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Organizations and communities learn by collecting information both from their direct, experiences and by observing others. Information is translated into knowledge, which is disseminated and used to inform subsequent planning, decisions and actions. Among the experiences and observations of organizations and communities that can be translated into knowledge are crises and disasters, including infections disease outbreaks, water contamination events and natural disasters. Organizational and community learning occurs when knowledge generated in response to crises is applied and when previous events serve as the basis for informing responses to an anticipated risk or emerging crisis. Trial-and-error learning is an ongoing process of experimentation, assessment and evaluation. Through trial and error, it is possible to determine that an activity does not produce desired outcomes, allowing for strategies to be adjusted and refined. Communities and organizations also benefit from observing others facing similar threats and learn from their failures and successes. Vicarious learning is bolstered through publicly available information, such as media reports and web presence, and access to networks of similar organizations. Crises can provide opportunities to re-evaluate fundamental assumptions, norms, processes, structures, plans, technologies, and overall performance. This session provides an overview of learning from crises and presents cases from the COVID-19 pandemic response, water contamination events, and natural disasters. The COVID-19 response in the City of Detroit offers important lessons about public health disparities, community engagement, and sustained responses. Cases studies of learning from the Flint Water Crisis and the Toledo Water Crisis illustrate how organizations and communities can translate experience into knowledge. Natural disasters can reveal systemic vulnerabilities and deficiencies in knowledge. Winter Storm Uri impacted Texas in mid-February 2021, bringing cold temperatures, record-levels of snow, and damaging ice and devastating the electrical grid, prompting widespread boil water notices. This case provides lessons about informing the public about emerging risks and about how they respond. These cases show how organizational learning may help organizations and communities prevent the repetition of a similar crisis, plan and respond more effectively.
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This content will become publicly available on November 28, 2025
Inclusion Management Practices as a Pathway to Enhance Organizational Resilience in Response to a Crisis: An Empirical Test in the Context of the COVID‐19 Pandemic
ABSTRACT Organizations inevitably face various forms of disruptive events (e.g., external crises), and sustaining long‐term prosperity requires them to stay resilient when encountering unexpected adversity. Prior crisis management research predominantly relied on qualitative case studies to examine efforts after a crisis had occurred, treating the crisis as a “given” rather than a variable. The exceptionality of crisis situations and the ad hoc nature of crisis countermeasures largely limit current knowledge about how organizations may manage employees to remain in a preparative stance for disruptive events. Integrating the inclusion literature, crisis management research, and event system theory, we propose inclusion management practices as a viable pathway for organizations to develop resilience resources and capabilities prior to a crisis, allowing them to exhibit greater robustness and agility when a crisis arises. Such robustness and agility, in turn, enhance organizational performance thereafter. We further pinpoint the strength of a crisis event as an important contingency shaping the effects of pre‐crisis inclusion management practices on organizations’ resilient responses and thereby performance. We tested our hypotheses in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis using longitudinal manager‐report survey data (N= 884 workplaces). We found that workplaces that implemented more inclusion management practices before COVID‐19 were more robust and agile in response to the pandemic crisis. Agility (but not robustness), in turn, was positively related to organizational performance. In addition, the effect of inclusion management practices on agility was stronger for workplaces with greater COVID‐19 event strength.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2336679
- PAR ID:
- 10593771
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Personnel Psychology
- Volume:
- 78
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0031-5826
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 177-203
- Size(s):
- p. 177-203
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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