Relationships, Layoffs, and Organizational Resilience

Abstract

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, affected the U.S. airline industry more than almost any other industry. Certain airlines emerged successful and demonstrated remarkable resilience while others languished. This investigation identifies reasons why some airline companies recovered successfully after the attacks while others struggled. Evidence is provided that layoffs after the crisis, although intended to foster recovery, instead inhibited recovery throughout the 4 years after the crisis. But, layoffs after the crisis were strongly correlated with lack of financial reserves and lack of a viable business model prior to the crisis. Digging deeper, the authors find that having a viable business model itself depended on the development and preservation of relational reserves over time. Our model shows that the maintenance of adequate financial reserves enables the preservation of relational reserves and vice versa, contributing to organizational resilience in times of crisis.

Why resilience managers aren’t resilient, and what human resource management can do about it

“…Relationships between individuals have been proved to be critical in producing resilient organisations (Gittell, 2008 ;Gittell et al, 2006;Stephens et al, 2013), and yet we find that resilience mangers often lack access to internal 'relational resources' (Powley, 2009) for a number of inter-connected reasons. Resilience managers can also lack self-efficacy, in the face of stigmatisation, and are therefore not sufficiently able to assert themselves which in turn undermines the legitimacy and influence of resilience work.…”

“…Gittell et al, 2006;Weick, 1993), and yet, the detailed interplay appears not to have been explicitly described (Jaaron & Backhouse, 2014). In this section, we describe a number of processes by which individual resilience influences organisational resilience.…”

“…We propose therefore that conceptual taints both directly and indirectly undermine organisational resilience, through the absence and degradation of social resources such as 'social-capital' (Lengnick-Hall et al, 2011) and 'relational reserves' (Gittell et al, 2006;Powley, 2009). These effects are magnified because resilience managers can't do their job in isolation.…”

Continuity Culture: A Key Factor for Building Resilience and Sound Recovery Capabilities

“…Resilient organizations are those able to undertake and maintain positive adjustment under challenging conditions (Cheng 2007;Van Gorder 2013). This, according to Gittell et al (2006), involves the ability to bounce back from untoward events and the capacity to maintain a desirable level of functioning during and after major incidents. Resilience represents the level of tolerance and draws on the procedures required to cope with adversity in order to survive.…”

Responsible Leadership as Virtuous Leadership

“…For example, honesty, transcendent meaning, caring and giving behavior, gratitude, hope, empathy, love, and forgiveness, among other virtues, have been found to predict desired outcomes, such as individuals' commitment, satisfaction, motivation, positive emotions, effort, physical health, and psychological health (Andersson et al 2007;Giacalone et al 2005;Fry et al 2005;Kellett et al 2006;Gittell et al 2006;Luthans et al 2007;Dutton and colleagues 2006;Grant 2007;Snyder 1994;Sternberg 1998;Seligman 2002;Peterson and Bossio 1991;Harker and Keltner 2001;McCullough et al 2000;Emmons 1999). While relatively few studies have investigated virtuousness in the leadership of organizations, a limited number of investigations have explored the effects of virtuous leadership on organizational performance.…”