Developing resilience in our work communities

Richard Kasperczyk
Managing Director

Natural disasters and human resilience

As we witnessed many natural disasters during the last few months, from floods, to fires, to earthquakes and tsunamis, you could not help but wonder about the human capacity for survival, optimism in the midst of adversity and even helping others – all hallmarks of building a stronger community. 

Despite experiencing so much trauma and devastation, generally speaking, people have a vast capacity and determination to overcome their setbacks, demonstrating seemingly miraculous stores of resilience.  And it can make you wonder – would I have the same reservoir of resilience when needed?

Psychosocial resilience

The concept of psychosocial resilience is a metaphor borrowed from physics.  It originally described the capacity of a physical material or system to return to equilibrium after a displacement.   In physics, the important measure of resilience is not how large the initial displacement is, but the speed with which the original state is returned.  

This presents a powerful image of resilience when applied to people and their psychosocial systems.   It is in essence the human capacity to bounce back from adversity, trauma, conflict, and failure (or even significant
life-changing positive events).

Until recently, human resilience has been studied mostly in clinical settings, for example, amongst teenagers who lived through traumatic experiences in their childhood.  The focus has been on describing the dynamic process of adaptation or adjustment to the situation involving some risk or exposure to adversity.

Resilience in the workplace

Resilience has emerged in the last decade as one of the factors of the key human capacity related to successful performance at work – referred to as “psychological capital”.  The four components currently included in this construct are:

• Realistic self-confidence (or self-efficacy) – the conviction of employees that they have what it takes to mobilise their mental resources and carry out the courses of action required to achieve well-designed work goals;
• Hope – a positive motivational state, based on a valid sense of personal goal-directed energy and pathways to realise these goals;
• Optimism – a style of interpreting what happens in life and work as open to personal influence yet stable and applicable to a variety of situations;
• Resilience – a developable capacity to bounce back from adversity, conflict and failure and to build on progress and increased responsibility ".1

Developing the capacity for resilience in an individual

It is important to note that these factors (especially the last three) can be developed.  Research also shows that not only are these open to development but they also relate to performance outcomes at work. For example, a significant relationship was found between the resilience of workers undergoing significant change and their supervisory rated performance.  Resilience has also been found to be related to work attitudes of satisfaction, and commitment. 2

There is now considerable evidence that resilience is open to development 3 and various methods have proven successful in building resilience 4.  From the same research we also know that resilient individuals are more likely and better equipped to deal with the stressors in a constantly changing workplace environment, as they are open to new experiences, flexible to changing demands, and show more emotional stability when faced with adversity. 

The implications for our workplaces are that we can do something proactive to develop individuals’ capacity to be more resilient and simultaneously build a supportive climate that is linked to higher performance.  It is important to focus on developing the employees’ psychological capital as a leverage point. 2  

How resilient are you?

To measure resilience, the proponents of the psychological capital construct have used the scale of Wagnild and Young published in 1993.5  It is a 25-item scale that includes statements such as:

• I do not dwell on things that I can’t do anything about
• When I make plans I follow through with them
• I can usually find something to laugh about
• I can usually look at a situation in a number of ways.

Even these four cognitive habits are worth reflecting on.  Would you say you agree with these statements referring to yourself?  If you would like to check your own level of resilience on the full scale, the test is available for free on this website: www.resiliencescale.com

Though little can compare to the human capacity for resilience when disasters or trauma strike, the role of resilience in our work communities cannot be overlooked.  It is a powerful indicator of performance, a hallmark of successful change processes, and worth investigating further.

© ResolutionsRTK 2011 | Ezine | Volume 5 | Issue 1 | March 2011