In search of factors reinforcing the relationship between organisational resilience and organisational performance: a conceptual framework and research results

Abstract The study aims to explore how external support and the ability to understand systemic linkages (organisation’s capability for systems thinking) influence the relationship between organisational resilience and organisational performance. The empirical research was conducted to verify whether external support and systems thinking have the capacity to moderate the relationship between organisational resilience and organisational performance. A set of hypotheses was developed based on the theoretical research and subsequently tested on a sample of 268 organisations operating in Poland. Two alternative testing methods were used: stepwise regression analysis with a moderator and Hayes’ PROCESS macro technique (also based on regression analysis). The Johnson-Neyman technique was used to identify regions within the range of the moderator variable, where the effect of the focal predictor on the outcome was statistically significant or non-significant. The obtained results clearly show that the external support and systems thinking, when considered separately, act as moderators of the analysed relationship. The model with two moderators is also statistically significant, and the simultaneous inclusion of both moderators significantly increases the percentage of explained variance. However, an interesting phenomenon can be observed here. The analysis of conditional effects reveals that at a low level of systems thinking, and across all levels of external support, the moderation effect is not statistically significant. It becomes statistically significant only at the average and high levels of systems thinking, and at both of these levels, the effect increases with the rise in external support. This study provides important insights into the factors influencing the relationship between organisational resilience and organisational performance. It emphasises the importance of systemic linkages and, above all, the understanding of the context in which organisations operate.