From Mission to Mindset: How Organizational Purpose Shapes First Responder Resilience-Building

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.