Resilience as a process of inquiry: a study of the adaptaion of SME managers facing lockdown[La résilience comme processus d'enquête : étude de l'adaptation des dirigeants de PME confrontés au confinement]

The Covid-19 pandemic revealed the socio-economic importance of organizational resilience. However, despite the popularity of this concept, it is difficult to offer operational support to companies in times of crisis. In this context, this article will first show the limits of the substantialist approach which conceiving resilience only as a capacity ignores the way in which it is implemented. Subsequently, noting the emerging and essentially theoretical nature of the processual approach, this study will seek to complement it by answering the question: How SME managers are adapted to a new management situation? To this end, a qualitative study was conducted using an online diary kept by some forty French SME managers throughout the spring 2020 lockdown. The results obtained confirm the relevance of the processual approach and suggest the possibility of developing specific support for the three phases identified in the survey process that is resilience. In conclusion, the limitations and perspectives of this study will be outlined.