The Importance of Definitional and Temporal Issues in the Study of Resilience

Despite recent interest in the topic of resilience in organisations, much work is still needed to advance our understanding of this important area of inquiry. With this in mind, the authors argue that the study of resilience would benefit from (1) greater definitional clarity and (2) explicit inclusion of temporal issues in theoretical conceptualisations of resilience. Based on a systematic review of the literature, we advocate for a concise definition of resilience, along with a heuristic framework intended to meaningfully categorise the various elements, features, and experiences implicated by the concept of resilience, including (a) adversity triggers, (b) resilience outcomes, (c) resilience mechanisms, and (d) resilience promoting factors. This is followed by a discussion of temporal issues in relation to each of the four categories above. Various propositions and recommendations for future research are also presented.