Resilience management - readiness and response
Resilience management is an approach that seeks to build and enhance an organization's ability to withstand and adapt to disruptions, whether they be internal or external. The big idea behind resilience management is to create an environment that enables organizations to quickly recover from unexpected events and continue to operate effectively, even in the face of adversity.
To achieve this goal, resilience management involves a wide range of strategies and practices, including risk assessment, contingency planning, crisis communication, and staff training. By implementing these measures, organizations can identify potential threats and develop the capacity to respond to them in a timely and effective manner.
While resilience management has many benefits, it also has its limitations. One of the main challenges is that it can be difficult to anticipate every possible threat or disruption that an organization may face, making it hard to prepare for all eventualities. Additionally, resilience management can be resource-intensive, requiring significant investments in training, technology, and personnel. Despite these challenges, the importance of resilience management cannot be overstated. In today's fast-paced and unpredictable business environment, organizations that are able to quickly adapt and recover from disruptions are much more likely to succeed. By adopting a resilience management approach, organizations can create a culture of preparedness that enables them to respond to unexpected events with confidence and agility, ultimately enhancing their ability to thrive in an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace.
Contents |
Big idea
State of the art
What is meant by resilience?
The current understanding of managing resilience within organizations emphasizes the importance of taking a holistic and proactive approach to build resilience at individual, team, and organizational levels. This includes creating a culture that supports resilience, investing in training and development programs, developing contingency plans and risk management strategies, and using data and feedback to continuously improve resilience management practices.
Several studies have shown that organizations that prioritize resilience management are more likely to be successful in adapting to change, achieving their goals, and maintaining high levels of employee engagement and well-being. However, implementing resilience management requires a long-term commitment and a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances. [1]
What are the key elements of resilience management?
Resilience management is an approach that helps organizations prepare for and adapt to disruptions, whether they are caused by internal or external factors. This approach applies to project, program, and portfolio management in order to mitigate risks and ensure successful delivery. [2] The main aspects of resilience management include:
1. Risk identification and analysis: This involves identifying potential risks that could impact the project, program, or portfolio, and analyzing their potential impact on the organization.
2. Risk mitigation and management: After identifying the risks, mitigation strategies should be developed and implemented to minimize the impact of the identified risks. This includes contingency planning, crisis management, and business continuity planning.
3. Stakeholder engagement and communication: Effective communication is essential for building resilience. Stakeholders should be kept informed of potential risks and the organization's plans for mitigation.
4. Organizational culture and leadership: The organization's culture and leadership play a critical role in building resilience. Leaders should prioritize resilience management and create a culture that encourages employees to think proactively about identifying and mitigating risks.
What is difference between risk and resilience?
Risk and resilience are related concepts but have distinct meanings in the context of program and portfolio management. Risk refers to the likelihood and impact of potential future events that may affect the success of a program or portfolio. Risks can be identified, assessed, and managed through risk management processes and techniques. On the other hand, resilience refers to the ability of a program or portfolio to adapt and recover from unexpected challenges or disruptions. Resilience involves building the capacity to absorb and respond to shocks and stresses, while continuing to deliver expected outcomes. In other words, risk management is focused on mitigating the likelihood and impact of potential future events, while resilience is focused on building the ability to respond to events that have already occurred or could not be predicted. Both risk management and resilience are important components of effective program and portfolio management.
Historical perspective
- Where does resilience management come from and what are the underlaying causes of the increasing importance of the topic over the last decades?
Application
Case analysis: BP and Deepwater Horizon
- This section will shortly analyse the case of the incident of Deepwater Horizon and which mistakes were made leading to this disaster regarding resilience management.
Essential parameters for resilient project management
- The essential themes of resilient project management are mentioned in this paragraph to highlight the interdependencies between each of them.
Limitations
Measurements of resilience
- Are there indices which enable the measurement of resilience and therefore, ensure an assessment whether a project is able to recover from arising uncertainties in the environment.
Limiting factors
- What are the limiting parameters of implementing resilient management structure within an organization?
References
- ↑ Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. E., & Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (2011). Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 21(3), 243-255.
- ↑ El-Tawil, S., & Svetinovic, D. (2014). Resilience management in networked infrastructure systems. In Resilience engineering in practice (pp. 109-126). Ashgate Publishing.
1.Blay, Karen B. (2017): Resilience in projects: definition, dimensions, antecedents and consequences. Loughborough University. Thesis. https://hdl.handle.net/2134/27531
2.Frigotto, M.L., Young, M., Pinheiro, R. (2022). Resilience in Organizations and Societies: The State of the Art and Three Organizing Principles for Moving Forward. In: Pinheiro, R., Frigotto, M.L., Young, M. (eds) Towards Resilient Organizations and Societies. Public Sector Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82072-5_1
3.Stefan Tengblad, Margareta Oudhuis (2017). The Resilience Framework: Organizing for Sustained Viability. https://doi-org.proxy.findit.cvt.dk/10.1007/978-981-10-5314-6
4.Leichenko, Robin & Mcdermott, Melanie & Bezborodko, Ekaterina. (2015). Barriers, Limits and Limitations to Resilience. Journal of Extreme Events. 2.
5.Alfonso Natale, Thomas Poppensieker, and Michael Thun 2022, From risk management to strategic resilience, McKinsey & Company, accessed 19. February 2023, <https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/from-risk-management-to-strategic-resilience>
