Resilient Agility: A Necessary Condition for Employee and Organizational Sustainability

Abstract

Resilient agility is a novel concept that refers to the combined resilience-agility capability that allows an actor to successfully perform in rapidly changing contexts. Change dynamics, at all levels, increase uncertainties and responsibilities for employees augmenting the need to strengthen the self via resilient agility. This study examines employee resilient agility as anteceded by supervisors’ safety, coworkers’ safety, workplace belongingness, job satisfaction, willingness to embrace organizational change, and creativity. Respondents are from multiple organizations, industries, and regions of the United States. Analyses were carried out utilizing PLS-SEM software. Findings indicate that supervisors’ safety, workplace belongingness, willingness to embrace organizational change, and creativity have substantial effects on explaining and understanding employees’ resilient agility. In contrast, the effects of coworkers’ safety were insignificant. This study (a) contributes to the nomological network of resilient agility by examining a set of its key antecedents and (b) suggests that drastic organizational restructuring (e.g., significant changes in the relative proportion of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic) may negatively impact both relational-based constructs in organizations and employees’ ability to rapidly and effectively respond to change. Theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations and future research are discussed.