Designing for dynamic stability in an uncertain world: A media content study of the aviation industry

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused radical restructuring of many industries including the aviation industry. Seeking a deeper understanding of how organizations are responding to this disruption, we use media content analysis of 331 news articles to extract approaches used in the aviation industry in response to Covid-19 and clustered them in six categories: research, reframe, repurpose, reimagine, redesign and resile (be resilient). We suggest that, taken collectively, these six approaches may provide a framework that companies might leverage to achieve dynamic stability – the ability of a system to arrive at a steady (previous or new) state after a significant disturbance – as the ecosystems in which they operate continue to change and evolve. The framework provides guidance for developing resilience in the face of both short-and long-term change.