Kateřina Zábrodská

Kateřina Zábrodská is the Head of the Methodology Department and a senior researcher at the Institute of Psychology of the CAS and an Assistant Professor of Organizational Psychology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Her research lies in the intersection between Organizational Studies and Higher Education Studies and focuses on personal, organizational, and social factors that enhance organizational well-being and resilience in the public sector. She regularly publishes research that addresses issues of occupational well-being, positive/destructive organizational cultures, and healthy and resilient organizations. She also works as a consultant on workplace bullying, harassment, and discrimination issues.  

From individual to organizational resilience: How to build healthy and resilient organizations in the public sector?

A well-known aphorism rightly observes that “change is the only constant in life”, with change eventually bringing crises and challenges for individuals, societies, as well as organizations. To adapt and prepare for such crises, organizations should recognize that developing resilience at the communal and organizational levels is a vital need. In this presentation, I will focus on how to conceptualize and build organizational resilience specifically in the public sector, such as education and health care sectors. As a starting point, I will critically reflect on classical psychological theories of resilience, in which resilience is typically defined as an individual ability “to bounce back” from significant adversity or as a form of “psychological immunity” to future hardship. I will then consider how this resilience theory can be expanded from individual resilience to include broader organizational context, drawing on the concept of HEalthy and Resilient Organizations (HERO).