Exploring the Dynamics of Resilience

Abstract

Resilience is a complex of behaviours seen in complex work systems, whereby they are able to largely meet their fundamental goals despite threats and challenges to their work and even their existence. It is not something a system has, but rather something a system does. Because resilient behaviour (or lack thereof) is manifested over time, the dynamics of resilience are of interest. Studies of resilience to date have been largely descriptive, but understanding of how resilient performance comes about, and especially how we might enhance it, or recognize that a system is losing it, has been difficult. This work uses system dynamics models to develop inductively a theory of activities resulting in resilient performance in complex systems, and to elaborate on previous representations of system resilience. Such models might be useful in two ways: explaining how resilient behaviours observed might come about; and exploring the temporal dynamics of changes in state (for example, suggesting leading rather than lagging indicators of performance).