These slides cover an evidence review of the why, what and how individual resilience is important for organisational change

1. Jan 28, 2021
Presented by Alex Boulting
Resilience
Building Organisational Change Capability Talks # 5

2. 2
Building Change Capability Talks

3. 3
Enhancing organisational change capability
UNIQUENESS
Drive to flourish
DOING –
External Perspective
BELONGING–
Drive to belong
BEING –
Internal Perspective
Employee Wellbeing

4. 4
Diagnosing Relationships
COMPLEX SYSTEMS… CAN BE SIMPLIFIED

5. 5
Content

6. WHY…
is RESILIENCE important ?
6
1

7. Early 1900’s 1965 1984 2000’s
1960 1981 1993
Mayo 1933 & Whyte
1956 viewed organisations as
complex social systems
Staw et al. (1981) & Meyer (1982)
how organisations respond to
sudden ‘environmental jolts’ to their
day-to-day operations. They
suggested that organisations can
either absorb (e.g., use redundancy
such as employee resilience) or
adapt (e.g., new ways of working)
Social Cohesion
Threat Rigidity
Organisational
Reliability
Collective Mind
Individual Resilience
Weick & Roberts (1993) came up
with the idea of the 'Collective mind'
where employees are mindful of the
interrelationships of their actions
within a system which helps create
reliability e.g. through improvisation.
Ties to meaning making
f Coutu (2002) 13 and Luthans
(2002a, 2002b) result of 9/11 focus
back on external factors and building
resilience through individual
strengths. Positive psychology = self
efficacy & learned optimism
Perrow’s (1984) towards internal
organizational reliability; in particular,
the reliability of complex intra-
organizational processes and the
avoidance of small failures resulting
from Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez,
Bhopal and the Space Shuttle
Challenger
Evolutionary approach ((Hannan and
Freeman, 1977; Aldrich, 1979) &
Strategic approach organisations
have taken to adapt (Argenti, 1976;
Rubin, 1977; Starbuckand Hedberg,
1977)
Organisational
Adaptation
Levels Model
All organizations are simultaneously
rational and natural systems; and all
are both open and closed systems
(Thompson 1967). Must adapt by
crafting structure. Led to
Contingency Theory (sociological)
Block & Block 1981 –
Individual resilience but
conceived as the trait of being
able to contextually modify
one's 'ego'

8. 8
Does Resilience matter?
Outcomes
Predictors

9. Wellbeing
Commitment to
Change
Performance
Engagement
Proactive Work
Behaviour
Individual’s ability to bounce
back from adversity
Resilience
Self Efficacy
Positive Affect
Optimism
Sense of
Coherence.
Social Support
Leader-member
exchange
Barends, E., Wietrak, E., Cioca, I. and Rousseau, D. (2021) Employee resilience: an evidence
review. Summary report. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Outcomes
Predictors
Individual Resilience & Change
Absorb
(Sense)
Adapt
(Act)

10. ADAPTABILITY
Attitude to the change which is based on
whether people think the change outcomes
are likely to happen and how beneficial
they are.
SUPPORT
Support & expectations from colleagues to
practice the new behaviour and whether
people see others adopting the behaviour.
EFFICACY
Belief in ability to change, perceptions of
potential barriers to change and perceived
power to overcome them
INTENTION
TO
CHANGE
BEHAVIOURAL
CHANGE
ORGANISATIONAL
CHANGE
I believe this is worthwhile…WAY POWER
I believe I can control this…WILL POWER
Theory of Planned Behaviour – Ajzen 1985
AUTONOMY
RESILIENCE
Degree to which people believe their behaviour
determines outcomes
Having a sense of control alleviates the
inevitable uncertainty associated with change
initiatives
Ability to ‘bounce back’ from problems.
People will persevere with change because they
can adapt their skills and behaviours according to
the situation.

11. 11
Psychological capital

12. Numerosity
Disorder & Diversity
Feedback
Non-equilibrium
12
10 characteristics of Complex Systems
Spontaneous order and Self organisation
Non-linearity
Robustness
Nested Structure & modularity
History & memory
Adaptive behaviour
Emergence

13. Mechanics of Complex Systems - Free Energy
FREE ENERGY
=
Divergence –Evidence
Discrepancy between our model & the world = prediction error
PERCEPTION – change beliefs to
minimise divergence
ACTION – change observations to
maximise evidence
CHANGE YOUR MIND CHANGE YOUR WORLD
PREDICTION OBSERVATION
BEING – Sensory States DOING – Active States

14. WHAT…
3
Is resilience ?

15. ABILITY TO RECOVER
Individuals' ability to ‘bounce
back from adversity
Resilience creates redundancy
STAYING ON TRACK
complex system’s (organisation)
ability to remain functional in the face
of shocks or disturbances
System needs redundancy
ROBUSTNESS v RESILIENCE
Capano, G., & Woo, J. J. (2017). Resilience and robustness in
policy design: A critical appraisal. Policy Sciences, 50(3), 399-426.

16. 3 different meanings
RESIST
Resist stressors
Apply equal stress and one
person shows fewer
symptoms than another
RESILIENCE
Bounce back from
stressors
What is someone’s point of
no return – allostatic load
REJUVINATE
Grow from stressors
Do people flourish and
grow after ‘stress’ inverted
U stress curve
Ability to
recover
Den Hartigh, R. J., & Hill, Y. (2022). Conceptualizing and
measuring psychological resilience: What can we learn from
physics?. New Ideas in Psychology, 66, 100934.

17. • ‘resilience’ = ‘leap back’
• In psychology
• ‘the ability of an individual to rebound or recover from adversity’ (Leipold and Greve
2009)
• ‘the ability to maintain psychological and physical health despite exposure to a
traumatic event’ (Bonanno 2004).
In organisational development & change
‘an employee’s capacity to sustain and to bounce back from problems, conflicts, lack of
success, or situations that imply an increase of responsibility’ (Lupșa et al 2020)
? Thrive not just survive in stressful times (Cleary et al 2018)
What is employee resilience?

18. 18
Resilience – Diamond or Blob ?

19. Are we ever in equilibrium?
DEMANDS RESOURCES
Career opportunities
Supervisor support
Role-clarity
Autonomy
Psychological Safety
Crisis Management
Weak Leadership
Poor Decisions
Criticism
Unrealistic Targets

20. Wellbeing = Trying to stay in credit!
DEMANDS
RESOURCES
Crisis Management
Weak Leadership
Poor Decisions
Criticism
Unrealistic Targets
Career opportunities
Supervisor support
Role-clarity
Autonomy
Psychological Safety

21. DEMANDS
RESOURCES
Resilience = Bouncing Back !
Crisis Management
Weak Leadership
Poor Decisions
Criticism
Unrealistic Targets
Career opportunities
Supervisor support
Role-clarity
Autonomy
Psychological Safety

22. HOW…
2
•Do I make it work in practice

23. Wellbeing
Commitment to
Change
Performance
Engagement
Proactive Work
Behaviour
Individual’s ability to bounce
back from adversity
Resilience
Self Efficacy
Positive Affect
Optimism
Sense of
Coherence.
Social Support
Leader-member
exchange
Barends, E., Wietrak, E., Cioca, I. and Rousseau, D. (2021) Employee resilience: an evidence
review. Summary report. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Outcomes
Predictors
Individual Resilience
Absorb
(Sense)
Adapt
(Act)

24. 24
Interventions
•Self
Awareness
•Critical
Reflection
Relaxation &
Mindfulness
Goal Setting Coaching
Small Group
Discussions
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy +
Psychological Capital Building
CONTENT
CBT & Psyc Capital
(HERO) have bigger
effects than relaxation,
mindfulness etc
TIME
4-5 weeks more effective
than longer time spans of
8-12 sessions
DELIVERY
one-to-one and small
face-to-face group
sessions have biggest
impact

25. 25

26. Näswall, K., Malinen, S., Kuntz, J., & Hodliffe,
M. (2019). Employee resilience: development
and validation of a measure. Journal of
Managerial Psychology, 34(5), 353-367.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-02-2018-0102
Employee Resilience
Scale
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
COLLABORAT
E
WORKLOAD
CRISIS
MANAGEMENT
LEARNING
FROM
MISTAKES
CONTINUALLY
IMPROVE
FEEDBACK
RESPONSE
SEEK HELP
SUPPORT
GROWTH
I effectively collaborate with others to handle
challenges at work
I successfully manage a high
workload for long periods of
time.
I resolve crises competently at work.
I learn from mistakes and improve the way I do
my job
I re-evaluate my performance and
continually improve the way I do my work
I effectively respond to feedback, even criticism
I seek assistance at work when I need
specific resources
I approach managers when I need their support.
I use change at work as an opportunity
for growth.

27. ENGAGEMENT
At my work, I feel bursting with
energy
I am enthusiastic about my job
I am immersed in my work
I successfully manage a high
workload for long periods of
time
RESILIENCE
BURNOUT
I feel tired when I get up in the
morning & have to face another
day at work
I am at the end of my patience
at the end of my workday.
I’m afraid that this job is making
me uncaring.
DOES ENGAGEMENT = Physical + Emotional + Cognitive ENERGY ?
A readiness to do work (but no necessarily Employee Engagement ;)
WELLBEING
I have felt active and vigorous
I have felt cheerful and in good
spirits
My daily life has been filled with
things that interest me
Spot the difference?
Maslach Burnout Inventory Employee Resilience Scale
WHO 5
Utrecht Work Engagement Scale

28. 28
Resilience & Wellbeing
PHYSIOLOGICAL
REGULATION
SUPPORT
Support & expectations from colleagues to
practice the new behaviour and whether
people see others adopting the behaviour.
EFFICACY
Belief in ability to change, perceptions of
potential barriers to change and perceived
power to overcome them
MASTERY
The need to experience our behaviors as
effectively enacted
Managing body budget
LEARNING
Learning from previous experience of others
Cognition &
Problem Solving
Direct Effect
InDirect Effect
RESPONSE TO
STRESS

29. AND ...
Thank you!
from Alex
Boulting
Owner | ebbnflow
+44 7562570000
alex@ebbnflow.co.u
k
www.ebbnflow.co.u
k
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