Between Sponge and Titanium:Designing micro and macro features for the resilient organization

Contemporary organizations are increasingly asked to deal with high levels of environmental uncertainty, complexity and equivocality, struggling not only with strong competitive pressures but also with increasing uncertainty related to sociopolitical and economic trends. When organizations and their members are confronted with crises, economic distress, and ‘ugly’ surprises resilience is crucial to their survival. In this sense, promoting resilience has become a major strategic concern for organizations. Building on the hybridity of the metaphorical concepts – sponge and titanium - this chapter draws an original proposal on the macro and micro design features for resilient organizations. We suggest that managers should intervene on both macro and micro features in order to promote organizational resilience.