Building Resilience into the Organization

Abstract

Organizational resilience is defined as ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond, as well as adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and prosper. In the last decade(s), organizations have often lost their “natural” resilience because there was a high priority on superficial efficiency over a long period. But an exaggerated focus on efficiency leads to brittleness and weakness in living systems. There is not enough redundancy and diversity anymore to buffer uncertainty and permanent changes. To (re)balance our organizations, we have to become more flexible and robust at the same time, and systems have to enhance diversity and be more open to different opinions and alternatives.

In the last 10 years, psychosocial diseases have grown tremendously in German-speaking countries, with days absent due to psychosocial diseases growing 100% in Germany during this time. The main reason is depression often caused by burnout syndrome. Usually burnout is treated as a personal problem. However, there is a connection between frequency of burnout and the corporate culture. Companies must therefore treat hidden conflicts and unhealthy structures in their systems. Sane leadership feels the responsibility to foster a health-conscious (salutogenesis) organization.

In German-speaking countries, more and more pioneers—often smaller- and medium-sized companies—are realizing successful businesses in connection with resilient culture and structures, a healthy work environment embedded in a trusty corporate culture, and a high-level CSR policy. In this chapter four short case studies in German-speaking countries are presented.

Core statement of this chapter: Sane leadership and organizational resilience are the basis of widespread and all-embracing corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Paper presented for the 3rd International Conference on CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, Sustainable Management as a New Business Paradigm, Cologne, Germany (1st to 3rd of August 2016).