Not if, but when we need resilience in the workplace

• Date: 01 July 2016
• Author: Danielle D. King,Fred Luthans,Alexander Newman
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2063

Not if, but when we need resilience in the

workplace

DANIELLE D. KING

1

*, ALEXANDER NEWMAN

2

AND FRED LUTHANS

3

1

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A.

2

Monash University, Caufield East, Vic, Australia

3

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, U.S.A.

Summary Workplace resilience is a necessity for organizations and employees given it assists them in overcoming

adversity and ultimately succeeding. However, organizational scholars have largely overlooked this construct.

In this Incubator, we briefly summarize extant research on workplace resilience to highlight opportunities for

theory building and advancement of empirical research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: employee resilience; workplace resilience; organizational resilience; psychological capital

There is really no need to remind readers of the turbulent nature of the environment facing today’s organizations.

Regardless of size, type, level, or location, this environment has caused all organizations to undergo dramatic

change, become increasingly complex, and experience competitive pressures. For example, organizations have

had to incorporate technological advances into their business models, meet the differential needs of diverse

employees and clients, and deal with changing government policies and regulations. The result has been, is, and will

be severe challenges and adversity for individuals, groups/teams, and organizations. How they respond to this now-

inevitable adversity, that is, their resilience, has emerged as a key, strategically important organizational behavior for

success, growth, and even survival.

Although resilience has been recognized in theory, measurement, and research for a number of years in other

fields (e.g., clinical and developmental psychology) and applied to the workplace at all levels of analysis, it still

needs much better understanding, and is severely under-researched in Organizational Behavior. We feel resilience

in the workplace meets Wright’s (2013) call for incubation of very important, impactful organizational behavior con-

structs that are more than germinations, but also are not fully evolved. Our intent with this Incubator is to present

some of the background and meaning of resilience to help identify and stimulate needed theory development and

research on its application in the workplace.

Background on Resilience

Although the roots of resilience theory and research go all the way back to the identification of risk factors that led to

mental dysfunctions, the first recognized wave in the historical evolution of resilience focused on individual, social,

and environmental factors and characteristics of those who overcame adversity versus those who did not. This was

followed by investigations of how these factors contributed to resilience, then resilience-building developmental

interventions, and finally to the so-called fourth-wave role that genetic, neurological, and developmental factors

may play. There has also been considerable supporting research that has focused on the first wave of individual

*Correspondence to: Danielle King, Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A. E-mail: dnllking@gmail.com

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 2 October 2015, Accepted 1 November 2015

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 782–786 (2016)

Published online 18 November 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.2063

The Incubator