The socio‐organizational and human dynamics of resilience in a hospital: The case of the COVID‐19 crisis

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze COVID-19 crisis management from the perspective of organizational resilience. An empirical study was conducted from April to June 2020 in one French hospital in Paris. The study focused on the organizational changes implied by the 'all COVID-19 strategy', the success factors facilitating the organizational resilience, and the difficulty factors. We show that organizational resilience in this case was based on a link between the anticipation and adaptation processes. This capacity for resilience can also be organized using an original structure that connects strategic decisions with the reality on the ground, takes account of the demands and constraints of operational actors, and offers them the necessary support. The description and analysis of real work carried out by operational actors illustrates the contribution made by expertize to organizational resilience, and the social dynamics of the adaptation process. Finally, the emotional aspects, rarely featured in the literature, are highlighted as an intrinsic element of a crisis. The results will provide evidence to help better understand crisis management and feedback to strengthen the management of future crises.

Organizational innovation under constraints: The case of covid patients’ flow management in Parisian hospitals

“…It shows the importance of sensemaking in healthcare emergency settings and highlights the key role of coordination practices. 22 This case also highlights some of the conditions that facilitate the transition from invention (i.e. the new idea) to innovation (i.e.…”

“…It shows the importance of sensemaking in healthcare emergency settings and highlights the key role of coordination practices. 22…”

A proactive learning approach toward building adaptive capacity during COVID-19: A radiology case study

“…One recent study by De La Garza and Lot (2022) shared a similar focus on organizational resilience in a hospital during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was primarily based on the perspectives of the hospital's crisis management team gathered through interviews and recorded staff meetings, and found a strong relationship between anticipation and adaptation at various organizational levels.…”

“…Several of the exemplars of adaptation identified through the current implementation of RETIPS at this hospital are similar to adaptations reported by other studies, such as altered entry pathways for patients, availability of procedures for use of PPE, and communication and information flow ( Ertl-Wagner et al, 2020 ; Stennett et al, 2022 ; Tan et al, 2020 ). However, certain other adaptations reported in the literature were not mentioned, such as the creation of back-up teams, provision of mental health support to staff, or reconfiguring organizational crisis management structures ( De La Garza and Lot, 2022 ; Stennett et al, 2022 ). Interestingly, the responses did not reflect the issue of elevated patient volumes, but did reflect concerns about handling infected or high-risk patients.…”

Pandemic publishing: A bibliometric review of COVID‐19 research in the crisis and disaster literature

“…The well‐versed crisis scholars will recognize that these topics are well‐known within the crisis management literature, but often discussed separately by different communities of researchers. The COVID‐19 studies that focus on resilience illustrate this, as in the individual articles, resilience is studied at different levels, ranging from specific organizations, supply chain logistics, and broader disaster response systems (Dwaikat et al, 2022 ; de La Garza & Lot, 2022 ). The studies discuss the necessity of developing dynamic capabilities in logistics and production capacity, recalibrating and reconfiguring operations, as well as the importance of emotions as an intrinsic element of resilience during pandemic governance.…”