When systems fail

Globally, we are designing increasing numbers of organizations that need to be continuously error-free. This paper shows how organizations and systems of organizations are slow learners when it comes to developing strategies to protect them from errors. To illustrate, three major catastrophes in a s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organizational dynamics 2001-01, Vol.29 (3), p.179-191
Main Authors: Roberts, Karlene H, Bea, Robert G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Corporate management
Errors
Organization theory
Strategic planning
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Globally, we are designing increasing numbers of organizations that need to be continuously error-free. This paper shows how organizations and systems of organizations are slow learners when it comes to developing strategies to protect them from errors. To illustrate, three major catastrophes in a single industry and one major success in another industry are examined. While physical structure incapabilities contributed to the failures, 5 managerial building blocks contributed as much or more. They are organization structural failure, an emphasis on efficiency as opposed to reliability, core competencies that turned into incompetencies, lack of heedful interaction. Concluding remarks point out issues managers of risk-mitigating organizations need to incorporate into their organizational cultural norms.
ISSN:0090-2616
1873-3530
DOI:10.1016/S0090-2616(01)00025-0