Organizational resilience as response to a crisis: case of COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of organizational resilience to the capacity of companies to cope with the COVID-19 crisis in a real organizational context through an empirical study of 16 Tunisian companies affected by the crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt a qualitative study based on 16 semi-structured interviews to describe better the functioning of the processes of resilience in a real organizational context.FindingsThe real contribution consists in confirming a positive contribution of resilience to resistance in the face of the COVID-19 crisis in a Tunisian context through exceptional measures that have not previously been adopted by the companies concerned by this study.Originality/valueThe authors believe that they are the first to study the theme of resilience as a resistance mechanism in the face of the COVID-19 crisis in a Tunisian context. From this comes the originality of the research.