The Social Infrastructure of Organizational Resilience, Agency Capacity and Resilience Spirals: Starting Points for Resilient Leadership

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to analyze the social preconditions and dynamics of organizational resilience and the role of leadership in managing these conditions and dynamics. The chapter begins with an examination of the concept of organizational resilience, presents an individualistic and systemic perspective on this construct, proposes a social infrastructure model of organizational resilience and describes the phenomenon of resilience spirals. The chapter presents a functional performance level model of organizations and describes the possibility of upward spirals where organizations move up the functional performance levels and the possibility of downward spirals where organizations move down the functional performance levels. The importance of leadership in building and maintaining the social infrastructure of resilience and in managing resilience spirals is emphasized.