The recession has encouraged employers to involve themselves more in dialogue with staff and nurtured a sense of 'survival' spirit among employees, new research has found.

Despite doom and gloom headlines of recession and downturn, businesses leaders are responding to the economic volatility in constructive and innovative ways, according to Ashridge Consulting.

Ashridge surveyed leaders in a variety of business sectors and found in these adverse conditions businesses are discovering their original brand identity and making much more of an effort to get closer to the people in their organisations. In some cases, Ashridge found staff were growing closer and entering into a ‘survival mode'.

Kevin Power, a consultant at Ashridge, said: "While the media has significantly reduced the way business is responding, it inevitably only deals with what is newsworthy - the drama and despair, just one aspect of the full picture. We certainly have heard stories or organisations that are in very difficult positions, but overall the research revealed leaders and organisations involved in creative change and examples of remarkable levels of commitment and resilience."

While redundancies were a difficult subject for respondents to consider, they did not see job cuts as the end of a process - but rather the start of a new one and scarcer resources are leading to greater innovation.