socialization research has focused on two issues. The first is the need for researchers to take an interactionist perspective on the process. The second has been both a conceptual and empirical concern with the pro-active socialization techniques employed by newcomers. The present article takes an interactionist perspective by presenting a model and propositions of how organization socialization tactics impact on and interact with newcomer pro-active socialization tactics to influence socialization outcomes.