An evolutionary phenomenology of resilience

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to set out an evolutionary schema for organizational resilience using the established emergent autopoiesis coherence (EAC) framework, with empirical reference to the European Parliament’s development of institutional capacities since its foundation in 1952 as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (CA-ECSC).

Design/methodology/approach

The logic is categorical-synthetic and second-order cybernetic, implicitly underlain by a correspondence theory of truth united with a coherentism based in the epistemology of complex systems.

Findings

The European Parliament has constructed itself as a resilient organization, but the process has entailed over-learning of past lessons, creating behavioral syndromes of dysfunction in the face of new challenges.

Research limitations/implications

The work contrasts antifragility with resilience and suggests a new approach to it.

Practical implications

The analytical framework and conclusions hold value for the practical design of resilient organizations.

Social implications

The groundwork of the EAC’s conceptual framework is laid, and the basis for applying it to human and other naturally occurring societies is established.

Originality/value

K.W. Deutsch’s mid-twentieth century work on cybernetic-based learning in political systems is reconstructed, updated and applied to twenty-first century political phenomena. The insights are validated, and the analytical framework’s robustness is demonstrated.

Citation

Cutler, R.M. and von Lingen, A. (2019), "An evolutionary phenomenology of resilience", Kybernetes, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 685-695. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-11-2017-0460