The Resilience Framework: Organizing for Sustained Viability is a book about organizational prosperity and survivability. Its theoretical framework poses achallenge to many schools of management thought in that it recognizes the complexity and unpredictability of managers’ and leaders’ work. A key theme is that organizations and leaders must be prepared and willing to deal with the inevitable occurrence of unexpected events by using their financial, technical, and social resources in ways that empower employees in lateral as well as horizontal decision-making processes. The book’s chapters are based on empirical research conducted at many real companies and in many important business areas. The empirical chapters, for example, present case studies of such events as the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the rise and fall of Circuit City, the turn-around of afashion company, and many others.
The book presents two new theoretical managerial models: (1) an organizational resilience resource model based on a combination of financial, technical, and social resources; and (2) an organizational capability model that incorporates the three key concepts of reliability, efficiency, and change capacity. Within the framework of organizational resilience, these models can be used to analyse what makes some organizations viable and others not, to integrate important spheres of knowledge into managerial operations, and to understand the role of boards and top managers who work in complex and uncertain environments. While the book offers no easy recipes for achieving organizational resilience, it does offer a holistic explanation of the challenges modern organizations must master.