Organizational toughness facing new economic crisis

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly facing great changes in their external environment, like is the case of current pandemic. Theoretical reflection and scientific literature review led us to develop a new concept – organizational toughness - and a new model that may help explaining the variables underlying an effective response to environmental changes, contributing to the organization's survival. This model also includes the concepts of organizational plasticity and organizational strength as crucial factors to face new market threats and opportunities. Other second order latent variables – staff preparation and structure adapted to change – and manifest variables, such as the quality level of competencies, motivation, flexibility, strategic planning processes, leadership behaviours, organizational learning market oriented, the amount of resources holt by an organization, and external access to these resources are also presented, as well as clues for future research. This paper aims at contributing to the development of strategic management theory in relation to market changes even when not expected.