Managing the Unexpected

Managing the Unexpected PDF

Author: Karl E. Weick

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-09-15

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1118862414

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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.

Managing the Unexpected

Managing the Unexpected PDF

Author: Karl E. Weick

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-06

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 0470534230

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Since the first edition of Managing the Unexpected was published in 2001, the unexpected has become a growing part of our everyday lives. The unexpected is often dramatic, as with hurricanes or terrorist attacks. But the unexpected can also come in more subtle forms, such as a small organizational lapse that leads to a major blunder, or an unexamined assumption that costs lives in a crisis. Why are some organizations better able than others to maintain function and structure in the face of unanticipated change? Authors Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe answer this question by pointing to high reliability organizations (HROs), such as emergency rooms in hospitals, flight operations of aircraft carriers, and firefighting units, as models to follow. These organizations have developed ways of acting and styles of learning that enable them to manage the unexpected better than other organizations. Thoroughly revised and updated, the second edition of the groundbreaking book Managing the Unexpected uses HROs as a template for any institution that wants to better organize for high reliability.

Managing the Urgent and Unexpected

Managing the Urgent and Unexpected PDF

Author: Mr Stephen Wearne

Publisher: Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2014-10-28

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1472442520

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Sometimes unanticipated threats or opportunities create a situation in which work is required unexpectedly. On these occasions, such urgent and unexpected work demands an instant start, in contrast to the often lengthy processes of investigation, evaluation, development, selection and planning normal in businesses and public services before the start of a project. Managing the Urgent and Unexpected explores what is different managerially if work is unexpected, its implementation is urgent and an immediate start it is required. The authors draw on twelve cases ranging from the launch of the Freeview television system in the United Kingdom to the sifting and removal of the New York World Trade Center pile of debris following the 9/11 terrorist attack. They summarise how the response to each of these events was managed, demonstrate that opportunities may sometimes be created in the face of adversity and suggest how normal organizations can prepare to manage abnormal demands. Urgent and unexpected projects have to be rare in business or government to be economically and socially tolerable. And yet organizations can and should be prepared for the unexpected. The lessons offered here will help private and public organizations plan how to authorize and support future urgent work to take advantage of immediate new business opportunities or to protect or restore systems and services.

Family Conflict

Family Conflict PDF

Author: Heather Canary

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-07-10

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 0745670822

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Family Conflict takes a life course approach as it provides an accessible discussion of family conflict issues, processes, and outcomes. Chapters draw on recent theory and research regarding sub-systems and stages in family life to give readers resource-rich overviews of conflict in contemporary families. After the initial chapter presents the landscape of family conflict theory and research, chapters focus on conflict in couple relationships, parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and in stepfamilies. The book concludes with a discussion of how specific work, health, and disability challenges facing today’s families influence, and are influenced by, conflict interactions. Family Conflict will be essential reading for students of family communication, family researchers, professionals who work with families in various stages of life, and anyone who desires a deeper understanding of their own family conflict processes.

Discontinuous Innovation

Discontinuous Innovation PDF

Author: Peter Augsdörfer

Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company

Published: 2013-08-28

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 1783263881

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This book is based on the findings, issues and questions related to an ongoing decade-old research project named the Innovation Lab (www.innovation-lab.org). The research project focuses on discontinuous innovation in more than thirteen countries, most of which are European, and provides useful insights into its different challenges. It also raises several questions related to the subject, some of which are: how do firms pick up weak signals on emerging — and possibly radically different — innovation? What should firms do when these weak signals hit their “mainstream” process? What are the criteria for allocating resources to a strategic innovation project? What actions should firms take to avoid being left out by the “corporate immune system”? How should firms organize projects that often break existing rules and require new rules to be created? This book attempts to provide answers to the above mentioned questions by gathering information from the research project and also from firms that have tried exploring various ideas, models and insights to tackle discontinuous innovation. Written in a simple and accessible manner, this book will be of interest to both practitioners and academics alike.

Uncertainty and Surprise in Complex Systems

Uncertainty and Surprise in Complex Systems PDF

Author: Reuben R. McDaniel

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2005-03-11

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9783540237730

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Complexity science has been a source of new insight in physical and social systems and has demonstrated that unpredictability and surprise are fundamental aspects of the world around us. This book is the outcome of a discussion meeting of leading scholars and critical thinkers with expertise in complex systems sciences and leaders from a variety of organizations, sponsored by the Prigogine Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the Plexus Institute, to explore strategies for understanding uncertainty and surprise. Besides contributions to the conference, it includes a key digest by the editors as well as a commentary by the late nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine, "Surprises in half of a century". The book is intended for researchers and scientists in complexity science, as well as for a broad interdisciplinary audience of both practitioners and scholars. It will well serve those interested in the research issues and in the application of complexity science to physical and social systems.

The Power of Resilience

The Power of Resilience PDF

Author: Yossi Sheffi

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2015-09-11

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0262029790

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This work focuses on deep-tier risks, corporate social responsibility risks, cybersecurity risks, global raw material risks, long-term disruptions, business continuity planning, risk and disruption detection, and the potential for systemic disruptions.

Managing from the Heart

Managing from the Heart PDF

Author: Hyler Bracey

Publisher: Dell

Published: 2011-01-26

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0307778274

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From the brain trust at The Atlanta Consulting Group comes a simple method hailed as a revolution in management practice: learning to care. Caring isn’t a frill. It delivers results. And for some unenlightened managers, learning to care can be a matter of corporate life or death. Managing from the Heart is the story of Harry Hartwell, a composite character drawn from decades of the authors’ field experience on the front lines of management reform. Known by his staffers as “the Abominable No Man,” Harry’s remarkable transformation into a caring and compassionate manage offers an easy-to-apply business parable—and an absolutely painless, one-of-a-kind learning experience. Acquire the five principles of caring management. Your people will be glad you did. And so will everyone who keeps an eye on your bottom line. Praise for Managing from the Heart “Outstanding! Delivers the right message at a critical time.”—Lee A. Robbins, VP and CFO, Puritan Bennett “Five powerful principles, so simple they are arresting. Their application by every manager can catapult a company to new heights of greatness.”—Don M. Schrello, chairman, Schrello Direct Marketing, Inc. “Much needed!”—Norman Vincent Peale “Managing from the Heart is a gift you should give to yourself and your people. It outlines a beautiful philosophy that if applied will not only impact human satisfaction in your organization, but bottom line results.”—Kenneth Blanchard, Ph.D., co-author of The One Minute Manager

Mother Teresa, CEO

Mother Teresa, CEO PDF

Author: Ruma Bose

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2011-07-05

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1605099538

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When most people think of Mother Teresa, they think of a saint—a spiritual hero of extraordinary humanitarian accomplishments, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. But Mother Teresa was also the leader of one of the world’s largest and most successful organizations: the Missionaries of Charity. Since founding it in 1948 she has raised millions of dollars and, with over a million volunteers in more than 100 countries, it remains one of the most recognized brands in the world. How did one nun who never received any formal education in business build such an impressive global organization? Frank, realistic, and firmly grounded in practicality, Mother Teresa’s leadership style helped to inspire and organize people across the world. This book shares ten essential leadership principles drawn from Mother Teresa’s example and applies them to today’s business world. Authors Ruma Bose, an entrepreneur who volun- teered with Mother Teresa, and Lou Faust, a leading business expert, are the first to examine her in this light—as a leader whose management style and dedication to a singular vision led to one of the world’s most unlikely success stories. Mother Teresa may have been a saint, but her spectacular success was not a product of divine providence. Her genius was the simplicity of her vision and her dedication to its implementation. It was in the way she treated her people, refusing to distance herself from the everyday work of a typical sister of the Missionaries of Charity. It was in how she handled tough choices—like accepting donations from brutal Haitian dictator François “Papa Doc” Duvalier. These were the principles that made her the great leader of a global organization, and they can be applied by anyone in any organization—no sainthood required.