Organizational resilience under crisis: the paradox of autocratic leadership in Succession[La résilience organisationnelle en situation de crise : le paradoxe du leadership autocratique dans la série Succession]

This article examines the paradoxical relationship between organizational resilience and autocratic leadership through the TV series Succession (HBO, 2018-2023). Drawing on a qualitative and inductive approach based on a longitudinal analysis of the serialized narrative, the study explores how a fictional organization maintains continuity despite recurring crises. The findings show that power centralization, commonly viewed as an obstacle to adaptation, can under extreme conditions support a form of defensive organizational resilience by enabling decision-making coherence, rapid action, and strategic continuity. Through the f igure of Logan Roy, an authoritarian yet intuitive leader, the series illustrates an embodied form of resilience that relies heavily on centralized authority and control over the organizational narrative. However, this resilience is shown to be deeply ambivalent, socially and ethically costly, and structurally fragile, as it limits collective learning and undermines long-term organizational sustainability. In this respect, the study invites organizational resilience to be understood as a contingent and ambivalent phenomenon, produced by specific configurations of power, whose effectiveness in times of crisis cannot be dissociated from its long-term human, ethical, and organizational effects.