Followership and relation- ships with unions. Creditworthiness (financial balance). Production technology and work organization. Customer relationships.
The Organizational Resilience Framework (ORF) By Stefan Tengblad and Margareta Oudhuis University of Skövde and University of Borås, Sweden December 2018
1) The Organizational Resilience Framework (ORF) is a holistic and nonleadership centric approach to organizational success and survival. It brings together several knowledge areas into a useful analytic framework. 2) The ORF combines five different levels of Organizational Resilience: 1. Traits, 2. Processes, 3. Capabilities, 4. Resources and 5. Prime Sources.
3) ORF builds on the evolutionary approach of organization science. This means that every organization is unique and is shaped by its formation and evolution over time. This in turn implies that there is a need for each organization to develop tailor-made solutions for maintaining resilience. 4) It is very difficult and often impossible to foresee the future. Therefore it is crucial for an organization to be able to deal with unanticipated events. 5) The ORF is broader than crisis management: it is more of an everyday habit performed over long periods of time and in competition for scarce resources with other organizations. 6) The evolutionary approach builds on the concepts of Variation, Selection and Retention (and this is the Prime Source level). The goal of an organization should be to reach stakeholder retention in the long run (several decades).
Variation
Selection
Retention
7) Retention is based on selected variation over-time and successful retention and can be referred to as Organizational Long-term Viability (OLV).
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8) OLV is achieved when the organization can maintain a proper balance between the three capabilities Reliability, Efficiency and Change capacity. The REC-triangle below is the third level of the ORF.
Reliability
Change capacity
Efficiency
9) Capabilities for organizational resilience are in turn based on various resources. The three main kinds of resources are Financial, Technical and Social resources, and the Organizational Resilience Resource Model, is the fourth level of the ORF: Financial resources
Technical resources
Social resources
Ability to pay (liquid assets)
Products and services
Followership and relationships with unions
Creditworthiness (financial balance)
Production technology and work organization
Customer relationships
Earnings capacity (cash flow and profitability)
Logistics and supply chains
Relationships with suppliers and partners
Financial contracts and economic rights
Information systems
Relationships with owners and other financiers
Intangible assets (e.g., patents and goodwill)
Technical know-how and innovation
Relationships with other stakeholders
10) Resources for resilience are often location and context specific, i.e. unique.
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11) Financial resources consist mainly of invested capital and earnings capacities. 12) Technical resources consist of all kinds of technical know-how and organizational processes. 13) Social resources consist of all kinds of relationships with stakeholders, both internal and external, and such relationships are based on trust. 14) While good leadership is not unimportant, the ORF in particular stresses the importance of good followership; i.e. employees that are responsible, active, cooperative, skillful and knowledgeable. 15) The second level of the framework – processes – can be understood by Eric Hollnagel’s responsive monitoring model: Anticipate, Monitor, Respond and Learn.
Anticipate Learn
Knowing what to expect
Knowing what has happened
Monitor Knowing what to look for
Respond Knowing what to do 16) The first level of the framework – traits – can be summarized with the concepts of Risk-Awareness, Preference for Cooperation, Agility, Improvisation Skills and Knowledge Integration.
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Risk-Awareness Preference for Cooperation Agility Improvisation Skills Knowledge Integration
17) Our, action-oriented, definition of Organizational Resilience is as follows: The resilient company or organization uses its financial, technical, and social resources: 1 to develop long-term skills and competences 2 in an efficient, reliable and flexible manner 3 in order to manage challenges and exploit opportunities.
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Reference: Tengblad, S. & Oudhuis, M. (Eds.) (2018) The Resilience Framework: Organizing for Sustained Viability. Singapore: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-105314-6
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