Organizational resilience through an immunological framework: developing the organizational immune architecture

PurposeThis paper introduces the organizational immune architecture (OIA), a conceptual framework that explains how organizations detect threats, coordinate responses and develop resilience. Drawing on principles from immunology, this study aims to provide an integrative mechanism for understanding how organizations maintain stability and adapt under conditions of disruption and uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a conceptual and interdisciplinary approach, systematically translating key immunological principles into organizational mechanisms. It integrates literature from immunology, organizational resilience and organizational behavior to develop a model consisting of structural defenses and dynamic processes.FindingsThe framework proposes that organizational resilience emerges from the interaction between two defensive layers: preexisting structural safeguards and adaptive learning systems. Across these layers, three core processes: detection, response and recovery and memory − enable organizations to monitor threats, coordinate action and institutionalize learning. The model also identifies three dysfunctions: hypersensitivity, autoimmunity and immune suppression, that explain common patterns of organizational breakdown.Originality/valueThis study advances resilience theory by offering a biologically grounded and interdisciplinary framework that links structural defenses, human agency and learning processes to explain how organizations sustain adaptive capacity.