246 Chapter 7 Going back to Sanquin, it seemed that after the acute phase of the pandemic, the adaptive spaces closed and the system returned to a state of order (hence, respondents’ laments in Chapters 5 and 6 about “things going back to the ‘old’ Sanquin way of things”). Uhl-Bien describes how this naturally occurs (as opportunity windows close), and states that what is needed for the organization to continue adaptability is for complexity leadership and adaptive spaces to be built into the system of the organization.57 Organizational elements to improve organizational resilience Since Sanquin coped well, the next step was to assess if it adapted well, which is the third step of organizational resilience. Adaptation incorporates the elements of reflection, learning, and change. In Chapter 6, a table with a compilation of “lessons learned” from those who had participated in the COVID-19 initiatives is shown. While comprehensive, it is not exhaustive, and represents the element of “reflection.” While these reflections illustrate how Sanquin learned through and from the COVID19 crisis, what is less evident is how that learning translated into new knowledge (cognitive action) that became organizational (behavioral) action, which would lead to permanent organizational change. While it is implied that the reflections learned during the pandemic are stored in Sanquin’s knowledge base somehow (perhaps through the employees’ memories and from gathered documents), it is difficult to assess whether and how the organization can make use of this knowledge in future crises. Therefore, two of the organizational elements Sanquin needs to improve are its capabilities to learn and change. Organizational learning In his book, “Organizational resilience: how learning sustains organizations in crisis, disaster, and breakdown,” D. Christopher Kayes describes how an organization’s learning is linked to individual (employee) experiences, and to the organization’s routines, identity, and culture.58 He differentiates between employees having a performance versus learning orientation. Those with a performance orientation “focuses on a few variables essential to success, demonstrating competence, and seeking success in well-established, measurable and achievable tasks. They display more caution and focus on utilizing past strategies that have proved successful” (pp. 3435).58 Those who have a learning orientation show high emotional engagement, aim for mastery of tasks, and seek new solutions, experiences, and opportunities to learn. Kayes argues that “when individuals in organizations are open to new experiences, reflect on successes and failures (recognizing that failures are necessary and helpful in the learning process), update their perspective, and take calculated risks
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