From Burnout to Resilience: Managing the Transition in German Enterprises

Resilience is defined as the ability to cope with adversity and seems to be the answer to many mental ailments, especially burnout, in organisa-tions. Thus, there are numerous manuals on how to create and support a resilient workforce. However, despite sufficient scientific findings, many en-terprises have not been successful avoiding stress and mental illnesses, and statistics still show a rising number of absence days due to workers suffering from burnout. This study aimed at closing that gap between knowledge and practice in an interpretive, qualitative approach that inte-grated two methods: Fourteen in-depth interviews with leaders, Human Re-source (HR) professionals and health managers concerning their practical experience were conducted, and the information gathered was linked with documentary analysis of twelve resilience-development programmes. Both parts of the study were evaluated using Template Analysis and shed a new light on burnout: It should be avoided but can also be a chance for sustain-able change, if the recovery process is accepted and designed as a learning opportunity. Resilience correlates with individual dispositions but mostly with organisational matters such as internal structures, recognition and par-ticipation. Resilience is not a neoliberal move since a truly resilient organi-sation does not need to place profits over workers’ long-term well-being. To achieve both, it takes employees who are skilled and proud of their com-pany’s high-quality products, as well as mid-level leaders who are given au-tonomy in addition to guidance and who have a clear mission on whether or not they are responsible for their team’s health. Most of all, it takes a sin-cerely value-based, emotionally intelligent, top-down management. Focus-ing on German industrial companies but reviewing mostly anglophone stud-ies, the thesis revealed new aspects such as culturally different attitudes towards issues such as psychoanalysis or positive psychology in business contexts. It also uncovered varying work ethoses and how resilience can be seen as part of sustainability efforts. Future research might go into more detail here.