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Organisational resilience: Can it be learned?

Organisational resilience: Can it be learned?. Prof. Jim Arrowsmith. Resilience is the capacity to respond well to a stressful environment individuals can learn resilience proactively (counselling etc) and/or through experience organisations can build resilience capacity by investing

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Organisational resilience: Can it be learned?

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  1. Organisational resilience: Can it be learned? Prof. Jim Arrowsmith

  2. Resilience is the capacity to respond well to a stressful environment • individuals can learn resilience proactively (counselling etc) and/or through experience • organisations can build resilience capacity by investing in, and involving employees, to ensure high-trust employment relations

  3. The resilient workplace is a ‘psychologically healthy workplace’. Five keys are Employee involvement Work-life balance Employee growth and development Health and safety Recognition

  4. Obstacles • Competitive pressures and short-term focus - work intensification - low wages - job cuts

  5. Sustaining a successful / resilient relationship caring and appreciative mutual give and take reassuring encouraging listening humility makes the other party feel valued • need for good management • empathetic and supportive supervision • two-way communication • effective performance management: sets clear goals, deals with poor performance, recognises contribution • dedication to employee development... SUPER MANAGER • NZ management capability? • ‘people management emerges as the weakest area, where New Zealand firms trail most behind global best practice’ (MED, 2010) • ‘leaders appear to have a strong need to be right, coupled with a distorted sense of self and an unwillingness to change’ (Levy/ Bentley, 2007)

  6. Board/ Fritzon (2005) psychologically tested 39 senior managers and chief executives. • They compared the results to the same tests on patients at Broadmoor • On many indicators of psychopathy, the bosses either matched or exceeded those of the patients, e.g. • manipulation and a readiness to exploit others • egocentricity and a strong sense of entitlement • lack of empathy and conscience.

  7. Conclusions • Resilience can (must!) be learned - evidence suggests public sector, and organisations with highly-skilled workers, doing better • But bias is to subvert resilience • takes long time to build positive culture, and often easily undone • not all organisations, or their managers, are willing or able to see employees as stakeholders (investors) in the firm • TGNZES: A large proportion of employees are frustrated in their work and looking elsewhere • HR role: ‘critical’ perspective • serve the business but not servile • prioritise management recruitment, development, support • recognise the importance of employee voice (incl. TUs) • own the resilience space!

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