1. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION AARHUS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY NORDKOMM (6) Organizational resilience Daniel Morten Simonsen PhD student, cand.merc Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012

2. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY Agenda My PhD project Resilience as phenomenon Current work Preliminary findings First draft model of resilience Further perspectives Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012

3. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY My PhD project Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 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? o 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? o 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? o 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. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY 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 Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 “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) “…the term ‘resilience’ was defined as the ability of an individual to bounce back from adversity and persevere through difficult times.” (Edward, 2005:1) “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. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY 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 Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012

6. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY 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 Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012

7. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY 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 Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012

8. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY Model of resilience conceptions Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012 ActorTraitsRelation/situationel e.g temperament, self esteem, coping ability, positive emotions, gender and social network (cf. Rutter, 1985 and Fredrickson et al., 2001) Resilience as results of processes between several individuals, and as situational (cf. Walsh, 1966 & Powley, 2009) System EmbeddedDesign Resilience as something that exists within the system, and can be activated and used when necessary (cf. Somer, 2009 & Powley, 2009) Resilience as design of back-up systems, e.g In supply chain management in case of failed delivery, or the design of infrastructure in a city in case of disaster (cf. Jüttner & Maklan, 2011 and Boin & McConnell, 2007) FeatureFunction

9. CENTRE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AARHUS UNIVERSITY Furthur Perspectives Where to go from here? The model? The labels of findings? The categories? Nordic Research Seminar on Communication – February 23-25 2012