Constituting Resilience at Work: Maintaining Dialectics and Cultivating Dignity throughout a Worksite Closure

Abstract

Job insecurity—seen in practices like temporary work, furloughs, and site closures—is an ongoing reality for increasing numbers of workers. While the communicative constitution of resilience in situations of job loss has received significant attention, we know little about how resilience is constituted in the face of ongoing job insecurity. This study explores that question by considering how a group of employees enacted resilience during the 22-month period between the announcement that their worksite would close and the actual closure. Based on in-depth interviews, this study considers how soon-to-be terminated employees created and maintained resilience by (de)centering themselves, framing the future optimistically, affirming their value, keeping work in perspective, and caring for one another. These findings point to the importance of sensemaking that enabled employees to hold conflicting emotions and interpretations in tension and meaningfully enact purpose, agency, and humanity. Specifically, the analysis suggests that maintaining dialectics and cultivating dignity are important for constituting resilience. This study contributes to our understanding of the communicative constitution of resilience by offering a sixth central process—maintaining dialectics—to the communication theory of resilience and suggesting that workplace interactions that cultivate dignity enable resilience.