What Is Resilience and How Can It Be Nurtured? A Systematic Review of Empirical Literature on Organizational Resilience

Background: Recent health system shocks such as the Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016 and the global financial crisis of 2008 have generated global health interest in the concept of resilience. The concept is however not new, and has been applied to other sectors for a longer period of time. We conducted a review of empirical literature from both the health and other sectors to synthesize evidence on organizational resilience. Methods: We systematically searched for literature in PubMed, Econlit, EBSCOHOST databases, google, and Google Scholar and manually searched the reference lists of selected papers. We identified 34 papers that met our inclusion criteria. We analysed data from the selected papers by thematic review. Results: Resilience was generally taken to mean a system’s ability to continue to meet its objectives in the face of challenges. The concepts of resilience that were used in the selected papers emphasized not just a system’s capacity to withstand shocks, but also to adapt and transform. The resilience of organizations was influenced by the following factors: Material resources, preparedness and planning, information management, collateral pathways and redundancy, governance processes, leadership practices, organizational culture, human capital, social networks and collaboration. Conclusion: A common theme across the selected papers is the recognition of resilience as an emergent property of complex adaptive systems. Resilience is both a function of planning for and preparing for future crisis (planned resilience), and adapting to chronic stresses and acute shocks (adaptive resilience). Beyond resilience to acute shocks, the resilience of health systems to routine and chronic stress (everyday resilience) is also key. Health system software is as, if not more important, as its hardware in nurturing health system resilience.

[1]  J. Goudge,et al.  Everyday resilience in district health systems: emerging insights from the front lines in Kenya and South Africa , 2017, BMJ Global Health.

[2]  M. Kruk,et al.  Building resilient health systems: a proposal for a resilience index , 2017, British Medical Journal.

[3]  H. Legido-Quigley,et al.  Health systems resilience: meaningful construct or catchphrase? , 2017, The Lancet.

[4]  K. Blanchet,et al.  Governance and Capacity to Manage Resilience of Health Systems: Towards a New Conceptual Framework , 2017, International journal of health policy and management.

[5]  E. Barasa,et al.  Crises and Resilience at the Frontline—Public Health Facility Managers under Devolution in a Sub-County on the Kenyan Coast , 2015, PloS one.

[6]  L. Lapão,et al.  Ebola impact on African health systems entails a quest for more international and local resilience: the case of African Portuguese speaking countries , 2015, The Pan African medical journal.

[7]  H. de Pinho,et al.  Health service resilience in Yobe state, Nigeria in the context of the Boko Haram insurgency: a systems dynamics analysis using group model building , 2015, Conflict and Health.

[8]  Michael Myers,et al.  What is a resilient health system? Lessons from Ebola , 2015, The Lancet.

[9]  I. H. Sawalha.  Managing adversity: understanding some dimensions of organizational resilience , 2015 .

[10]  Andrew McKenzie,et al.  Building a Resilient Health System: Lessons from Northern Nigeria , 2015 .

[11]  M. Sandada.  What determines the resilience of retail business in an unstable business environment? Evidence from Harare Province , 2015 .

[12]  M. Kieny,et al.  Health-system resilience: reflections on the Ebola crisis in western Africa , 2014, Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

[13]  D. Brinkerhoff,et al.  Health governance: principal-agent linkages and health system strengthening. , 2014, Health policy and planning.

[14]  G. Bristow,et al.  Building Resilient Regions: Complex Adaptive Systems and the Role of Policy Intervention , 2014 .

[15]  Lu Wang,et al.  Disaster resilience in tertiary hospitals: a cross-sectional survey in Shandong Province, China , 2014, BMC Health Services Research.

[16]  Charles Normand,et al.  A framework for assessing health system resilience in an economic crisis: Ireland as a test case , 2013, BMC Health Services Research.

[17]  Samuel Mafabi,et al.  Organisational Resilience: Testing the Interaction Effect of Knowledge Management and Creative Climate , 2013 .

[18]  R. Andersson,et al.  Organisational resilience through crisis strategic planning: a study of Swedish textile SMEs in financial crises of 2007–2011 , 2012 .

[19]  Elke Herrfahrdt-Pähle,et al.  Continuity and Change in Social-ecological Systems: the Role of Institutional Resilience , 2012 .

[20]  F. Biermann,et al.  Towards Adaptive Management: Examining the Strategies of Policy Entrepreneurs in Dutch Water Management , 2011 .

[21]  Marina Beermann,et al.  Linking corporate climate adaptation strategies with resilience thinking , 2011 .

[22]  Samir Dani,et al.  Resilience: the concept, a literature review and future directions , 2011 .

[23]  S. Maguire,et al.  The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management , 2011 .

[24]  Michele-Lee Moore,et al.  Research, part of a Special Feature on Resilience Through Multi-scalar Collaboration Surmountable Chasms: Networks and Social Innovation for Resilient Systems , 2011 .

[25]  Judith E. Innes,et al.  Research, part of a Special Feature on Resilience Through Multi-scalar Collaboration Governance for Resilience: CALFED as a Complex Adaptive Network for Resource Management , 2010 .

[26]  A. Pike,et al.  Resilience, adaptation and adaptability , 2010 .

[27]  Randal Ford.  Complex leadership competency in health care: towards framing a theory of practice , 2009, Health services management research.

[28]  Erica Seville,et al.  Facilitated Process for Improving Organizational Resilience , 2008 .

[29]  Suzanne Wilkinson,et al.  Organisational resilience: Researching the reality of New Zealand organisations. , 2008, Journal of business continuity & emergency planning.

[30]  F. Norris,et al.  Community Resilience as a Metaphor, Theory, Set of Capacities, and Strategy for Disaster Readiness , 2008, American journal of community psychology.

[31]  B. Schneider,et al.  The Meaning of Employee Engagement , 2008, Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

[32]  Kathleen M. Sutcliffe,et al.  Organizational resilience: Towards a theory and research agenda , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics.

[33]  C. Folke.  RESILIENCE: THE EMERGENCE OF A PERSPECTIVE FOR SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ANALYSES , 2006 .

[34]  Carl Folke,et al.  The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses , 2006 .

[35]  S. Pickett,et al.  Resilient cities: meaning, models, and metaphor for integrating the ecological, socio-economic, and planning realms , 2004 .

[36]  M. Christopher,et al.  Building the Resilient Supply Chain , 2004 .

[37]  C. Folke,et al.  Adaptive Comanagement for Building Resilience in Social–Ecological Systems , 2004, Environmental management.

[38]  K. Dooley,et al.  Health Care Organizations as Complex Adaptive Systems , 2003 .

[39]  C. Lesser,et al.  The resilience of the health care safety net, 1996-2001. , 2003, Health services research.

[40]  M. Uhl‐Bien,et al.  Leadership in complex organizations , 2001 .

[41]  Russ Marion,et al.  Organizational Extinction and Complex Systems , 1999 .

[42]  C. S. Holling.  Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems , 1973 .

[43]  Laura K. Siebeneck,et al.  Sources of organisational resiliency during the Thailand floods of 2011: a test of the bonding and bridging hypotheses. , 2016, Disasters.

[44]  A. Ager,et al.  Health Systems Resilience : A Systems Analysis A Case Study of Maternal Health Service Provision in OR Tambo District , Eastern Cape , in the Context of Chronic Poor Health Performance , 2015 .

[45]  V. Nilakant,et al.  Promoting Organisational Resilience through Sustaining Engagement in a Disruptive Environment: What are the implications for HRM? , 2014 .

[46]  A. Ager,et al.  Health Systems Resilience : A Systems Analysis A Case Study of Technical Assistance to HIV Services in Cote d ’ Ivoire in the Context of Civil Unrest Following the Disputed Presidential Election of 2010 , 2014 .

[47]  P. Sanderson,et al.  Industry perspectives on organisational resilience , 2014 .

[48]  Bernard Walker,et al.  Leading in a post-disaster Setting: Guidance for human resource practitioners , 2013 .

[49]  W. Kallus,et al.  Assessing Behaviour towards Organizational Resilience in Aviation , 2013 .

[50]  H. Torstensson,et al.  Antecedents of organizational resilience in economic crises—an empirical study of Swedish textile and clothing SMEs , 2012 .

[51]  Erica Seville,et al.  Organisational Resilience and Recovery for Canterbury Organisations after the 4 September 2010 Earthquake , 2012 .

[52]  K. Hannes.  Critical Appraisal of Qualitative Research , 2011 .

[53]  Janet Harris.  Supplementary Guidance for Inclusion of Qualitative Research in Cochrane Systematic Reviews of Interventions , 2011 .

[54]  Andrew D.F. Price,et al.  Resilience strategies of healthcare facilities: present and future , 2010 .

[55]  Erica Seville,et al.  Benchmark Resilience: A study of the resilience of organisations in the Auckland Region , 2010 .

[56]  Colleen Conway-Welch,et al.  Nursing in the Age of Complexity , 2009 .

[57]  S. McManus,et al.  Resilience Management: A Framework for Assessing and Improving the Resilience of Organisations , 2007 .

[58]  E. Seville,et al.  Building Organisational Resilience : A New Zealand Approach , 2007 .

[59]  Suzanne Wilkinson,et al.  Building Organisational Resilience: A summary of Key Research Findings , 2006 .

[60]  Y. Sheffi,et al.  A supply chain view of the resilient enterprise , 2005 .

[61]  Russ Marion.  The Edge of Organization: Chaos and Complexity Theories of Formal Social Systems , 1999 .