Organizational resilience is defined as a firm’s ability to effectively absorb, develop a situation-specific response to, and ultimately create new ways of doing business and thrive as a consequence of adversity (Sutcliffe & Vogus, 2003). Prior studies suggest that resilient organizations are often associated with two seemingly opposing properties: reliability comprises a set of capabilities that enable a firm to return to normal quickly after disruptive events (Weick, 1993), whereas flexibility entails a stock of diverse and adjustable resources that facilitate innovative solutions to enable the firm not only to bounce back but also to bound forward and thrive after disruptions (DeJardine, Bansal, & Yang, 2019). However, reliable and flexible responses may involve different and often opposing sets of knowledge and capabilities. For instance, reliability requires fast and accurate perceptions, and improvisational behaviors, whereas flexibility requires envisioning of new uncertainties, explorational learning, and creative transforming (Li, 2020; Välikangas & Lewin, 2020). Given the challenge of balancing reliability and flexibility, we are curious about what factors drive resilient organizations to achieve reliability and flexibility in response to adversity.
In this commentary, we propose that good stakeholder relationships set a solid stage for fostering an organization’s reliability and flexibility, which ultimately builds organizational resilience. Stakeholders refer to groups and individuals who can affect, or are affected by, the strategic outcomes of a firm. Firms that manage for stakeholders have the potential to develop good stakeholder relationships, that is, trusting and reciprocal relationships between the firm and its various stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and the community at large (Harrison, Bosse, & Phillips, 2010). Such good stakeholder relationships encourage the sharing of visions, values, information, and material resources between the firm and its various stakeholders, which fosters the interdependency between the firm and its broader social and natural systems (DeJardine et al.,2019). We argue that such interdependency helps firms respond faster and more flexibly, thus finally improving their reliability and flexibility.
