Building Resilience Resources during Organizational Change: A Longitudinal Quasi-experimental Field Study

The aim of the current quasi-experimental field study was to investigate the immediate and 3-month follow-up effects of the resilience-building program ResilienceWise,using a 2 (group) × 3 (time) mixed design. This blended program consisted of anindividual assessment, four one-on-one sessions, and two modules in the online, selfhelp,psychological fitness program Psyfit (Bolier et al., 2013). The aim was to enhanceresilience resources and positive adaptation in health-care office workers (n = 91) of alarge Dutch insurance company during organizational change. The results of thisexperimental group were compared with the results of a no-program comparison group(n = 140). Positive immediate and long-term effects were found on hope, self-efficacy,environmental mastery, purpose in life, positive affect, positive relationships, generalhealth, and recovery from stress. Only a long-term effect was found on taskperformance. No effects were found on optimism and mindfulness. The strength of thecoach–client relationship was related to most of the immediate program effects. Thisarticle reports additional results for a group that attended all one-on-one sessions butdid not (fully) adhere to the online component of the ResilienceWise program (n = 67).For this group, we found no significant effects on the dependent variables, implyingthat only the complete ResilienceWise program was effective. All in all, the currentstudy confirms that resilience resources and positive adaptation can be enhanced inemployees during organizational change. These findings extend the existing evidence that resilience-building programs can be effective and are promising for employees inneed of resilience during organizational change