Resilience in Teams

Prof. Dr. Martin Högl
Dr. Matthias Weiß
Silja Hartmann, M.Sc.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Betriebswirtschaft,
Institute for Leadership and Organization (ILO)

Because of the increasingly dynamic business environment, organizations and their employees are under constant pressure to adapt. In line with this, there is a tension between organizational change initiatives, which are necessary for organizations to remain competitive and preserve workplaces, and potential negative side effects of such measures on employees. For example, organizational restructuring and project terminations can lead to increased stress, health problems, and reduced motivation on the employee side. In this setting, the concept of resilience, which embraces positive adaptation despite adversity, is fundamental to investigate and understand how organizational actors can successfully respond to adversities, challenges, and setbacks without a decline in their performance or well-being.

Extant research on resilience at the workplace has largely focused on personal resilience on the individual level. This is unfortunate, considering that organizations increasingly rely on teams to be able to handle the growing complexity of tasks. Especially in knowledge intensive domains, teams have become the dominant organizational form. Hence, in our project we want to investigate the resilience of teams and thereby answer the following questions:

  • How can management plan, implement, and follow up organizational change initiatives in order to minimize the negative impact on a team`s efficiency, motivation, and well-being?
  • How can teams and their members themselves handle adverse situations in order to minimize negative side-effects?