Identification and Leveling of the Components of Managerial Resilience in the Petrochemical Industry under Environmental Uncertainty

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to identify the components of managerial resilience in the petrochemical industry under conditions of environmental uncertainty and to determine their structural relationships and hierarchical levels of influence.

Methodology: This applied study adopted an exploratory-descriptive mixed-methods design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study population consisted of senior petrochemical industry managers and university academics specializing in human resource management and organizational behavior. Using purposive and theoretical sampling, 15 experts, including seven university professors and eight petrochemical industry managers, were recruited until theoretical saturation was reached. In the qualitative phase, data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis. In the quantitative phase, an expert-based questionnaire was employed to determine the interrelationships among the identified components, and the data were analyzed using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). The credibility of the qualitative findings was assessed through participant review, while coding reliability was evaluated through a test-retest procedure, yielding an agreement rate of 88.9%. The content validity of the expert questionnaire was also confirmed by specialists.

Findings: The qualitative analysis reduced 168 initial codes to 84 basic themes, 28 organizing themes, and nine overarching themes. ISM classified these nine components into four hierarchical levels. Governance, culture, and organizational infrastructure supporting managerial resilience occupied the deepest and most foundational level. Managers’ cognitive and perceptual capacity, psychological stability and readiness, and operational capacity and resilient resources were positioned at the third level. Resilient decision-making and action capability and managers’ social resilience and leadership constituted the second level. Adaptation, learning, and reinvention capability, functional-strategic resilience under environmental uncertainty, and environmental uncertainty conditions were located at the first level. The reachability matrix further indicated that governance, culture, and organizational infrastructure possessed the greatest driving power, confirming their foundational role in activating and strengthening other managerial resilience capacities.

Conclusion: Managerial resilience in the petrochemical industry is a multidimensional and hierarchical phenomenon emerging from the interaction of individual, psychological, operational, social, and organizational capacities. Strengthening managerial resilience therefore requires more than improving managers’ personal characteristics; it also depends on supportive governance, organizational culture, and information and technological infrastructures. Such foundations enhance managers’ cognitive, psychological, and operational capacities, which in turn promote resilient decision-making, effective leadership, organizational learning, reinvention, and continuity of strategic performance under highly uncertain environmental conditions.