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This paper is a systematic literature review of organizational resilience. It aims to identify the reasons for the unintended consequences that may occur when organizations pursue resilience and how these unintended consequences could be mitigated. The analysis of 68 articles published between 2017 and 2022 indicates that organizations could have unintended consequences when pursuing organizational resilience, resulting from the organizational resilience conceptualization, models, practices, levels and the paradox of change. Consequently, several unintended consequences may arise when implementing a resilience strategy. This includes lessened leadership effectiveness, the pursuit of unrealistic objectives, low organizational creativity and innovation, overreliance on a single strategy, compromised values, fragile relationships, a short-term focus and organizational culture. Therefore, the overall construct aspects of organizational resilience should be researched and analyzed further by gathering additional empirical data that sheds more light on these issues. Aside from the challenge of defining and measuring organizational resilience, there is variability in how organizational resilience is developed. It has also been operationalized in various ways, with limited insight into empirical methods to identify resilience against future hardships. Although the notion is promising, it has been criticized for being ambiguous and lacking a uniform explanation, diminishing its relevance for practice.
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PurposeThe business environment is increasingly volatile, complex, uncertain and ambiguous. Today, COVID-19 represents a super-disruption situation. This paper aims to explore small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') resilience from continuous improvement lenses. It explores the role of continuous improvement in building organizational resilience across SMEs.Design/methodology/approachA Delphi methodology has been adopted to capture evidence and opinions from 38 experts from several Jordan-based SMEs through three-online rounds.FindingsThe study finds that continuous improvement enhances SMEs' resilience in the short term and long term. It can translate the concept of resilience into tangible working constructs for SMEs in visualizing and making decisions about their risks, adapting, absorbing changes and prevailing over time. The role of continuous improvement in building organizational resilience is fourfold;continuous improvement is a cyclical process;it has a vital cultural aspect and can be considered a business philosophy. It also emphasizes a holistic change approach based on small but constant changes. However, SMEs' leaders must consider several issues for effective continuous improvement, including a continuous improvement culture and a results-focused approach.Originality/valueOrganizational resilience has been studied across various contexts;however, there are still unanswered questions for SMEs' resilience. This study contributes to theory and practice by examining the role of continuous improvement in SMEs' resilience.
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During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, the demand and supply for many products fluctuated. Thus, many companies around the globe have repurposed their operations and reconfigured their supply chains (SCs) to switch production and produce new products. Literature provided various models and frameworks to explain the concepts of supply chain resilience. However, it remains unclear how companies could quickly and temporarily repurpose their SCs and what are the required capabilities during the COVID‐19 crisis. Therefore, this study investigates the role of developing dynamic capabilities such as manufacturing, logistics, production capacity and procurement in facilitating production changeover. Based on 36 semistructured interviews conducted with multinational corporations, the study findings demonstrate four specific capabilities known as the 4Rs: retooling, repurposing, recalibrating and reconfiguring. Hence, the study provides a conceptual framework of operational resilience to understand how production changeover could be achieved. In addition, this 4Rs framework helps decision‐makers to improve SC resilience and capabilities when facing a crisis such as COVID‐19. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Contingencies & Crisis Management is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
Through the lens of entrepreneurial orientation, this study investigates operational practices that (small and medium-sized enterprises) have either adopted or improvised to support small and medium-sized enterprises? resilience in the face of coronavirus disease 2019. Qualitative data were collected through 43 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurial resource providers, owners and managers of several small and medium-sized enterprises across different industrial sectors in Jordan. The study contributes to the further understanding of small and medium-sized enterprises? resilience by conceptually advocating a five-pillars practitioner-grounded framework of small and medium-sized enterprises? resilience capability (efficiency-based capability, adaptive-capability, collaborative-capability, change-capability and learning-capability). Entrepreneurial orientation has been found to transition and mobilise small and medium-sized enterprises? resilience to survive major disruptions and threats. Entrepreneurial orientation, in this study, grounded on risk-taking, innovation and proactivity, facilitates developing new capabilities that shield the firm against different threats. Practically, the study suggests several recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises to meet the challenges of coronavirus disease 2019 and similar future major shocks. Notably, the study suggests that small and medium-sized enterprises should balance short-term operational actions with long-term strategic thinking to build a resilience capability pool.
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Purpose The business environment is increasingly volatile, complex, uncertain and ambiguous. Today, COVID-19 represents a super-disruption situation. This paper aims to explore small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') resilience from continuous improvement lenses. It explores the role of continuous improvement in building organizational resilience across SMEs. Design/methodology/approach A Delphi methodology has been adopted to capture evidence and opinions from 38 experts from several Jordan-based SMEs through three-online rounds. Findings The study finds that continuous improvement enhances SMEs' resilience in the short term and long term. It can translate the concept of resilience into tangible working constructs for SMEs in visualizing and making decisions about their risks, adapting, absorbing changes and prevailing over time. The role of continuous improvement in building organizational resilience is fourfold;continuous improvement is a cyclical process;it has a vital cultural aspect and can be considered a business philosophy. It also emphasizes a holistic change approach based on small but constant changes. However, SMEs' leaders must consider several issues for effective continuous improvement, including a continuous improvement culture and a results-focused approach. Originality/value Organizational resilience has been studied across various contexts;however, there are still unanswered questions for SMEs' resilience. This study contributes to theory and practice by examining the role of continuous improvement in SMEs' resilience.
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Purpose This study aims to answer the question of how firms can deal with the great bullwhip effects caused by COVID-19? Design/methodology/approach An exploratory research method has been adopted and evidence was collected based on 41 online interviews. Findings The study finds that the bullwhip effect is caused by the sudden changes in customers purchasing behaviour during the pandemic and the businesses' inaccurate anticipation of the situation. Managing the bullwhip effects caused by COVID-19 requires situation awareness, localisation and an intelligent supply chain. Situation awareness is a vital concept in emergency response, knowing what is going to figure out what should be done. Furthermore, reducing the geographical distances between the firm and other parties in the supply chain, which equates to supply chain localisation, enforces just-in-time inventory. Finally, supply chain digitalisation is no longer an option;implementing such a solution enables end-to-end visibility, collaboration, flexibility and optimisation of orchestration of the supply chain. Research limitations/implications This study presents indicators explaining how organisations can deal with the great bullwhip effects caused by COVID-19. Originality/value The ongoing outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant challenges for supply chain management, and this study contributes to the body of knowledge and proposes a model of reducing the bullwhip effects.