NORDKOMM (6)

1. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 NORDKOMM (6) Organizational resilience Daniel Morten Simonsen PhD student, cand.merc

2. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 Agenda • My PhD project • Resilience as phenomenon • Current work • Preliminary findings • First draft model of resilience • Further perspectives

3. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 My PhD project • When a crisis is perceived subjectively, how can collective perception and sensemaking be created and hence the ability to act in terms of the organizational situation? • RQ 1: How can an organizational structure that can absorb internal and external change be developed, thus crisis can be managed before they turn into crisis? • RQ 2: What issues, models and organizational structures characterize decision making in a crisis situation and what impact do they have relative to the organization's scope for action in a crisis situation? • RQ 3: How can sense-making create inter-subjective understanding in an organization, and thereby strengthen the opportunity to prepare, prevent, act and learn from crisis situations?

4. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 The phenomenon of resilience • Ability of a system to absorb to/cope with internal/external changes • Maintain functioning in adversity • Distinct characteristic of an individual, organization or system “…the term ‘resilience’ was defined as the ability of an individual to bounce back from adversity and persevere through difficult times.” (Edward, 2005:1) “Grass bends before the wind but usually does not break; it temporarily unstable. Trees maintain strong stability under high winds but when they break, they have no resilience.” (Wildawsky, 1988: 79) “Formally, resilience is the “capability of a system to maintain its function and structure in the face of internal and external changes and to degrade gracefully when it must,” Resilience occurs when the system continues to operate despite failures in some of its parts. For example, an electric toothbrush degrades gracefully because it can still be used as a toothbrush even if the motor doesn’t work.” (Weick & Sutcliff, 2007:69)

5. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 Current work • Literature review • Conceptions of resilience in research? • How is resilience created? • Different scientific disciplines • Psychology, Biology, Sociology, Management etc.. • Journal articles – peer reviewed • Crisis and resilience • Content analysis • Title and abstract

6. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 Preliminary findings • Resilience as traits/characteristics • Resilience at the individual level • What different traits constituted an resilient person • Examples: Self-esteem, temperament, gender, positive emotions, social capabilities • Resilience as situational/relational • Resilience at the inter-subjective level • The social interaction between individuals as building resilience in specific situations. • Example: Someone going postal in an American Business School

7. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 Preliminary findings • Resilience as embedded • Resilience at an organizational level • Something that is in the system and needs to be activated • Example: Resilience as autopoesis • Resilience as design • Resilience at an system level • Something that can be designed • Example: Supply Chain Management

8. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 Model of resilience conceptions

9. Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 Furthur Perspectives • Where to go from here? • The model? • The labels of findings? • The categories?