Social Capital as a Strategy to Achieve Organizational Resilience for Small and Medium Enterprises: A Grounded Theory Approach

Document Type : Research/Original/Regular

Authors

1 PhD Student of Organizational Behavior Management, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran; Human Resources Manager at Basalam

2 Associate Professor, Department of Public Management, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Psychology &Education, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

If we deem that the organization is an open system and must manage internal and external shocks, we in fact believe that the organization should be resilient; however, there are usually obstacles to achieving this concept. The aim of the present study is to identify the process of the formation of resilience in small and medium organizations through interpretive philosophy, fundamental orientation, qualitative method, and grounded theory approach. The statistical population was comprised of the managers and employees of small and medium companies active in the pharmaceutical industry and the statistical sample was made up of 45 of them. Eighty eight percent of the sample had university education and 51% had postgraduate education. Also, 88% had more than 5 years of work experience. The results showed that the lack of organizational cohesion is the main cause of the creation of a context in which impulses constantly change the direction of the organization and take it out of its original direction. In the present study, this was called vulnerability. In fact, the main reason for the vulnerability of the organization is the lack of cohesion, which can be seen in organizational stress, low productivity, and the loss of growth opportunities. The way out of vulnerability was found to be social capital, because there are ongoing risks inside and outside the organization that must be monitored and managed to achieve resilience. After going through these steps, if social capital is well established and strengthened and intervening factors such as the quality of communication do not negatively affect it, it can be hoped that the organization has reached some kind of depth and tranquility, which is called resilience.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Aleksi, A., Stefanovi, M., Arsovski, S., & Tadi, D. (2014). “An Assessment of Organizational Resilience Potential in SMEs of the Process Industry, A Fuzzy Approach”, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 26, pp. 1238-1245.
  2. Aleksic, A., Stefanovic, M., Arsovski, S., & Tadic, D. (2013) “An assessment of organizational resilience potential in SMEs of the process industry: Fuzzy approach”, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 26, pp. 1238-1245.
  3. Alexander, D. E. (2013). “Resilience and disaster risk reduction: An etymological journey”, Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 13, pp. 2707–2716.
  4. Amiri, M., Ulfat, L., Faizi, K., & Salehi Abarghavi, M.A. (2018). “Designing a Model for Organizational Flexibility”, Productivity Management Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 44, pp. 35-65. (in Persian 
  5. Angeon, V. & Bates, S. (2015). “Reviewing composite vulnerability and resilience indexes: A sustainable approach and application”, World Development, 72, pp. 140-162.
  6. Annarelli, A. & Nonino, F. (2016). “Strategic and operational management of organizational resilience: Current state of research and future directions”, Omega, 62, pp. 1-18.
  7. Ates, A. & Bititci, U. (2011). “Change process: A key enabler for building resilient SMEs”, International Journal of Production Research, 49 (18), pp. 5601-5618.
  8. Azusa, K. & Hiroyuki, Y. (2013). “Organizational Resilience: An Investigation Of Key Factors That Promote The Rapid Recovery Of Organizations”, Academic Journal Of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. 2, No. 9, pp. 188-194.
  9. Banaei, A.H., Zareie-Matin, H., Mazinani-Shariati, S. (2019). “A Systematic View to Concept of Social Capital: What is? Why and How?”, Social Capital Management, Vol. 6, No. 1. (in Persian)

10. Brown, C., Seville, E., & Vargo, J. (2017). “Measuring the organizational resilience of critical infrastructure providers: A New Zealand case study”, International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, 18, pp. 37-49. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcip.2017.05.002

11. Center for Economic Research and Studies, Economic Deputy of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (2019). “What is the share of small and medium enterprises in the Iranian economy?”, pp. 1-21. (in Persian)

12. Fulmer, C. A. & Ostroff, C. (2017). “Trust in direct leaders and top leaders: A trickle-up model”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 102 (4), p. 648.

13. Golvordi, M. (1396). “National Resilience: A Review of Research Literature”, Quarterly Journal of Strategic Studies in Public Policy, Vol. 7, No. 25, pp. 310-293. (in Persian)

14. Holtz, B. C., & Hu, B. (2017). Passive leadership: Relationships with trust and justice perceptions. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 32(1), 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-02-2016-0029

15. John, A., Yang, Z., Riahi, R., & Wang, J. (2016), “A risk assessment approach to improve the resilience of a seaport system using Bayesian networks”, Ocean Engineering, 111, pp. 136-147.

16. Karimi, M., Khanifar, H., & Taherinezhad, F. (2016). “Conceptual Model of the Components of Social Capital from the Perspective of the Islamic Republic”, Social Capital Management, Vol. 2, No. 4. (in Persian)

17. Labaka, L., Hernantes, J., & Sarriegi, J.M. (2016). “A holistic framework for building critical infrastructure resilience”, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 103, pp. 21-33.

18. Mahfouzi, A.R. (2018). “Are SMEs the backbone of the country's economy?”, Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper, magiran.com/n3784949. (in Persian)

19. Mohammadi-Shahroudi, H., Rahimonia, F., Malekzadeh, Gh.R., & Khorakian, A.R. (2016). “Explaining the characteristics and dimensions of organizational resilience in production organizations facing risks and challenges”, Environmental Risk Management, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 111-126. (in Persian)

20. Office of Economic Studies, Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran (2016). Business Environment Monitoring Report in Iran. (in Persian)

21. Orchiston, C., Prayag, G., & Brown, Ch. (2016). “Organizational resilience in the tourism sector”, Research Notes and Reports/Annals of Tourism Research, 56, pp. 128–163.

22. Pambreni, Y., Khatibi, A., Azam, S., & Tham, J. (2019). “The influence of total quality management toward organization performance”, Management Science Letters, 9 (9), pp. 1397-1406.

23. Rahimi, E., Zarei-Matin, H., & Parkan, H. (2019). “Explaining the Concept of Reason and Rationalism from the Perspective of Narrations as a Basis for Organizational Capital (Human, Social, Psychological, Spiritual)”, Social Capital Management, Vol. 5, No. 4. (in Persian)

24. Shariatmadari, M. (2018). “Parliament should support small industries against foreign exchange shocks”, speech at the opening ceremony of the exhibition of small industries capabilities in Iran, Tehran, Imam Khomeini Mosque. (in Persian)

25. Zareimatin, H., Shamsi, F., & Adibzadeh, M. (2017). “Ethical Capital Generating Social Capital”, Social Capital Management, Vol. 4, No. 1. (in Persian )



Social Capital Management
Volume 8, Issue 2
July 2021
Pages 235-260

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics