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Organizational resilience: Nonprofit organizations' response to change

Hope Witmer¹, Marcela Sarmiento Mellinger²

¹Urban Studies Department and Centre for Work Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA), Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.

Work (Reading, Mass.)

|May 28, 2016

Abstract

Background:

Organizational resilience refers to the ability to respond productively to significant disruptive change and transform challenges into opportunities. There is a gap in the literature about resilient nonprofit organizations and its application for identifying organizational conditions for successful adaption to external variables that threaten their existence.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to identify organizational characteristics that point to the resilience of nonprofit behavioral healthcare organizations as they successfully adapt to funding changes.

Methods:

A multiple case study of two behavioral health nonprofit organizations was conducted. Data was collected through interviews and focus groups, and analyzed through a qualitative content analysis.

Results:

Using the framework of resilience, six themes that equipped these organizations to successfully adapt to funding changes were identified. They included: commitment to the mission, improvisation, community reciprocity, servant and transformational leadership, hope and optimism, and fiscal transparency.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest that incorporating these qualities into an organizational system equips it to systematically adapt to funding changes and other disruptive challenges. Using resilience as a process and not simply an outcome after recovery, nonprofit organizations can have the capacity to continuously respond to challenges and provide uninterrupted and valuable services to society.

Keywords:

Resilience healthcare nonprofit leadership organizational adaptability

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