Leadership perspectives on resilience capabilities for navigating disruption
Journal of Asia Business Studies
ISSN: 1558-7894
Article publication date: 14 August 2023
Issue publication date: 18 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted organizations, bringing in unforeseen situations and highlighting the need for organizational leaders to develop a capacity for resilience, i.e. the ability to recuperate, exhibit agility and rebound. Hence, this paper aims to explore leaders’ views on what resilience capabilities are needed to manage themselves, the team and the organization.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research study uses an in-depth interview tool and adopts a reflexive thematic analysis. The capabilities approach and resilience theory framework were applied to view resilience capabilities. The sample comprises 19 middle and senior leaders, both men and women, from the information technology Industry in India.
Findings
This study unravelled different capabilities to manage individuals, teams and organizations. The three key themes of resilience capabilities observed were as follows: self-leadership capabilities – where leaders focussed on capabilities that developed themselves; people leadership capabilities – which focussed on leading people and the team; and organisation-focussed leadership capabilities – which focussed on the macro level.
Originality/value
The findings of the study benefit organizations, leaders, human resource professionals, talent management strategists and academic leadership scholars to identify, train, conceive and deliver resilience capabilities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The Second Author would like to thank the CIAS (Corvinus Institute for Advance Studies) at Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary, for their support and encouragement.
Ethics approval: The data used in this study is part of a more extensive study that the Kasturba Hospital and Kasturba Medical College Ethics Committee approved dated 02/06/2021 with no 804–2020.
Citation
Albuquerque Pai, A., Anand, A., Pazhoothundathil, N. and Ashok, L. (2024), "Leadership perspectives on resilience capabilities for navigating disruption", Journal of Asia Business Studies, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 103-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-03-2023-0081
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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