Description
Taking the fatal 2003 shuttle accident as a starting point, Starbuck (New York U.) and Farjoun (York U., Toronto) invited experts in technology, management, organizational behavior, and other fields to contribute insights about the disaster and the organizational lessons it suggested. Disasters, Starbuck and Farjoun write, dramatize how things can go wrong, particularly in large, complex social systems. While an investigation identified the direct technical cause of the accident, it also found that the crew's deaths were a product of long-standing organizational problems. Starbuck, Farjoun, and their contributors seek to illuminate what other organizations can learn from those problems. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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The book offers important insight relevant to Corporate, Government and Global organizations management in general. The internationally recognised authors tackle vital issues in decision making, how organizational risk is managed, how can technological and organizational complexities interact, what are the impediments for effective learning and how large, medium, and small organizations can, and in fact must, increase their resilience. Managers, organizational consultants, expert professionals, and training specialists; particularly those in high risk organizations, may find the issues covered in the book relevant to their daily work and a potential catalyst for thought and action. A timely analysis of the Columbia disaster and the organizational lessons that can be learned from it. Includes contributions from those involved in the Investigation Board report into the incident. Tackles vital issues such as the role of time pressures and goal conflict in decision making, and the impediments for effective learning. Examines how organizational risk is managed and how technological and organizational complexities interact. Assesses how large, medium, and small organizations can, and in fact must, increase their resilience. Questions our eagerness to embrace new technologies, yet reluctance to accept the risks of innovation. Offers a step by step understanding of the complex factors that led to disaster.
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