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Rick Meyer, Ph.D., Pamela A. Cogdal,Ph.D, and Richard James, Ph.D.
University of Memphis
Patterson 119
Memphis, TN 38152
The concept of resilience has recently begun being used in discussions of organizational efforts to address
crises and disasters. These discussions revolve around the need for organizations to develop the ability to
bounce back and self-right following a crisis. A central component of the discussions concerns the impact on
people individually as well as collectively. However for issues related to human impact, building resilience in
organizations entails a shift from a reactive to a proactive approach for crisis management and disaster
recovery. A reactive approach to disaster recovery involves the development of plans to contain the human
impact of crises and disasters by working with Employee Assistant Programs who identify experts such as
psychologists and social workers to enter a system. These people arrive shortly after a disaster and provide
psychological assistance with trauma related problems that interfere with their ability to work. A
shortcoming of reactive approaches is that oftentimes they do not provide persons with a framework to use in
the case of future traumatic events; they merely "band-aid" the trauma effects. Whereas a proactive
approach adds to this strategy by introducing an active process to create an environment that not only
minimizes the effect of crises and disasters for people, but also works to prevent these from happening. A
proactive approach is more of an empowerment model allowing the person some sense of manageability and
control. A sense of "I will get through this". Creating such an environment means an organization is better
able to avoid substantial disruptions in business related to employees being unable to work. This presentation
outlines practical suggestions that can help organizations assess and build resilience particularly as the
concept applies to the people. The following five areas we cover in the program will be key to building
organizational resilience: utilizing strengths, recognizing the layered effect of crisis, addressing psychological
needs, communication, and pride in one's organization.
» Utilization of organizational strengths.
A critical factor in building resilience is the identification and utilization of strengths within the
organization. Strengths come in many forms. They may be the way business is conducted, the attitude of
management, the organization's financial solvency, customer relations, decision making processes,
relationship with employees, and so on. The point is that each organization has strengths. Identification of
these involves systematically considering all aspects on the organization. Focus groups, individual interviews,
and use of surveys are techniques useful in this process. Each technique represents a distinctive perspective
useful in building a well rounded understanding of resilience. Once identified, strengths should be
incorporated into crisis management and business continuity plans. Too often organizations neglect drawing
on strengths to mitigate risks opting instead to add new programs. Yet utilization of strengths in many
circumstances is the best and least costly strategy to mitigate vulnerabilities thereby increasing organizational
resilience.
» Recognize the layered affect.
Organizations that are resilient have crisis management and business continuity plans that attend to impact of crises on all stakeholders. Obvious stakeholders include employees, customers, stockholders, and vendors but one group that is often overlooked is the families of employees. Organizations that do not plan for the impact of a crisis on employee families may encounter difficulty implementing a crisis management plan by demanding employees make difficult choices between the organization and their family. These situation results in everyone losing, there are no winners.
» Give attention to psychological concerns.
Provisions for employee safety are mandated by governmental regulations. These regulations require organizations put into place guidelines for employee safety and develop security programs that guard physical safety. With respect to disasters or crises, these guidelines generally require employers to procedures for employee evacuation of the premises, security plans to prevent violence and harassment, measures to protect employees from being injured on the job, and so on. Although neglected, the psychological safety of employees is also an important aspect of providing a safe working environment. It is almost as if we think that by safeguarding the physical safety means that employees will experience no psychological harm. Most plans do make provision for psychological first aid through a variety of approaches. A popular strategy for helping safeguard the psychological safety of employees is Critical Incident Stress Debriefing. Yet, systematic research has repeatedly demonstrated this model is ineffective, and at times causes harm. We believe the best practice is to use a proactive approach that creates a working environment that is supportive. The support should come from within the organization, not be farmed out to individuals outside the organization.
» Create multidimensional communication networks.
Multidimensional communication is a key element in the development of organizational resilience. The old adages of knowing who, what, where and when are extremely important to all parties involved.
» Monitor stakeholder loyalty, confidence, and pride in the organization.
The resilience of an organization is dependent on stakeholder loyalty, confidence, and pride in the organization. Stakeholders in this situation goes beyond the immediate and obvious groups such as employees and customers to include families of employees, vendors, stockholders, people with whom the organization has contracted services, and so on. Low levels of these attitudes of any of these groups spell difficulty for organizations that must activate crisis management or business continuity plans. If any of these qualities are reduced no matter the reason, this situation can be a single point of failure. Regardless of the sophistication of the recovery plans, if stakeholders are unwilling to participate in the process, the plans will not succeed.
Monitoring these attitudes is therefore a critical issue in the building and maintenance of resilience. Marketing departments may have data that can be interpreted to estimate the levels loyalty, confidence, and pride. Focus groups, surveys, and individual interviews with stakeholders are also methods to gather this data. Crisis management and business continuity plans should include a schedule that regularly checks the levels of these attitudes.
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