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Resilience through Leadership 67

Individual (0) Objective (CAP) Perceived (DMP) Response (PP) Actions, (OP) Altered
resilience situation situation selection behavior situation

Figure 4.2 Resilience as a possible mediator within the four processes stress
model. O, differential exposure; CAP, cognitive appraisal process; DMP, decision-
making process; PP, performance process; OP, outcome process.

resilience could somehow influence the way an individual sees and evaluates
stressors in the objective environment. For example, (1) resilience might

facilitate an efficient, determined, or realistic assessment and grant the indi-
vidual more advance time to plan and deal with the threat; (2) alternatively,

resilience might affect the decision-making process by increasing or decreas-
ing the number of responses considered as potentially useful, improving task
focus, or promoting increased creativity and improvisation; (3) resilience

might also influence performance processes such that the individual is better
able to continue applying and improvising relevant skills and abilities with a
sense of purpose (meaning), rather than surrendering to fear or apathy; and
(4) finally, resilience could affect outcome by promoting goal-directed and

realistic judgments concerning the efficacy of action and performance.
It is possible that resilient people are simply more successful in avoiding
stressful situations or that they do not cognitively frame stressors as such or
in the same way that less resilient individuals do. In this case, resilience may
serve a mediating role by determining whether individuals will place them-
selves in situations where they might reasonably expect to confront common
stressors (cf. Cooper et al., 2001: 118–120). Figure 4.2 depicts resilience as a
mediator of exposure to stress.
At present, there is virtually no empirical evidence available to address
or test the conceptual relationships we have outlined in Figures 4.1 and 4.2.
Although it may seem intuitively appealing to consider that resilience mod-
erates stress reactivity (Figure 4.1), it remains possible that resilience exerts

a mediating influence upon stress exposure itself (Figure 4.2). Both lines of
reasoning warrant attention and investigation. Thus, it is reasonable to con-

clude that if the relationships we hypothesize here are correct, it is likely that

effective leadership can promote resilience through interactions with each of
the Four Processes theorized by McGrath.

Demand–Control–Support Stress Model

Karasek (1979) and Karasek and Theorell (1990) developed a second
and particularly useful model for understanding resilience and stress.

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