The purpose of this study is to analyze the strategic organizational learning approach to dynamic resilient capabilities. A scoping review of the theoretical and empirical literature on organizational dynamic resilience capability reveals gaps to be addressed to improve the conceptualization. Under the assumption of some attributes and properties, it is viable to study the organizational resilience learning process leading to the analysis of the organizational resilience strategies. Resilience is addressed through turnaround and dynamic capabilities. Organizational resilience is critical to possessing dynamic capabilities attracting new resources, design strategies, and learning to overcome rigidity and regain stability.
TopIntroduction
Organizations are complex and dynamic systems continuously changing (Norris et al., 2008; Tyler & Moench, 2012; Young, 2010). Resilience is the organizational function of the overall awareness, management of vulnerabilities, and adaptive capacity in a complex, uncertain, dynamic, and interconnected environment. Resilience is shaped by an adaptive system based on multilevel dynamics interaction aiming to change (Masten, 2007: 926) which in turn resists increasing vulnerability and enhances resilience (Walker & Salt, 2012: 24).
Organizational resilience is related to change phenomena such as ecological unexpected and disruptive events and to environmental characteristics such as complexity, uncertainty, turbulence, dynamic, etc. Resilience organizations develop the ability to be dynamic and stable to continue operations after any major mishap (Woods & Hollnagel, 2006).
Organizational resilience is a function of the situation awareness, management of vulnerabilities, adaptive capacity of an organization in a complex, uncertain, dynamic, and interdependent environment. The economic, social, political, and cultural organizational environment are being considered as dynamic trait that may enhance organizational resilience.
A scoping review of the literature on organizational resilience reveals gaps to be addressed to improve the conceptualization, often presented as a normative, and the dynamic adaptation in emergent patterns of the systemic interactions. One school promotes the actions to cope with turbulences and the other fosters the dynamic ability to develop new capabilities to monitor changes and take actions to mitigate environmental challenges.
Organizational resilience frameworks align to build a system adaptation based on dynamic capabilities constructs (Limnios et al., 2014). The contribution of other disciplines to the resilience conceptualization is critical to understand the dynamics or organizational resilience capabilities related to the issues where there are gaps of information, such as in areas of the role of organizational knowledge, culture, structure, determinants of the resilience process, preparation for unexpected events, abilities to deal with threatening events at different levels of analysis.
Research on organizational resilience has been undertaken in high‐reliability organizations operating in uncertain, complex, and dynamic environments where errors may lead to catastrophic consequences (Bigley & Roberts, 2001; Weick & Roberts, 1993; Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001; Weick et al., 2005). Resilience offers different thinking to contribute to the theoretical debates based on resource-based and dynamic capabilities. Theory building of organizational development is focusing on heuristic based dynamic capabilities under strategic and resource collapse conditions (McGrath, 1999; Mellahi & Wilkinson, 2004; Probst & Raisch, 2005; Sheppard & Chowdhury, 2005).
Economic theories assert that organizations aim to efficient economy balanced by turnarounds and dynamic capabilities (Barker & Duhaime, 1997; Morrow, Sirmon, Hitt, & Holcomb, 2007; Shein, 2011) and dynamic capabilities (Helfat et al., 2007; Teece, 2007; Zahra, Sapienza, & Davidsson, 2006) and the ability of organizations to endure, recover and adapt from distress.