When the Symphony Does Jazz: How Resourcefulness Fosters Organizational Resilience during Adversity

Using a grounded theory study of two prominent performing arts organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, we develop theory about how organizations respond to adversity over time. Building on research on resilience, resourcefulness and crisis management, we induce a process model that unpacks the mechanisms and dynamics that enable organizations to act resiliently. We find organizations approach adversity using two types of resourcefulness. Promotive resourcefulness focuses on opportunities from adversity, which leads to acting resiliently. We show how promotive resourcefulness becomes sustained over time by endogenously producing resources– crisis agency, trust and hopefulness – which expands an organization’s identity and leads to resilient acts. In contrast, preventative resourcefulness focuses on minimizing worst case outcomes, which leads to a lost organizational identity and relatively weak adversity adjustment. We find that preventative resourcefulness becomes part of cycles that erode trust, limit crisis agency and generate hopelessness. Additionally, we explain how financial, emotional and operational updating can shift preventive to promotive resourcefulness, allowing organizations to act resiliently later in a crisis. Our findings unpack critical mechanisms and processes that explain whether and how organizations act resiliently over time.