Building resilience in the workplace: It’s complex, but managers can help
- May 13
- 4 min read
This is a research story reprint originally published in McGraw Hill’s “The Manager's Digest: Essential Reads for Leader”.
Being able to bounce back from tough times such as job loss, divorce, or a bad medical
diagnosis, is often called “resilience” in pop culture. However, resilience in the
workplace context is complex!
Why is resilience so hard to define?
Organizational researchers, who scientifically study resilience in the workplace, say
“resilience” is messy and may have many different meanings; yet, some consensus
exists that it has two main elements, namely experiencing adversity and positive
adaptation1. However, sometimes resilience is thought of as a stable trait (i.e., a
characteristic that doesn’t really change), a process (i.e., and ongoing endeavor to
develop resilience capabilities), or an outcome (i.e., what someone reaches after facing
adversity)2. Some researchers also say that resilience is a combination of a fluctuating
state, which can change throughout the day, and a stable trait3. In a nutshell, defining
resilience is complex!
The link between trauma and resilience
A common element across the different definitions of resilience mentioned above is
overcoming adversity, which can include experiencing trauma. However, trauma is also
not straightforward.
• When psychologists use the DSM-5, they define trauma as an exposure to
“actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence”4.
• However, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) says trauma is an experience that causes intense stress; more
specifically, trauma is “an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is
experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life-
threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning
and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being”5.
In terms of trauma’s prevalence, the National Comorbidity Survey states that about 61%
of men and 51% of women have experienced at least one trauma in their lifetime6.
Those are high percentages indicating that trauma is quite common, especially if
defined by SAMHSA’s more encompassing definition.
Where does trauma come from?
Although some experiences or exposures are clearly traumatic, many sources aren’t
always obvious and include acute events (e.g., sudden loss of a parent), chronic events
(e.g., long-term exposure to air pollution in a city), or complex circumstances (e.g.,
combination of a physical injury, gender discrimination, and anxiety). The high
prevalence of trauma coupled with the various events that can be traumatic, may
indicate that many employees have this adversity component needed for resilience,
present in their lives.
Experiencing positive adaptation & posttraumatic growth
The other component of resilience is a positive adaptation after adversity. If employees
experience trauma, whether at work or outside of work, to become resilient, that trauma
needs to be followed by a positive adaptation, which can look like posttraumatic growth.
Adversity and trauma can ignite positive change; for example, employees may become
aware of personal strengths, look into new opportunities, or grow spiritually7. In this
way, they gain something from the negative experiences while building resilience!
How is resilience understood in the workplace?
Taking all of this into consideration, in the organizational sciences, resilience research
can be grouped into developmental, proactive, and reactive “adaptability”8.
Developmental resilience is learning from tough times; proactive resilience is about
preparing for a not-yet-existent future hardship by developing resources; finally, reactive
resilience is a reaction to an acute stressor9. Moreover, resilience can apply to an
individual person, a team, or an entire organization.
For example:
• Despite the pandemic and burned-out colleagues, how does a project team
overcome an early setback and succeed in delivering results? (Developmental;
team context).
• How does a corporation, during good times, develop capabilities that can then be
used later when a recession comes? (Proactive; organizational context).
• How does an employee use emotions, behaviors, and thoughts to self-regulate
after a traumatic event at work, to reach high performance? (Reactive; individual
context).
What can managers do?
Of course, managers cannot know who is experiencing trauma, but they can help all
their employees by building psychological safety, by helping employees feel that they
can admit making a mistake or having a hard time10. For example, according to SHRM,
managers can: 1) reframe mistakes (e.g., share their own vulnerable mistakes), 2)
encourage all voices (e.g., have a devil’s advocate), 3) appreciate contributions (e.g.,
offer praise to those who talk about difficult topics), and 4) coach employees to help
each other (e.g., provide individual feedback)11. In this way, managers can help
employees take the likely adversity they are facing and respond with positive
adaptation, increasing the likelihood that employees build resilience.
Endnotes
1. Raetze et al., 2021
2. Raetze et al., 2021
3. Locke et al., 2020
4. APA, 2013 p. 271
5. SAMHSA, 2014, p. 7
6. Kessler et al., 1995
7. Tedeschi, 2020
8. Raetze et al., 2021
9. Raetze et al., 2021
10. Edmondson, 1999
11. Brassey et al., 2023
References
American Psychological Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders. (5th ed.) Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association
Brassey, J., DeSmet, A. & Kruyt, M. (2023). 4 Ways Leaders Can Build ‘Psychological
Safety’ in Their Work Teams. SHRM. REtrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/executive/
resources/articles/pages/leaders-build-psychological-safety-teams.aspx
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Kessler RC, Sonnega A, Bromet E, Hughes M, & Nelson CB. (1995) Posttraumatic
stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1995
Dec;52(12):1048-60. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1995.03950240066012. PMID: 7492257.
Lock, S., Rees, C. S., & Heritage, B., (2020). Development and validation of a brief
measure of psychological resilience: The state–trait assessment of resilience scale,
Australian Psychologist, 55:1, 10-25, DOI: 10.1111/ap.12434
Raetze, S., Duchek, S., Maynard, M. T., & Kirkman, B. L. (2021). Resilience in
organizations: An integrative multilevel review and editorial introduction. Group &
Organization Management, 46(4), 607-656.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2014). SAMHSA’s
Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. HHS Publication
No. (SMA) 14-4884. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration.
Tedeschi, R. G., (2020) Growth after trauma. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved
Author Bios
Dr. Réka Anna Lassu is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at
Pepperdine University. She researches employee wellbeing and leadership. Réka
earned her Ph.D. at the University of Central Florida. Visit www.rekaannalassu.com for
more info.
Charisma Greenfield & Hannah Schendel are Research Assistants in the Business
Administration Division of Seaver College – Pepperdine University. They are Business
Administration majors passionate about workplace well-being research.
Comments