LAUSR

On 16 March 2020, approximately two months after the first US case of COVID-19 was reported (21 January 2020); the White House issued a behavioural directive to slow the spread of the coronavirus: ‘15 days to slow the spread’. Seventeen days later, on 2 April 2020, a new directive commanded: ‘30 days to slow the spread’. Two issues are implicit in these dual directives. First, the mandate for social distancing tears at the social fabric that affords people support and comfort in distressing times: ‘Throughout human history, people have generated almost all of their solidarity face-to-face, by physical co-presence. This has been disrupted’ (Collins, 2020, p. 1). Second, the goal post was moving further and further out, 15 days became 30 days, and now, indefinite, pushing the resolution of the crisis into an indeterminate future, raising the anguish of a never-ending pandemic. The still-raging coronavirus has had widespread and negative impact. Yet, surprisingly, in the midst of this misery, we see the emergence of signs of positivity, optimism, and resilience. Since March 2020, business publications, such as the Harvard Business Review, have published articles that encourage building resilience in individuals, teams, leaders, and businesses. Businesses, such as the professional services firm Deloitte (on their website), similarly urges ‘Combating COVID-19 with Resilience ... calling for both empathy and action to guide your people and businesses through uncertain times’. This focus on the positive appears to contrast with conventional wisdom indicating that, in the face of threat, people tend to experience rigidity. Exploring the flowering of such collective resilience, when it is perhaps most unlikely to bloom, is the focus of my essay. Here, I use ‘collective’ in the sociological sense to refer to a relatively large group of people that share a sense of common interests or identity and that transcends the individual level of Journal of Management Studies ••:•• 2020 doi:10.1111/joms.12644