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64 Biobehavioral Resilience to Stress

would likely become stymied and discouraged. Coutu (2002) further argues
that the capacity to improvise can be found in organizations. In resilient
organizations, improvisation is treated as a core skill, and organizational
culture empowers employees to exercise judgment to do whatever it takes to
get the job done right and on time (e.g., see Campbell, 2000). This may help

to explain why some companies are able to survive and recover aft er major
business calamities, while others succumb to lesser misfortune.
In a similar vein, Walsh (2002) emphasizes that resilient groups are
resourceful and are inclined to engage in creative brainstorming. Th ey rise

to challenges, often because adversity draws out resources and strengths that
previously lay dormant. Adaptive processes such as willingness to change,
reorganize, and engage in collaborative problem-solving play a signifi cant

role in allowing resilient groups to buffer stress and to manage a threatening

environment effectively. Resilient groups might already possess improvi-

sational flexibility or might develop the capacity over time in response to
stressful circumstances. Maddi and his colleagues (e.g., Maddi & Kobasha,
2005) describe this aspect of resilience as challenge orientation, referring to
the personal view that stress and change are inherent to life and should not
be seen as fearsome, but rather as opportunities for learning and growth.
Individuals who hold this orientation typically react to change and stress
with innovation and fl exibility (Turnipseed, 1999).

Leadership as a “Resilience Reserve”

In a general way, we can now offer a potentially useful answer to the question

of how leaders can employ their infl uence to build and encourage resilience
in their followers, teams, or units. If resilience requires the willingness to
face reality with determination, the ability to impose meaning on hard-
ship, and the capacity to improvise and be flexible, then leaders can bolster

individual and group resilience by demonstrating, shaping, and encouraging

these essential skills. In eff ect, effective leadership can be seen as a “resilience
reservoir,” supplying and promoting resilience through the leader’s own
qualities and characteristics and demonstrating resilience by the leader’s
own behavior and action.
Shackleton’s leadership on the Antarctic expedition eff ectively illus-
trates his critical role as a resilience reservoir for his fellow explorers. For
example, when ice fi rst trapped the Endurance and Shackleton’s group was
in despair, Shackleton improvised and convinced his team that the ship
could serve effectively as a winter shelter (see Alexander, 1998). When that

failed, Shackleton improvised further by using salvage to create a base camp
on the ice. When cracks and leads in the ice hinted at the unsoundness of
the decision to await rescue, Shackleton forced the group to face reality

and devised several alternative survival strategies. Through his actions and

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