Managing the Unexpected: Sustained Performance in a Complex World - Hardcover

Weick, Karl E.; Sutcliffe, Kathleen M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1118862414 ISBN 13: 9781118862414

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2015

Synopsis

Improve your company's ability to avoid or manage crises

Managing the Unexpected, Third Edition is a thoroughly revised text that offers an updated look at the groundbreaking ideas explored in the first and second editions. Revised to reflect events emblematic of the unique challenges that organizations have faced in recent years, including bank failures, intelligence failures, quality failures, and other organizational misfortunes, often sparked by organizational actions, this critical book focuses on why some organizations are better able to sustain high performance in the face of unanticipated change. High reliability organizations (HROs), including commercial aviation, emergency rooms, aircraft carrier flight operations, and firefighting units, are looked to as models of exceptional organizational preparedness. This essential text explains the development of unexpected events and guides you in improving your organization for more reliable performance.

"Expect the unexpected" is a popular mantra for a reason: it's rooted in experience. Since the dawn of civilization, organizations have been rocked by natural disasters, civil unrest, international conflict, and other unexpected crises that impact their ability to function. Understanding how to maintain function when catastrophe strikes is key to keeping your organization afloat.

• Explore the many different kinds of unexpected events that your organization may face
• Consider updated case studies and research
• Discuss how highly reliable organizations are able to maintain control during unexpected events
• Discover tactics that may bolster your organization's ability to face the unexpected with confidence

Managing the Unexpected, Third Edition offers updated, valuable content to professionals who want to strengthen the preparedness of their organizations—and confidently face unexpected challenges.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

All organizations are challenged by the unexpected–natural disasters, civil unrest, international conflict, extreme economic fluctuations, and other unforeseen crises that affect their ability to function. Why are some organizations better able to endure and adapt when faced with unanticipated obstacles? Understanding how to maintain function when catastrophe strikes is key to keeping any organization viable.

In this thoroughly revised and updated third edition of Managing the Unexpected, Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe explore their groundbreaking ideas in light of the unique challenges organizations have been faced with in recent years including bank failures, intelligence failures, quality failures, and other organizational breakdowns, which are often self-inflicted. This vital resource clearly demonstrates why some organizations have the capacity to sustain high performance in the face of unforeseen change. High reliability organizations (HROs) such as commercial aviation, emergency rooms, aircraft carrier flight operations, and firefighting units are looked to as models of exceptional organizational preparedness. Managing the Unexpected explains how these HROs developed ways of acting and styles of learning that enable them to manage the unexpected better than other organizations.

This updated edition explores the essential elements of high reliability organizing in a variety of settings including banking, museum curating, latent fingerprint identification, aircraft piloting, and automobile manufacturing, and puts the emphasis on the foundational qualities and principles that define HROs. Expanding on the first two editions of their classic work, Weick and Sutcliffe offer an in-depth discussion of the complexity of five basic principles–failure, simplification, operations, resilience, and expertise. As they explain, considerable commitment and competence are necessary, both to deploy these essential principles in the face of the unexpected and to organize around them in order to sustain performance. The revised third edition also contains a broader range of cases that demonstrate how mindful organizing can be directed to enhance sustained reliable performance.

The third edition of Managing the Unexpected is a guide for exploring the various kinds of unexpected events that can unsettle any organization and includes a template that can bolster an organization's ability to anticipate and remain resilient when managing unexpected disruptions.

From the Back Cover

THE CLASSIC GUIDE FOR IMPROVING YOUR COMPANY'S ABILITY TO AVOID OR MANAGE CRISES

Floods, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, bank failures, recessions, and environmental disasters. Organizations are challenged with the unexpected on a routine basis. But why do some organizations manage to function in the face of unanticipated change while others fail?

Since it was first published in 2001, Managing the Unexpected has become the definitive resource that offers a guide for any organization that wants to maintain function and structure when confronted with the unexpected. Thoroughly revised, the third edition of the groundbreaking Managing the Unexpected contains new examples and updated information that reflect the catastrophic events that have challenged organizations in recent years, such as the financial crisis and bank failures and major environmental disasters.

Drawing on illustrative examples from high reliability organizations (HROs)–emergency rooms in hospitals, flight operations of aircraft carriers, and firefighting units–Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe reveal how these organizations developed the ways of acting and styles of learning that give them the confidence to manage the unexpected better than other organizations. This revised edition also offers an in-depth look at the five principles that lay the foundation for highly reliable organizations.

Filled with useful advice and compelling examples, the third edition of Managing the Unexpected offers any institution a guide for becoming an organization that is highly reliable and able to withstand unanticipated disruptions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1118862414
• ISBN 13: 9781118862414
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 224