International Journal of Organizational Leadership

Abstract

This paper aims to examine how the construct of resilience is currently defined and propose a more comprehensive and unidirectional definition, conceptualization, and operationalization for the construct. We applied a rigorous systematic literature review in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) selection criteria covering historical currency, topical relevance, and publication appropriateness. We reviewed 1490 articles and publications on organizational resilience generated from a combination of academic databases and search engines. We identified the points of convergence and divergence in the definitions and discussed the implications for theorizing organizational resilience. The thematic descriptive extracted from the selected articles were cross-validated from comparable peer-reviewed papers included in this study. The article departed from common knowledge that organizational resilience is still evolving, and a unified definition is necessary to guide future scholarly works. We attempted to provide a current answer to the question, what is organizational resilience. We proposed that organizational resilience is the process and outcome of strategic preparedness for an adaptive response to disruptive shocks, capitalization on disruptive shocks, instinctive survival, positive transformation, and prosperity through disruptive shocks. We further proposed a conceptual model to illustrate our ideas. This article contributed to the ongoing debate on how organizational resilience should be defined and conceptualized using the most updated systematic review reporting framework.