Engaged interorganizational networks and resilience in the humanitarian sector

Abstract

This study extends the communication theory of resilience (CTR) by examining social networks that facilitate resilience for refugee-oriented humanitarian organizations (ROHOs). This study draws on a network survey and interviews from ROHOs in the United States and South Korea during the height of coronavirus disease 2019. Results illuminate how refugees, generally seen as the subject of concern, become engaged in networks with organizations to facilitate organizational resilience. A close inspection of the nature of interorganizational relationships revealed that resilience was a function of ties that involved engaged communication and not simply transactional relationships. This article shows how organizational resilience is facilitated when the people are engaged as part of organizational networks: networks cutting across systems to organizations to the vulnerable constituents, themselves. The study advances prior research on organizational resilience by specifying what it means to leverage social networks for organizational stability, which has direct implications for the policy and organizational systems.