The words Resilience
and Resiliency
come from ecology and physics (see right side bar).
The terms, have, unfortuniately, become buzz words, with extensive, vague common usage. For our purposes, in discussing Organizational Resiliency, we avoid the vague common usage, rather use term based on it's technical formulation as developed by Wildavsky (1988)
Resilience theory and context
Organizational resiliency, as such, is undeveloped both empirically and theoretically. We therefore must draw upon other literatures, in particular:
These literatures serve as context and components:
- to what degree is organizational resilience a function of the resiliency of individuals within the organization?
- What is the relationship between individual, ecological, and organizational resiliency?
Definition from Colliers World English Dictionary:
ecology: the ability of an ecosystem to return to its original state after being disturbed
physics: the amount of potential energy stored in an elastic material when deformed
from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary:
1 : the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress
2 : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
Origin from Online Etymology Dictionary: 1620s, from Latin: resiliens , Present Perfect of resilire: "to rebound, recoil," from re- "back" + salire "to jump, leap"
[Retrieved January 25, 2011, from Dictionary.com]
Resilience Solutions Group, Arizona State University: What is Resilience?
What is Organizational Resilience?
These literatures also serve as analogy/metaphor:
- What are the mechanics of each type of resiliency?
- How are they similar or different?