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Fostering resilience through the culture of excellence (CoE) practices: explorative insights from a talent management SME

Nidheesh Joseph (Department of Organizational Behavior, Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli, India)
Abhishek K. Totawar (Department of Organizational Behavior, Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli, India)
Oliver Sam (People Strategy and Transformation, VDart Inc, Atlanta, Georgia, USA)

Measuring Business Excellence

ISSN: 1368-3047

Article publication date: 23 May 2022

Issue publication date: 14 July 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

Organisational researchers have always highlighted the role of leadership during crisis. However, anecdotal evidence shows that leadership often fails when the culture does not back them during a crisis. Hence, actively initiating and developing a culture of excellence (CoE) become all the more relevant during a crisis. This paper aims to understand the role of CoE in building a resilient organisation. Furthermore, it aims to contribute to the understanding of building CoE practices in small businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews relevant literature and gathers evidence from VDart Inc, a digital talent management and services firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. A case study design based on retrospective and real-time data collection is performed to investigate CoE practices before and during the Covid-19 crisis.

Findings

The findings argue that, most often, the culture and not just the leadership determines the fate of an organisation undergoing crisis. From the case evidence, the authors identify reinforce the culture, invest in cultural custodians, seek order, keep them close and industry thought-leadership (“RISK-It”) CoE practices for fostering resilience in small- and medium-sized enterprises/businesses (SMEs) for managing crises.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to knowledge in fostering proactive resilience in small businesses, showing how SMEs should invest in building a CoE when their organisations are stable instead of searching for strong leaders and unique strategies during a crisis. Later, during the crisis, just by reinforcing their CoE using RISK-It CoE practices, leaders and managers would be able to leverage any turbulence to the advantage of their organisations.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Disclosure Statement: The authors reported no potential conflict of interest.

Citation

Joseph, N., Totawar, A.K. and Sam, O. (2022), "Fostering resilience through the culture of excellence (CoE) practices: explorative insights from a talent management SME", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 163-179. https://doi.org/10.1108/MBE-06-2021-0082

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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