ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a processual framework, consisting of the four themes, to build resilience in organisations. It suggests that organisational resilience is a process, not an organisational trait. The chapter discusses the adaptive resilience of lifelines organisations in Christchurch following the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. Using grounded theory methods, it identifies four major themes that characterise the post-disaster response of organisations, and these are: employee needs wellbeing and engagement; collaboration; leadership; and learning from experience. Organisational leaders may have to reframe the organisations mission and core values, restore individual and collective sense making, and recreate new shared meanings and roles. The Canterbury experience suggests that workers are still in need of support from the organisation years after a disaster, and that this support can positively impact employee resilience, workplace attitudes and wellbeing. The processual framework of adaptive resilience indicates that the role of leadership is to initially attend to changing employee needs and ensure to their wellbeing.
