Social-Ecological Resilience: The Role of Organizations Amidst Panarchy

In this article we develop a model of social-ecological resilience for organizations in complex and rapidly changing social-ecological systems. We find that the existing literature on resilience in management journals focuses on the organizational level or the resilience of organizations. This body of work centers on the adaptation of organizational structures and processes to changing environmental conditions and the ability of the organization to survive in the future. In order to develop our model, we draw on Gunderson and Holling’s (2002) theory of change in social-ecological systems, panarchy. We use panarchy to contribute to the growing literature on resilience in organization studies by developing a multi-level model of the role of organizational change in social- ecological systems. We contribute to the literature by focusing on the interconnections of organizations with social-ecological systems and the dynamic feedbacks that exist between organizations and social-ecological systems. We conclude by offering insights for managers and future research directions.