From mission to mindset : how organizational purpose shapes first responder resilience-building

Šlebir, Miha (author), Vuga Beršnak, Janja (author)

This study aims to investigate how an organization’s purpose (raison d’être) dictates first responder resilience-building. While existing studies often treat first responders as a homogeneous group, this research argues that significant interprofessional differences exist. Using a socioecological framework, the study employs a qualitative, comparative design to analyze three first responder systems: the Slovenian Armed Forces, the Slovenian Police, and Slovenia’s public healthcare system. The analysis is grounded in 31 semi-structured interviews, supplemented by analysis of official documents. The findings reveal three pillars of resilience—training, planning, and experience—and three distinct institutional paradigms. The military fosters a culture of proactive, institutionalized resilience-building oriented toward macro-level crises. The police exhibit a more reactive approach, where resilience-building is often undermined by chronic organizational stressors. In the healthcare system, resilience-building is fragmented and localized, with the burden falling on smaller organizational units to manage micro-level crises of capacity overload. The study concludes that an organization’s raison d’être is a vital socioecological factor that shapes its approach to resilience.

• Language: English
• Keywords: first responders, resilience, organizational resilience, crisis management, mental health, stress, Slovenian Armed Forces, Slovenian Police, Slovenia, public healthcare system
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 17 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 12, iss. 2, art. 39
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-185107
• UDC: 35:614.88(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 2313-576X
• DOI: 10.3390/safety12020039
• COBISS.SI-ID: 271106051
• Publication date in RUL: 27.07.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Safety
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2313-576X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 4189640

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-50161
• Name: Socialnoekološki dinamični modeli duševnega zdravja: breme kompleksne krize med zaposlenimi v kritičnih poklicih

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0206
• Name: Obramboslovje