Supply Chain Transformations Towards Resilience Through Developmental Work Research: Conceptual and Analytical Considerations

Abstract: This essay makes ontological, epistemological and methodological considerations in order to propose the developmental work research model as a promising alternative for studies on supply chain resilience. The fundamental issue addressed here refers to the possibility of new understandings about the learning dynamics between organizations in the scope of social, cultural and human agency conditions. in this sense, the material, labor and relational transformations are interpreted as an object, at the same time, conditioning and conditioned to the action of the participants of the supply chain. The ontological and epistemological stance accuses dialectical materialism and practice as understandings able to explain transformations in turbulent, complex contexts and contradictory interests among organizational actors. The methodology of developmental work research seeks to explain the expansive transformation through the analysis of the interactions between individual and collective action. This methodology consists of five stages: questioning, analysis, modeling, application, and consolidation and reflection. Finally, it is considered that explanations of transformations towards supply chain resilience can advance in the perspective that actors know, practice and learn as interactions evolve.

Key words: supply chain, resilience, organizational learning, epistemology of practice

JEL codes: M1, O3