WORKPLACE DISRUPTIONS, 

REORGANIZATIONS, AND ‘CHANGE FATIGUE’:

Can ADR Support Resilience?

Claudine SchWeber, Ph.D.

Doctor of Management Program 

University of Maryland University College (UMUC)

Presentation at ADR Working Group....10 April 2014

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Resilience

• “ability to positively adapt to change and 

transform experiences/situation to advantage 

and emerge stronger”...

• ...[learning to] bounce back” (Comfort, 1994, p. 

158)

• facilitating a “rapid, flexible, innovative and 

effective response when a future crisis presents 

itself”...

• Resilient individuals are those who can “respond 

quickly and effectively to change while 

enduring minimal stress.”...

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Recent Federal Workplace Disruptions

• Sequester 

• Furloughs

• Government shut-down

• Agency reorganizations

• Revision of job duties

• Natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Sandy)

•  environment of seeming continuous 

change ??? Resilience among staff

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Potential Outcomes 

of Disruptions, Frequent change

• Stress

• Job dissatisfaction 

• New relationships with colleagues

• New workplace responsibilities

• Leadership re-alignments

• ‘Change Fatigue’

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Change Fatigue

“The environment of continuous change... and 

persistent change management initiatives 

...may increase employee stress, negatively 

impact job satisfaction and lead to ...a 

condition [called] change fatigue”

 (R. Dool, (Feb 2009), p 24)

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Change Fatigue: linking frequency of change 

(job stressor) + severity of situation

• low frequency + low severity = business as usual for the 

individual

• Low frequency + high severity= reactive: individual must 

respond immediately/ very quickly to the situation

• *High frequency + low severity = adaptive: individual 

frequently adapts to changing environment, change has 

become an integral part of org. life, stress manageable

• High frequency + high severity= enervative (debilitate or 

weaken): continual and intense change leads to severe job 

stress and dissatisfaction, not adaptation 

R. Dool (2009)

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Change Fatigue-graphic 

R. Dool (2009)

A graph showing 4 groups categorized by severity and frequency of change.

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Challenges: 

(How)Can ADR Professionals Help? 

1) Supporting (workforce)resilience

2) Leading through uncertainty; 

3) Developing strategies and support for the 

‘new normal’ environment 

4) Managing the ‘human side’ of change, crises

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Adversity thriving

Stages in reaction to adversity*:

• Succumbing

• Survival with impairment

• Resilience (recovery)

• Thriving

* Charles Carver (1998)

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1: Moving towards Resilience, or 

Thriving

Responses to Adversity

(courtesy C. Carver, p 246)

A graph showing the level of functioning over 

time after the onset of an adverse event.

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1 b) What is workforce resilience?

• Ability of employees to continue to fulfill 

essential functions despite stress

• Closely connected with personal resilience 

positive, healthy adaptation to change; ability 

to recover from disruptive change without 

acting in dysfunctional or harmful ways

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What role might ADR professionals 

Play

In helping people move to Recovery 

or Thriving?

In helping to foster Workforce Resilience? 

*****

What experiences might you draw upon?

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2. Leading through Uncertainty

Action needed:

Making

“decisions in unfamiliar contexts”

“only by going forward is it possible to learn what the 

options are for going further forward” (Winter, 2007)

Can ADR professionals help? 

 

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2 b) uncertainty & 

decision-making

• Decisions in unfamiliar contexts

Consider whether these decisions represent 

“System 1 or System 2” thinking:

 --System 1 =fast, automatic, intuitive

 --System 2= slow, deliberative, requires 

attention, complex considerations

(Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast & Slow (2011)

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2. c) Uncertainty-impact

• Intra-organizational competitiveness and conflict 

for scarce resources

• Need for departmental and staff adaptability

• Potential for ‘threat rigidity”: tendency to 

become more rigid in response to a threat (.e.g., 

sequester, furloughs), and use strategies that 

worked in the past, thus limiting options.

Is there a Role for ADR? 

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3. Adapting to the 'new normal' 

environment: using bricolage

• making use of resources, tools available to 

accomplish the task, despite the fact that 

resources are less than what would be 

preferred

• the art of creating a new entity from a diverse 

range of things available

• Something made or put together using 

whatever materials happen to be available

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Bricolage: 

hardware store in France
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What ADR skills, talents can be 

applied in supporting bricolage? In 

helping to develop a bricolage

culture? 

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3b) new normal

Post-disruption challenge: Recognizing that 

there’s ‘life’ after the specific event(even if it’s 

brief

Recognize that change may be an ongoing 

experience

Option 1: reduce the # of initiatives by organization, 

external bodies, nature (likely?)

Option 2: reframe perspective—develop an adaptive 

enterprise (Dool, 2009)

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4: the Human Side of Change,

Major Disruptions

Managing the personal impact

On employees, colleagues

self

On families and more (finances, child/eldercare, 

pets)

Self-reliance

Develop human resiliency 

Developing continuity of operations (coop) for 

work, home, community

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4b) Human side: workforce

Workforce resilience: 

“ability of employees...to continue to fulfill essential functions 

when [affected by stressful situations].

--personal resilience important

--adaptability

Workforce resilience elements:

Leadership in unit, organization

Training and support for new, additional positions..+ rewards

Support for colleagues with increased work-loads

Knowing the organization’s plans for action

Contact for questions, concerns –public and confidential

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4b) the human side: workforce

Employee returns to?: same office, cube, OR? 

Communication via social media; ongoing 

updates two-way ?

Opportunity for confidential assistance

Issues:

Re-organization assistance; new workload assistance

Relationship with supervisors, colleagues

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How can ADR professionals help? 

ADR issues: 

assisting with workforce resilience; 

managing ‘change fatigue’

Personal adaptation, stamina

Ethical dilemmas re discovery of 

patterns?

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ADR & Resilience

Helping to Move from 

To : Survival

To thriving:

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Stuck in the 

mud
Resources, games

http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html

Disaster Resource Guide—

http://disaster-resource.com

HUD presentation (CS) on crises, disruptions 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYbWJILiBxI

Keys to Organizational Resilience: a crisis preparedness e-book. FEI Crisis 

Management. www.feinet.com 

Lesser, Eric; Lindburg, Russel and Ringo, Tim. (2007). “The personal side of 

business continuity: addressing human capital issues during crises”. IBM 

Institute for Business Value. http://GBE03255USEN_HCM.pdf

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Key sources, cont

• Carver, Charles (1998). Resilience and 

Thriving: Issues, Models and Linkages. Journal 

of Social Issues, 54 (2), p245-66

• Dool, Richard (Feb. 2009). Change Fatigue: the 

Impact of Enervative Change on Job 

Satisfaction. Revue Sciences de Gestion, 70, p 

21-40.

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Thank You

Claudine SchWeber

claudine.schweber@umuc.edu

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