Toward a resilient organization: analysis of employee skills and organization adaptive traits

Abstract

The concept of resilience is complex, and research on what contributes to public sector organizational resilience outcomes and how to effectively model resilient organization is still in its infancy. The purpose of this study is to apply the Employee–Organization Relationship (E-O-R) framework to understand the relationship between employees’ skillsets, organizational traits and organizational resilience. Data for this study was obtained from a survey of 312 employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the largest public land management agency in the US that plays a critical role in serving millions of tourists. The findings indicate that although employees perceived themselves as having skills that are adaptive, they had very low confidence in the organization’s ability to adapt, thus perceiving the organization to have low resilience. Findings suggest that organizational traits such as safe/secure working environment, thinking beyond the status quo, including the right people in decisions, and effective long-term planning are perceived by employees as critical for organizational resilience. The findings also suggest that employees’ perceived organizational resilience differs by generational cohorts. Theoretical and practical implications in building resilient public land/protected area management organizations are discussed.