There is an intrinsic relationship between organisational resilience and improving the
resilience of communities. Enabling the continued operation of organisations, in and
following crises, significantly impacts on the medium to long term recovery and health of the
wider community. Increased resilience is also important when considering the
interconnectedness of modern organisations, where disruptions can have significant and
widespread impacts globally. There is increasing demand for organisations to exhibit high
reliability in the face of adversity; decision makers must address not only the crises that they
know will happen, but also those that they cannot foresee.
The term resilience has been used freely across a wide range of academic disciplines and in
many different contexts. There is little consensus regarding what resilience is, what it means
for organisations and, more importantly, how organisations might achieve greater resilience
in the face of increasing threats. This study offers a definition of resilience that is applicable
to organisations.