The Organisational Resilience (OR) of Rural Non-Profits (RNPOs) under Conditions of the COVID-19 Pandemic Global Uncertainty

Grzegorz Tadeusz Paluszak,Joanna Alicja Wiśniewska-Paluszak,Jarosław Lira,Joanna Schmidt

doi:10.3390/agriculture11070670

Grzegorz Tadeusz Paluszak, Joanna Alicja Wiśniewska-Paluszak + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070670

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Abstract

The study investigated the organisational resilience (OR) levels of rural non-profit organisations (RNPOs) in the areas of activity or non-activity to adapt under the global uncertainty conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, in April/May 2020, the managers of 35 RNPOs located in Poland were queried. The Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρS), the coefficient of determination (R2) and a transformation coefficient (d) were primarily used to verify the hypotheses and interpret the relationships studied. The study revealed four OR descriptive levels—progressive (PR), sustainable (SR), regressive (RR), and downward (DR). The findings also show that the undertaken activities are related to the OR descriptive levels. RNPOs realised one of two adaptations: passive adaptation aimed at returning to the pre-pandemic original state with no changes may lead to a bounce backwards and an uncertain survival, whilst active adaptation leads to a transformation process between OR levels to move forward and thrive in adapting to post-pandemic changes. This study confirmed that building OR requires understanding the ways of transformations among OR levels to undertake activities in strategic areas, i.e., activity scope (AS), cooperation (CO), and finance (FI), to adapt and transform RNPOs’ in an environment of post-pandemic uncertainty.

Highlights

The condition of global uncertainty of modern economies and societies is a consequence of the increasing interconnections and multiple turbulences between countries and organisations
This study mainly investigates the relationships between descriptive levels of organisational resilience (OR) and the activities undertaken to build OR under the global uncertainty conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic
This study explores the activities undertaken by rural non-profit organisations (RNPOs) under the uncertain condition of the global COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The condition of global uncertainty of modern economies and societies is a consequence of the increasing interconnections and multiple turbulences between countries and organisations. It has become even more relevant in ‘black swan’ cases as the world faces unexpected stressors [1]. The unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic increase in uncertainty in the globalised world. International situations such as those recently caused by the financial crisis or health crisis appear in the collapse of some fragile organisations, while for others, survival is very challenging even with their robustness. In this context of ever-increasing global uncertainty, coping with OR requires increased knowledge on adapting to global uncertainty and building OR

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