The Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM) is developing a model to describe organisational resilience, and how it determines the viability of Australian farming businesses.
There are many ways to characterise resilience, this research defines it as, the ability of a system to survive, adapt and grow in the face of turbulent change (Fiksel, 2006). An initial framework of 15 farm level organisational resilience capabilities was developed from input obtained from 24 industry experts in 2024.
The next step is the creation of a more sophisticated assessment model, ready for use at the farm level, requiring the relative importance of the resilience capabilities to be determined.
What is in it for you?
The research will deliver a parametrised organisational resilience model for use by Australian farming businesses. There will be no direct financial compensation for research participants, however they will be helping to make this model a reality. We are seeking a practical set of outcomes from this research so that the model can be made available to the industry for the benefit of businesses such as yours. The idea behind the research is that if farmers know what capabilities support the resilience of their businesses, and how developed these capabilities are, then informed decisions can be made on how and where to adjust. The desired outcome is availability of a tool that will give farming businesses a clear understanding of what they need to do to make their businesses as resilient as possible, in a cost-effective manner.
How can I get involved?
Your assistance in making a model to assess the organisational resilience of Australian farming businesses is needed. It will take approximately 350 complete survey responses to achieve the statistical strength required for the model to be deemed valid, so your input is vital. The preferred means of participation is via an online survey that can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/4cp8w29c and will be open from 10 March 2025 and should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The survey can also be administered via telephone or video conference by arrangement with the researcher. This however will require the signing of a research participant consent form. All participant responses will be held in confidence in accordance with Curtin University data and privacy standards. These standards and a range of other details about the research are detailed in the participant information statement which is available from http://bit.ly/4bycpED. Requests for this document and any further information about the research can be obtained by emailing the researcher at michael.mcdonald@postgrad.curtin.edu.au.
Resources and Links
