SUMMARY
Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify the key factors of SME’s resilience after Covid-19 pandemic.Theoretical framework: Recent literature of sensemaking has shown its impact on the organization’s action and decision making as it designed to deal with the uncertainty and ambiguity limiting SME competition (Wahyudi, 2018). The SMEs environment becomes an open and social system consisting of various interrelated and influencing aspects called technology that use certain methods to produce outputs. Therefore, it is difficult to separate the social system from the technical aspect.Design/methodology/approach: This research uses a systematic review and description to identify, evaluate and synthesize the developed knowledge. Literature sources used are in the form of papers related to SMEs, sensemaking, social, and technical systems published between 2011-2022.Findings: COVID-19 greatly affects and creates uncertainty in the world's economy, specifically for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This condition causes SMEs to maintain their existence in a complex environment. Organization needs to adapt to and integrate external conditions by empowering their sustainable resources. To capture business complexity, organizations need to develop sensemaking abilities to obtain a unity of knowledge and vision for socio-technical systems that optimize sustainable resources. Sensemaking ability and socio-technical arrangement tend to strengthen SMEs' resilience after the pandemic.Research, Practical & Social Implication: The sensemaking approach needs to be used as a cognitive framework to create knowledge that SMEs can use in a changing environment. This approach is required to be a guide for decision-making and organizational action because it integrates individual behavior through the interpretation of information and knowledge. Further research and study related to sensemaking capabilities and its impact on organization, shall be highlighted for organizational development.Originality/value: This research develops a model that integrates the sensemaking process in the socio-technical and environmental systems called the Sensemaking Socio-technical Arrangement (SSA) to answer SMEs' resilience. The method shows that this process tends to affect the resilience after the pandemic.