Hi Gjalt,

Interesting question - that surely begins with thinking about the 'theory of the organization' that you have in mind?

To follow Morgan's fine exegesis, if 'the organization' is a machine - rational production function - then what can resilience mean?  It must mean the capability of the machine's designers and controllers to 're-engineer' it in the face of the unexpected.

If the organization is an 'organism' then resilience - the capacity to survive the unexpected - may be built into its genes - and so we head into the Ashby and Argyris metaphors, perhaps into Nelson & Winter.

The authors @Laura offers seem but speak to several different assumptions about 'the organization'.

The situation in our discipline is deeply confused by having at least a dozen different notions of 'the organization' floating around.  For some reason we (our journals and so on) have decided it is OK to theorize and pontificate on these matters without having to identify the specific theory we have adopted. I get more puzzled by this as I grow older.

So I would suggest reframing your question.  Resilience is going to mean different things depending on one's theory of 'the organization'.  A table of its various meanings - given some of the prevailing theories listed by Morgan and by the post-Coasian micro economists - would be a great contribution.  

After all, resilience is an interesting qualitative notion dealing with 'the organization's' ability to deal with what cannot be foreseen and thereby baked into a rational design, command, and control system.  If everything could be forecast then reilience would be meaningless.  Conversely if nothing can be forecast before it happens then resilience can only be understood after the organization-as-organism has responded.  This is somewhat related to misunderstanding evolution as 'a theory', plainly odd given it offers no predictions about how a species will 'respond' beyond the bald assertion that 'it will respond'.  This is a tautology of course - around the notion of what 'being alive' means.

I recall having a public argument with Dawkins about this and, as far as I could understand what he said, he was not able to justify attaching the term 'theory' to 'evolution'.

The point, of course, is the quality or capability that you have in mind when you use the term resilience.  Is it inherent in the entity, or is it something about those who bring the entity to life, or ...

I must say that Laura and Spender have already demonstrated great knowledge about the resilience concept, however, let me just add that resilience in the first instance is a multidisciplinary concept, it is there in systems theory, biology, engineering ,etc. for reading materials on organisational resilience, you can see the following:

Gittel, J. h., Cameron, K and Lim, S.G.P (2006). Relationships, Layoffs and Organisational Resilience, Applied Behavioural Science.

McManus, S. (2007). Organisational resilience in New Zealand,,,,an unpublished PhD thesis of University of Canterbury.

Somers, S. (2007). The resilient enterprise:overcoming vulnerability for competitive advantage. isBN 0-262-19537-2. Cambridge:The MIT Press.

others are Seville, E.,Brunsdon, D.,Dantas, A., Le Masurier, J., Wilkinson, S. And Vargo,J. (2008). Organisational resilience: researching the reality of New Zealand organisations. Journal of business continuity and emergency management, 2(2). 258-266. 

I like like to remark that so much have been done on organisational resilience. In fact, my PhD thesis which is at its final phase now is titled organisational citizenship behavior and corporate resilience in the domestic aviation sector of Nigeria. I have published an article using a measure each from both variables, and another is on the way and can be sourced on my researchgate page as well. Goodluck.

This is very insightful and thanks for the suggestions.

I fully agree that one's organizational view is important and so is the unit of analysis (e.g., leaders, teams, orgs etcetera). 

Yes, resilience has different meanings and definitions but it seems as an overlooked intangible capital that drives the performance of sustainable companies. Unpacking its antecedents would be perhaps informative in finding and designing organizations that overcome (unforeseen) crisis that sooner or later will confront each organization.

Gjalt:

As usual I will come out of left field (emerge from the Left Bank if you prefer) in responding but please don't discount my response as being irrational or unthinkable.  Frankly I often feel that taking a "road less traveled" when seeking innovative ideas has a higher probability of success than walking the same over-troddened pathways.

Given the preceding comments, I recommend that your students read and summarize the salient points presented in E. F. Schumacher's books "Small is Beautiful" and "Good Work."  Simplicity may well "save" our institutions, organizations, and planet.

Your Friend & Colleague, Jay Klagge

An article titled On Resilient Organizations is at http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/intl/270/. It makes the point that organizations must be resilient if they are to survive and thrive in turbulent times. Learning from experience, investments in leadership and culture, networks, and change readiness can help them move from denial and paralysis to acceptance and practical solutions.

Gjatt:

Okay, perhaps my first response needed context as it raised two unanswered questions.  How does "smallness" relate to resilence? and What is this fool thinking?

I have attached an article that more directly resonds to your question.  In that article you will find that "smaller" areas of collaboration and competition within firms aid in organizational resilence ... which, I hope, answers both questions above.

Enjoy the journey my friend.

Jay

Oh dear.

@ Olivier So "organizations must be resilient if they are to survive and thrive in turbulent times."  Isn't this a tautology?  Does it say anything about either resilience or organizations? 

So an organization set up to do something and then disappear - like coding the exchanges for the Affordable Healthcare Act or invading Iraq are non-organizations?