Let's explore Van Breda’s conceptual model of organizational resilience.

Resilience of the worksplace system
Resilience of the staff
Resilience of the service model

Van Breda (2016) suggests that actively developing the following systems-level resilience factors will contribute to a more robust and resilient organization.

Human service organizations can build the resilience of their workplace system by regularly stepping back from the work they do and from their concern for individual employees, to think systemically about their organization as a system.

Select the cards to learn about the systems-level resilience factors.

Systems theory suggests that a system is greater than the sum of its parts. Similarly, equating the resilience of individuals within an organization with the resilience of the organization itself ignores systems-level components of organizational resilience.

Nevertheless, the resilience of individual staff is a vital component of the overall resilience of any organization. Staff resilience relates to several dimensions, including their social and emotional competence, as well as their sense of self.

Human service organizations can build the resilience of their staff by attending proactively to the impact of work stress on employee well-being.

Van Breda (2016) argues that human service organizations should provide services from a resilience framework.

Organizations can build the resilience-orientation of their service model by engaging in a critical review of the organization’s mission, models, measures, and methods through the lens of resilience theory.

Attention to organizational resilience contributes to more stable and robust organizations that are responsive to adversity and risks in the environment.

Now that you have learned about building resilient human service organizations, select “Next” to learn about engaging staff in organizational assessment.