Arete Volume One Fall 2022

Αρετή (Arete) Journal of Excellence in Global Leadership | Vol. 1 No. 1 | 2022

Global Resilience in a VUCA World The measure of collective global leadership resilience has been tested over the past few years as leaders address issues facing their organizations resulting from global conflicts, climate change, globalization, the rise of the information age, and the COVID 19 pandemic (Bagwell, 2020). Global leaders may find themselves in the position of practicing leadership that is reactionary or progressive, or both, as they face factors of social and political unrest, financial crises, supply chain issues, lack of workforce, human capital issues, and increased competition. Today, more than ever, leaders must prepare to balance change, innovation, and disruption in the face of adversity to succeed (Bell & Hofmeyr, 2021). Resilience as a construct shows the potential to help leaders find buoyancy as they face global complexities impacting the leadership journey. Global leaders who face the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of today’s world, known by the acronym VUCA, are finding the ability to persevere after significant disruption a vital tool in their global leadership competency toolbox (Elkington, 2017). Resilient global leaders are those who not only recover from but thrive as leaders during uncertain and disruptive times. Resilience and Global Leadership, Intertwined The research on resilience is vast; however, research surrounding leadership resilience during VUCA times is nascent, presenting gaps in the knowledge of resilience as an application for global leaders (Lombardi et al., 2021). This essay looks at these gaps using the foundation of the Disruption Theory and Change Theory. Disruption Theory posits that the new upends or undoes the former or current, thereby displacing it (Farr, 2021). Although disruption is frequently regarded for its negative factors, disruption as a factor of change has the potential to create space for growth, innovation, or progress. Change Theory focuses on the process by which change occurs, often with an intent to minimize disruption (Reinholz et al., 2021). Kurt Lewin’s (Cummings et al., 2015) foundational work in change management led to the development of a straightforward model, “changing as three steps” or C ATS (2015, p. 834). The CATS model proposes a process that unfreezes and refreezes with change occurring between these two stages (Cummings et al., 2015). Both theories suggest that change is resolute or fixed following the disruption or change event. Disruption Theory and Change Theory stop short of helping researchers fully understand the multilateral and complex nature of how disruption and change are part of fostering global leadership resilience beyond the disruptive or change event. In the case of the VUCA world, disruption is more than a single event that transcends its situational context. It is also apparent that change may not be as succinct in a disruptive environment as Lewin's CATS model proposes.

Review of Resilience and VUCA Literature Resilience

As the world faced significant challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the term resilience frequently appeared in media reports and scholarly literature surrounding topics that included the pandemic and other global issues such as social unrest, political turmoil, financial crisis, climate crisis, and war. However, a sizable portion of the pre-pandemic literature focuses on understanding the construct's

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