Strategic Adaptive Resilience Capacity

Introduction

Resilience manifests itself as resistance and adaptation (Limnios et al. 2014). Resilience is an ability to adapt and grow from adversity varying in intensity among organizations. The definition of resilience may include two or more perspectives combining the active, coping and adaptation with anticipation leading to growth (McManus et al. 2008; Burnard and Bhamra 2011; Ortiz-de-Mandojana and Bansal, 2016; Williams et al. 2017). The concept of resilience is related to the notions of risk, uncertainty, reliability, prevention, vulnerability, disasters, redundancy, recovery, robustness, adaptation, etc. Resilience is the long-term impact on anticipatory adaptation based on resistance and the capacity to absorb and recover. Resilience is a phenomenon characterized by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of adversity or risk (Masten & Reed, 2002: 75).

Resilience in organization sciences is a desirable positive adaptation to adversity (Afuah, 1999; Mallak, 1998). Resilience is a superordinate construct subsuming the dimensions of adversity and adaptation, never measured directly but indirectly inferred on evidence (Luthar, 2006: 742). Resilience is a phenomenon and process of adaptation despite experiences of adversity and trauma. Resilience contributes to positive adaptation to events of adversity and trauma (Luthar, 2006: 742). Resilience is built through adaptation to irregular variations and disruptive shocks. Resilience is a positive adaptability in anticipation of, and in response to shocks. Resilience is the capacity of the system to sustain performance despite shocks by the adaptation of its structures, functions, and organizations.

A process oriented organizational resilience and adaptation framework consist of anticipatory adaptation, recovery and restoration, exposure, post-impact determination and future adaptation (Linnenluecke et al. 2012). The organizational theory offers limited insights to build a framework of anticipatory adaptation and resilience to extreme weather events leading to have expected impacts on organizational resilience and ecological discontinuities. The mechanisms of organizational resilience may fluctuate as organizations adapt to the ecological adversity. Organizational resilience and adaptation to extreme weather events requires to overcome the organizational barriers to change (Sørensen, 2002)

Resilience is a multidimensional construct comprising endurance, determination, adaptation, and new steady state (Dinh, Pasman, Gao, & Mannan, 2012; Howard & Irving, 2013). Resilience has been described as defensive response, resistance and recovery shifting towards the notions as offensive response, adaptation, and anticipation. These perspectives of resilience are summarized on the types of precursor referring to anticipation and recovery resilience (Boin and van Eeten 2013).

Resilience is a property of complex systems and not possessed by an organization but as individual traits and skills always on interaction with and among agents to facilitate and restrain feedback loops of adaptation. Resilience of complex systems depends upon optimal adaptation between emergency and interventions (Zarboutis and Wright, 2006). The adaptability of the system and its capacity to maintain functioning at high level of resilience (Gunderson & Holling, 2002). The interactions at the system level develop interactive informal practices to promote resilience more than formal organizational structures. Resilience is the quality that enable the individual, community, and organization to cope with, adapt to, and recover from an unforeseen disaster event (Buckle et al. 2000; Horne, 1997; Mallak, 1998; Pelling and Uitto, 2001; Riolli and Savicki, 2003).