New chapter contribution in newly released leadership handbook from Fellows in Residence for CLOSR

We are grateful and thrilled to share that our joint research was submitted, accepted, and is currently published in the Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship and Organizational Resilience During Unprecedented Times through IGI Publishing. Our team consisted of Dr. Rodney Luster, Dr. Elvire Daniels, Dr. Stephen More, and Dr. Alana Morales. The focus of the chapter was on “The Cohesive Factors in Building Resilience and Team Dynamism in a Turbulent Era: Team Motivation and the Organizationally Resilient (pages 440-458).

Here is an excerpt of the abstract from that text:

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on industry have also tested leaders and their organizations to explore the potential of sustainability amidst such impacting conditions. Amidst this flurry of responsivity, a focus on protecting human capital and building resilience has emerged as a primary linchpin for continuity. Exploring the dynamic of authentic leaders and their processes for team development, alongside the pivotal role of teams in “knowledge organizations,” current effective business practices may provide insights into resilience-building for many more organizations. The focus of this contributive chapter is to examine organizational leadership and its important role in defining enhanced employee resilience practices during a turbulent era, with a closer look at the “ cohesive factors” of durability and resilience as determinants of high-functioning organizations.

This contributive chapter on entrepreneurship and resilience examined both resilience and motivation as the two primary factors of "durability" within teams, and the dynamic advantages as well of a knowledge-brokering environment that fosters and engenders resilient workers. The opportunity to envision greater resilience through cohesive teams, alongside authentic leadership amidst the durative aspects of a phenomenon such as COVID-19, are observed as potentiating variables that offer hope to businesses seeking to strengthen their human capital.

The Solutions and Recommendations sections in this text for team member motivation are considered from the perspectives of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Motivation may be said to be “intrinsic” when the interest in participating in an exercise, such as a team project, derives from the internal pleasure of doing so. Conversely, when the interest to participate in an activity derives from external pressure, the motivation is considered extrinsic (Sun et al., 2020). Intrinsic motivation is independent of external motivation or satisfaction factors (Vandeveer et al., (2010). It is important to differentiate between motivation and satisfaction for better clarity of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

The above research provided current approaches and detailed theories for motivation and sustainable work-team engagement during unprecedented times. The role of the leadership of organizations in managing teams and employee motivation to build resilient organizations is underscored and highlighted in this chapter. What has been gleaned is that the morale of the employee should be of high priority, especially in crisis situations. Additionally, this research on leadership and team motivation may conclude that organizations can prevail if they take proactive efforts to engage exemplary leadership approaches amidst challenging conditions alongside preventative pre-programming measures before such situations occur. The future of resiliency and motivation remains to be seen, but the potential for what has been learned during the COVID-19 pandemic should remain an invaluable testament to the power of those organizations which focused on authentic leadership and kept the wellbeing of their employees at the forefront of the strategic objectives of their inherent organizations.