Fostering Perceived Organizational Support During Organizational Change

Dealing with change is a regular occurrence for organizations these days. Whether organizations must react to an unplanned change or have time to proactively think through the implementation of a planned change, it is important for organizational representatives (e.g., supervisors, executives, HR professionals) to recognize that the change can and will affect their employees. No matter the type of change, employees are likely to feel uncertainty, anxiety, and stress through the change process and may also think of quitting. Despite literature pointing out that support can be helpful during change, there is not much literature on how employees feel supported by their organization during change. Perceived organizational support (POS) is a well-researched, theory-driven, and practically relevant concept that describes the extent to which employees feel their organization cares about their well-being and values their contributions (Eisenberger et al., 1986). I will begin the talk by introducing readers to the concept of perceived organizational support and two types of change including planned and unplanned change. Grounded in organizational support theory, I will provide practical insights into how POS can play a positive role in helping employees deal with change. I will also include some takeaways from an empirical study of POS during the pandemic regarding staying connected with supervisors and coworkers during the remote work necessitated by that unplanned change

Stronger together: Building nonprofit resilience through a network with a shared Mission and organizational humility

Nonprofit organizations increasingly face surprising and disruptive shocks, beyond financial setbacks, that challenge an organization\u27s operations, long-term survival, and success. To continue to execute their mission, nonprofits must be resilient. Despite the importance of resilience in nonprofits, more research is needed to understand the factors that build organizational resilience and how leaders can help promote resilience. We conducted a qualitative case study, consisting of 23 interviews with organizational members and key partners, fieldwork, and archival information, of a documented resilient nonprofit organization. Our findings suggest that leaders can enhance resilience by gaining access to resources through collaboration, which is in line with previous theorizing. Our results add to previous research by providing a more nuanced understanding of how collaboration can facilitate resilience. Specifically, our findings suggest that resilience may be enhanced when organizational humility drives leaders to strategically constrain their network primarily to partners that share a common mission. Our research contributes predominantly to the organizational resilience literature, while offering more auxiliary contributions to the organizational humility literature. Further, our research offers practical guidance for how leaders of nonprofits can develop resilience in their organizations