Foreword: We launched Show Me the Science series to answer one recurring question: “Says who?” When asked to accept philosophies or theories, we’re naturally inclined to be cautious. We question things. Sometimes, even when you hear, “Science backs this up …” you don’t find solid references. Show Me the Science is full of real research citations. At Lead On, we don’t want you to wonder about the science behind Resilience and Grit. We’ll show it to you.
Today’s article:
Part 1: Resilience definitions.
Part 2: The fantastic book Building Resilience for Success: A Resource for Managers and Organizations (unless otherwise presented, citations appear at the end of this article).
Part 3: Launch of our Citations List for Resilience – how Lead On is curating relevant citations.
Here we go.
Part 1: Definitions. What is resilience and why are we talking about it?
Definitions abound … and this is not a bad thing. Dr. John Reich and his colleagues listed several definitions for resilience in their Handbook of Adult Resilience (2012 – citation at end of article). To summarize, the definitions involve successfully coping with adversity, stressful events, threats, challenge or risk. Because of this successful coping, we are:
- Less likely to have an emotional disorder under the stressful time; and
- Better able to deal with other future negative events when they arise.
Other definitions:
“… the process of negotiating, managing and adapting to significant sources of stress or trauma.”
[Windle, G., Bennett, K.M., & Noyes, J. (2011). A methodological review of resilience measurement scales, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 9(8), 1-18.]
“… effective coping and adaptation although faced with loss, hardship, or adversity.”
[Tugade, M.M. & Fredrickso, B.L. (2004). Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 86(2), 320-333.]
And the definition from the authors of the book discussed in Part 2 of this article:
“Resilience is being able to bounce back from setbacks and to keep going in the face of tough demands and difficult circumstances, including the enduring strength that builds from coping well with challenging or stressful events.”
[Cooper, C.L., Flint-Taylor, J., & Pearn, M. (2013). Building resilience for success: A resource for managers and organizations. United Kingdom: Palgrave MacMillan.]
Why are we talking about resilience? Because increasing individual resilience is a very effective way to manage stress in our lives. Stress is a gateway for numerous diseases and unhealthy habits, and it also just makes us feel bad. If we can find a healthy way to lower stress – and building resilience is a check in the Yes box – we want to do that.
Resilience helps us lead on rather than getting derailed or stuck.
Part 2: Quick overview of a solid resilience resource
If you’re searching for a robust, accessible and evidence-based resilience summary, I recommend the book Building Resilience for Success: A Resource for Managers and Organizations. Let’s take a look at what it offers.
The book begins by exploring individual (or personal) resilience, and then adds situation and work. We get historical perspective as well as practical advice. After that, building resilience is a strong focus. Four broad overlapping Personal Resilience Resources are presented: confidence, social support, adaptability, and purposefulness. You’ll find applied advice, including individual assessments, exercises, tips, and more. Helpfully, you’ll find lots of practical examples.
Strategies for building resilience on the organizational level are included to support individual resilience growth. Specific organization interventions are explored. The book concludes with a section on “The future of resilience and its role in achieving wider organizational objectives.”
Three effective tools for using the content from a practical perspective are conveniently included as appendices:
- A Short Guide to Using This Book
- Creating an Individual Resilience Plan
- Core Topics for Resilience Building
What makes Building Resilience for Success a hit? A lot.
It’s filled with research-based knowledge about resilience. It contains lots of practical things you can do, put into action, right now to build resilience. It’s a medium-easy read for the typical professional: not too simplistic, not too dense. It recognizes the multiple factors and levels of analysis resilience deserves: we see the individual, the organization, the situation, personality, historical perspective of how resilience has been researched … and more. Big thumbs-up for this book.
Part 3: Launching our Citations List for Resilience – how Lead On is curating relevant citations
What’s this?
Lead On is launching a Curated Citations list for resilience. The list lives on this site and includes relevant research citations deemed helpful for our readers.
You’ll see specific navigation instructions in the near future for where to locate the list on a regular basis. Today’s post is all about getting the list started.
The list includes journal articles, books, links to relevant websites that qualify as evidence-based, and other publications. We’ll link to journal article abstracts when possible; if the entire journal article is open source, we’ll provide that link.
We’ll begin with just a few and add more. Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to provide additional citations.
Note: As resilience is often studied within the domain of Positive Psychology, you’ll find references to Positive Psychology within our list where we believe it’s helpful.
Citations List Launch
Reich, J.W., Zautra, A.J., & Hall, J.S. (eds) (2012). Handbook of adult resilience. New York: The Guildford Press.
Cooper, C.L., Flint-Taylor, J., & Pearn, M. (2013). Building resilience for success: A resource for managers and organizations. United Kingdom: Palgrave MacMillan.
Bonanno, G.A. (2005). Resilience in the face of potential trauma, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(3), 135-138.
Selected Scholarly Articles, curated by the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, within Positive Psychology sub-domains – resilience, well-being, optimism, and more: https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/learn-more/readings-and-videos/selected-scholarly-articles
Positive Psychology Books: A Living List of Readings and Resources, curated by the Positive Psychology Program (an international organization whose founders are based in The Netherlands), within multiple Positive Psychology sub-domains: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/positive-psychology-books-living-list-readings-resources
Linnenluecke, Martina (2017). Resilience in business and management research: A review of influential publications and a research agenda, International Journal of Management Reviews, 19, 4–30
Pdf for the above: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijmr.12076
Jackson, D., Firtko, A., & Edenborough, M. (2007). Personal resilience as a strategy for surviving and thriving in the face of workplace adversity: A literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 60(1), 1-9.
Pdf for the above: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04412.x
This concludes our first Show Me the Science article about resilience. Stay tuned for more.
Lead On.
Recent Comments