Harnessing antifragility to drive innovation: developing an organizational assessment tool for the public sector

Purpose Despite growing interest in antifragility as a driver of innovation in organizational settings, a significant gap exists in understanding the specific enablers that foster its development. This paper advances current knowledge by identifying and exploring the critical components of antifragility, focusing on public sector organizations. While much of the existing literature generally addresses antifragility, this study narrows the focus by introducing a comprehensive framework tailored to assess antifragility within public sector organizations. The framework identifies vital enablers and serves as a practical assessment tool, providing insights into how public sector organizations can leverage antifragility to drive innovation and resilience in disruption. Design/methodology/approach Data collected through a survey of 400 public sector organizations and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Findings The findings of this study confirm that the identified components – redundancy, small stressor inducement, non-linear responses, diversity of responses, and capacity for emergent behavior – are significant enablers of antifragility. Through empirical analysis, the results show that these components are positively interrelated and contribute meaningfully to an organization’s ability to absorb disruptions and adapt to uncertainty. Furthermore, the study highlights the framework’s applicability in public sector organizations, demonstrating how these antifragility enablers can be leveraged to enhance innovation management. The results suggest that stimulating one component reinforces the others, creating a holistic approach to fostering organizational resilience and driving innovation in challenging environments. Originality/value This study explores the structural components that act as critical enablers in developing antifragile capabilities within public sector organizations. In addition, it introduces and validates a practical tool, i.e. a questionnaire designed to assess antifragility in organizational settings, with clear implications for enhancing organizational development. The study also provides empirical evidence of the direct and indirect interrelationships among the components that enable antifragility, contributing valuable insights into how these elements foster resilience and innovation during disruption.