| dc.description.abstract |
Background: Recent health system shocks such as the Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016 and
the global financial crisis of 2008 have generated global health interest in the concept of
resilience. The concept is however not new, and has been applied to other sectors for a
longer period of time. We conducted a review of empirical literature from both the health
and other sectors to synthesize evidence on organizational resilience.
Methods: We systematically searched for literature in PubMed, Econlit, EBSCOHOST
databases, google, and Google Scholar and manually searched the reference lists of
selected papers. We identified 34 papers that met our inclusion criteria. We analysed data
from the selected papers by thematic review.
Results: Resilience was generally taken to mean a system's ability to continue to meet its
objectives in the face of challenges. The concepts of resilience that were used in the
selected papers emphasized not just a system's capacity to withstand shocks, but also to
adapt and transform. The resilience of organizations was influenced by the following
factors: Material resources, preparedness and planning, information management,
collateral pathways and redundancy, governance processes, leadership practices,
organizational culture, human capital, social networks and collaboration.
Conclusion: A common theme across the selected papers is the recognition of resilience
as an emergent property of complex adaptive systems. Resilience is both a function of
planning for and preparing for future crisis (planned resilience), and adapting to chronic
stresses and acute shocks (adaptive resilience). Beyond resilience to acute shocks, the
resilience of health systems to routine and chronic stress (everyday resilience) is also
key. Health system software is as, if not more important, as its hardware in nurturing
health system resilience. |
en_US |