Leadership in Resilient Organizations

Abstract

his chapter focuses on organizations’ ability to change between differentmodes of operation as a key adaptive capacity that fosters resilience. Four modesare described which represent responses to low versus high demands on stability andflexibility respectively. The operational requirements for leaders both in enactingthe different modes of operation and in instigating switches between the modes aredetailed. Strategic recommendations are outlined that should help organizations tobuild the needed leadership abilities and to support organizational change towardsbetter handling fundamental tensions and trade-offs embedded in the requirement tostay in control while facing unexpected uncertainties.