Mindfulness and the risk-resilience tradeoff in organizations

Through this chapter, we seek to contribute to ongoing discussion about risk, resilience, and how they can be jointly managed (see Linkov, Trump, & Keisler, 2018), particularly in the context of organizations. We start by reviewing the traditional image of organizations. In this traditional image, processes related to risk and resilience are seen as complementary, as these processes pertain to distinct aspects of the organizational environment. We then complicate this theoretical image by introducing five underappreciated ways that risk and resilience processes may not be complementary in practice—because the aspects of the environment to which these processes pertain cannot always be easily distinguished and because enacting either of these processes can produce tradeoffs that constrain the other. We conclude by suggesting three principles rooted in mindfulness to help organizations manage these risk-resilience tradeoffs. In so doing, we hope to offer an updated image of organizations. This updated image may enrich discussions about risk and resilience within communities of theorists and practitioners alike—as well as across them.