Resilience beyond Formal Structures: A Network Perspective towards the Challenges of an Aging Workforce in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

Changes in workplace demographics in the oil and gas industry have raised a concern about the risks of a knowledge-loss crisis due to mass retirement. The industry response has often consisted of strategies aimed at mapping knowledge across organizational units, codifying knowledge in databases, and mentoring new staff. However, such common managerial responses show important limitations in terms of grasping tacit and network-based dimensions of knowledge in complex oil production operations. Therefore, there is an industrial need for innovative knowledge management practices. In this conceptual article, we look at the knowledge-loss crisis from the perspective of network resilience in complex systems. A central assumption here is that it is important to look at retiring staff not only in terms of their explicit knowledge, but also in relation to their roles in evolving networks of interactions. Why do some social systems adapt to the departure of some individuals, recover from eventual knowledge-loss crises, and keep performing its functions? From an anticipatory logic, network analysis may show the initial conditions of a system and identify possible loss scenarios. From an adaptive logic, network analysis may inform interventions aimed at facilitating processes of interactions from which new knowledge may emerge and spread. Integrated operations may be a step in this direction.

Organizational resilience in the oil and gas industry: A scoping review

“…Resilience engineering. System Petrochemical plant Resilience as an outcome Resilience promoting safety Bento and Garotti (2019) Conceptual A network analytic approach to resilience challenges brought changes in workplace demographics. System Production andIntegrated operations Resilience capabilities Not about safety Carlson (2018) Empirical Qualitative Renewal discourse in post-crisis communication and emphasis on preparedness facilitates dialogues about interdependencies among stakeholders.…”

“…Gomes et al (2008) focus on transport system safety and conceptualize resilience as an emergent system property related to variability at different levels and subsystems. Bento and Garotti (2019) discuss the challenges in workplace demographics to the knowledge dimension of oil and gas companies and suggest a network analytic perspective seeing resilience in the context of loss of experiential knowledge in everyday interactions. It is possible to observe that in spite of a variety in terms of research methods, none of the selected articles used Bayesian network models to address organizational resilience in this industry.…”

“…Bearing that in mind, it is possible to enquire if the evolutionary perspective informs the understanding of resilience in the selected literature of this scoping review. In response to this question, it is observed that although some articles (n = 6) ( Bento and Garotti, 2019 , Carlson, 2018 , Grabowski and Roberts, 2016 , Johnsen, 2012 ; Skjerve et al, 2012; Tveiten et al, 2012 ) make reference to adaptive processes, there is little in terms of articulating or investigating evolutionary processes related to resilience. The literature assumes in different forms a normative perspective towards resilience by focusing on indicators of resilience such as commitment, awareness and preparedness.…”

“…Such webs are characterized by emergent outcomes, sensitivity to initial conditions and feedback loops, and therefore difficult to predict and model. In organizational settings, there is a complex relation between formal structures and emergent webs of interactions ( Bento and Garotti, 2019 , Clement and Puranam, 2018 ).…”

Comprehensive Simulation and Redesign System for Business Process and Organizational Structure

“…In addition, the information about organizational structure was very restricted because of their limited process logs [19,38,39]. Although the integrated organizational ontology that can represent various relationships between organizational units was suggested to complement these limitations, it does not define the types of organizational units nor quantitatively evaluate the effects of various organizational unit relationships on business process performance [40][41][42][43][44].…”