Sense making to craft normalcy : the key to communication and psychological resilience, organisational culture and identity : a finding from a New Zealand General Practitioner Nurses cohort post-COVID-19 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in Communication Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent recovery period created a rich landscape for novel research opportunity. One such area offering an as-yet, undiscovered opportunity of novel research was the recovery period post-COVID-19 and the enactment of the communication resilience process during this time. As all behaviour is a product of the preceding psychological states that they are enacted from, enacted communication resilience is likely a product of the preceding psychological state and the available resources to construct it. The relationship between the process of enacted communication resilience and the precursor psychological resources, that then contribute towards psychological resilience, has yet not been studied. To date little empirical research, if any, has been done on either of these facets or on bridging these two resilience dimensions to explore predictability of psychological facets on the resulting enactment behaviour. One heavily impacted industry, and its front-line workers, during and after the pandemic, on a global front, was healthcare. Primary care front-line workers in general are relatively under studied compared to their hospital-based counterparts. GP practice doctors and nurses alike deal with high workloads, rapidly changing conditions and increasingly strained staffing needs. These ongoing stressors place these front-line workers at increased risk of burnout, anxiety, PTSD, mental injury and at risk of leaving the profession amongst growing shortages. Culminating in significant harm to the individual, patient care and the profession. To counter these detrimental outcome potentials, resilience in healthcare workers has gained increasing recognition as a desirable means and resource to build better capacity to withstand increasing crises and disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19. The relationship between the two fields of psychology and communication has not yet been explored to establish how and what impact the former has on the latter towards resilience formation. This broader understanding of resilience could effectively allow better development of effective interventions and strategies to enhance a more holistic approach to building and supporting resilience within individuals to withstand inevitable crises and adversity in this industry, and with future studies more generally across industries and geographies. As individuals narrate their lives’ stories, they also narrate their identity and work as a member of their organisational membership. In this way building identity also enhances and supports developing organisational wide culture and cohesion, which together feedback towards further enhancing an individual’s resilience when values align for congruence. Examining how communication, and communication resilience in particular, plays a part towards organisational identity formation may offer additional insight towards interventions and enhancements towards identity maintenance and formation to maintain organisational cohesion and individual resilience during times of crises, like COVID-19. During these times of mass disruption, organisational culture can disintegrate through disrupting and fragmenting organisational identity and so potentially eroding an individual’s resilience in turn. To date, there has been little empirical research integrating the theory of Communication and Organisational Culture. By analysing how communication resilience plays a part in influencing organisational culture, we may be better able to develop strategies and interventions to enhance and support cultural cohesion and success during times of adversity and challenge through enhancing organisational identity and resilience. The latter can be better supported in turn by gaining a broader more holistic understanding of the psychological resources required to construct psychological resilience and the resulting enacted communication resilience. The aim of this study was to explore three key relationships i) To what extent does psychological resilience predict communication resilience? ii) To what extent are communication resilience processes associated with organisational identity? and iii) To what extent are communication resilience processes associated with organisational culture? The findings of the research were informed by surveys for quantitative analysis using correlation and regression confirmatory factor analysis to offer empirical insight of the relevant construct relationships and impacts and associations for significance. Quantitative data and findings offer empirical validation, reproducibility and generalisation across groups. The findings revealed a common key pathway of sense making towards establishing normalcy for all constructs; psychological resilience, communication resilience, organisational identity and organisational culture. In addition the relationship and proposed theoretical pathway towards utilising psychological resilience resources to establish enacted communication resilience was also highlighted. In combination, this study reveals several novel findings and a salient and common point of intervention to maximise effectiveness from a common resilience, identity and culture precursor to reinforce and build both psychological and communication resilience whilst also strengthening organisational identity and culture.