RESILIENT LEADERSHIP. QUALITATIVE STUDY ON FACTORS INFLUENCING ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE AND ADAPTIVE RESPONSE TO ADVERSITY

Abstract

Given the turbulent environment that governments and citizens across the globe faced in the last two years (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), one concept seems to stand out as extremely valuable in this context: resilience. Resilience, understood as the capacity of a system to bounce back from adversity, becomes a key component in the equation of post-pandemic evolution and recovery. Resilient leadership is just one of the multiple derived applications of the general resilience concept, referring (in an institutional set-ting) to the capacity of leaders to turn out positive results despite adverse conditions. Based on qualitative research consisting of 10 interviews conducted with women leaders (from the private and non-profit sectors) during the last 18 months, our results show that governmental response (regulation and support) and financial pressures have been the major organizational challenges no matter the sector, while organizational dimension seems to have an influence on the capacity to adapt and respond to adversity. Gender does not seem to play a role in the response provided to the crisis.