Cross-Scale Systemic Resilience: Implications for Organization Studies
OPEN ACCESS
Author / Producer
Date
2021-01-01
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Citations
Altmetric
OPEN ACCESS
Data
Abstract
In this article, we posit that a cross-scale perspective is valuable for studies of organizational resilience. Existing research in our field primarily focuses on the resilience of organizations, that is, the factors that enhance or detract from an organization’s viability in the face of threat. While this organization level focus makes important contributions to theory, organizational resilience is also intrinsically dependent upon the resilience of broader social-ecological systems in which the firm is embedded. Moreover, long-term organizational resilience cannot be well managed without an understanding of the feedback effects across nested systems. For instance, a narrow focus on optimizing organizational resilience from one firm’s perspective may come at the expense of social-ecological functioning and ultimately undermine managers’ efforts at long-term organizational survival. We suggest that insights from natural science may help organizational scholars to examine cross-scale resilience and conceptualize organizational actions within and across temporal and spatial dynamics. We develop propositions taking a complex adaptive systems perspective to identify issues related to focal scale, slow variables and feedback, and diversity and redundancy. We illustrate our theoretical argument using an example of Unilever and palm oil production in Borneo. © The Author(s) 2019.
Permanent link
Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
60 (1)
Pages / Article No.
95 - 124
Publisher
SAGE
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
adaptive cycle; cross-scale; natural science; resilience
Organisational unit
03695 - Hoffmann, Volker / Hoffmann, Volker