Emotional and organisational resilience: a strategic leadership perspective

Abstract

As a serving Director of Children’s Services with experience of leading in three quite different local authorities, I write from a strategic leadership perspective. This study develops a greater understanding of the challenges in recruiting and retaining social workers in Children’s Services and how frontline social workers and their leaders support their own and their organisation’s resilience. In addition, the study increases our understanding of the ways in which an organisation can support or undermine the resilience of its employees. As a serving Director of Children’s Services in a local authority, I was in a unique position to conduct insider research. I interviewed 41 social workers and senior leaders, around a third of the children’s social worker workforce, enquiring into any strategies they employed to support personal resilience and how they perceived the council influenced their development of personal resilience. I explore the informal and formal support structures created by social workers at all levels of leadership within the council, to create and sustain an environment which mitigates work pressures and enables social workers to thrive. I identify key themes arising from the data, for example how and why social workers ‘bend the rules’ and the importance of compassion and kindness in a resilient organisation. I explore how formal and informal support mechanisms influence both personal and organisational resilience. My research presents a new understanding of the ways in which individuals give and receive support in developing their resilience, alongside discussion of the relationship between individual resilience and the resilience of the organisation. I explore the power of the ‘unsung hero’ to support colleagues and influence their resilience outside formal support structures, alongside developing the concept of working in an ‘isolation bubble’ as a resilience support mechanism. This study confirms the importance of cultivating a learning culture within an organisation which recognises empathy, compassion, and kindness. My research led to the development of two theoretical models. The first illustrating the relationship between individual and organisational resilience, I termed the ‘Resilience Relationship model.’ The second illustrating the communication of information through a complex organisation I termed the

‘Resilience Web model.’

My research has led me to make recommendations from my perspective as a strategic leader.