What is it about?
Organizations facing crises need more than financial reserves, technology, and emergency plans. This editorial introduces a special issue examining how employee development and human resource practices contribute to organizational recovery and resilience. The included studies show how different forms of training, job autonomy, managerial competencies, responsible use of artificial intelligence, and investment in employee well-being can strengthen organizations’ ability to adapt. Together, they present resilience as a dynamic capability built across individuals, teams, leadership, and organizational systems. The editorial also identifies unresolved questions about how these approaches work across countries, sectors, organizational cultures, and different types of crisis.
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Why is it important?
Discussions of organizational resilience often focus on governance, technology, or access to capital while overlooking the people who make adaptation possible. The contributions show that developing competencies is essential but not sufficient: employees also need suitable working conditions and opportunities to apply their skills. Different forms of training and autonomy may work differently across contexts, while AI-based HR practices require capable leadership, employee participation, and ethical safeguards. Sustainable human resource practices that support health, safety, and work-life balance can also contribute to organizational and financial resilience. Resilience strategies should therefore combine employee development with supportive work design, responsible technology, and long-term investment in well-being.
Perspectives
Organizational resilience should not become another demand placed on employees to cope with steadily increasing pressure. For me, the central message of this special issue is that resilience emerges when organizations invest in people and create conditions that allow them to use and develop their capabilities. Competence matters, but so do autonomy, leadership, health, participation, and responsible systems. We therefore need to ask not only what employees should learn, but also how, when, and under which conditions their competencies can support recovery. Sustainable resilience must protect employee well-being rather than trade it for short-term organizational survival.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Rigotti
Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR) and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Editorial: Managing recovery and resilience in organizations: the impact of employee competence and development on firm recovery – a multidimensional conceptualization, Management Decision, May 2026, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/md-05-2026-491.
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