Business

Organizing for High Reliability: Process of Collective Mindfulness

Published on by Jared Padgett

HRO enables adaptive learning and reliability simultaneously. The article includes a history of HRO theory and provides an explanation for where HRO fits in modern organizational development. The article includes a description of collective mindfulness, a theme recurring in HRO literature.

Weick, K., Sutcliffe, K., & Obstfeld, D. (2008). Organizing for High Reliability: Process of Collective Mindfulness. Crisis management, 3, 81-123.. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.465.1382&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=37

Also cited as:
Weick, K., Sutcliffe, K., & Obstfeld, D. (1999). Organizing for High Reliability: Process of Collective Mindfulness. Research in Organizational Behavior, 1.

Taking Personal Change Seriously: The Impact of Organizational Learning on Management Practice

Published on by Jared Padgett

 To detect an error is to acknowledge incompetence. Doing so publicly in a work setting is often seen as ‘career limiting,’ discouragement enough even if it wasn’t also personally threatening.

This article is a review of the impact the book, Organizational Learning, has had on management practice since its publication. Though there are flaws in the traditional approach to doing business in high-risk fields, the concept of a learning organization has appeal to both managers and academics.

The author discusses the effect of personal change on an organization. Until a manager is willing to change personally, any change attempted within the organization will be limited. A manager should be willing to admit mistakes, and should expect subordinates to do the same, without fear of retaliation or loss of esteem or status. This contributes to a learning culture, where people can learn from failures to prevent future incidents.

HRO principles and the concept of learning cultures are compatible. A true learning culture is hard to achieve, as it typically involves admitting inadequacies or failure. We are trained from an early age how to shift blame, and avoid punishment for failures. Learning organizations and HROs try to learn from mistakes, and do not assign blame for systemic failure. Assigning blame lowers the participation, and ultimately contributes to additional failure.

Senge, P. M. (2003). Taking personal change seriously: The impact of organizational learning on management practice. Academy of Management Executive, 17(2), 47-50. doi:10.5465/AME.2003.10025191

Innovation in Organizations from a Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective

Published on by Jared Padgett

In this article, organizations were described as being composed of people who undergo growth through individual innovation and self organization. An individual belongs to a number of larger, more complex groups, ranging from the immediate team in a department to the corporation or business entity as a whole, then ultimately society as a whole. Though the individual’s role changes in each of these complex layers, the underlying identity stays the same. The individual’s actions affect the whole organization, though the individual may be one person out of thousands of employees.

Organizations are complex systems, and each individual provides a unique opportunity for success or failure of the larger unit.

This article discusses organizational learning and development. The article shares similar concepts with Stacey (2007), who discussed the connection between organizational learning and chaos theory.

Carlisle, Y., & McMillan, E. (2006). Innovation in organizations from a complex adaptive systems perspective. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 8(1), 2–9. Retrieved from http://pepperdine.worldcat.org/oclc/173607996

Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The Challenge of Complexity

Published on by Jared Padgett

The author discussed the connection between chaos theory and organizational dynamics, and asserted that complexity theory has its roots at least in part in scientific chaos theory. The author looked at convection theory and discussed the change in the environment in a pot of water as it is placed over heat. When equilibrium is no longer achieved, the system undergoes change. In the end, the transformed water molecules still contain the basic properties of water, even after undergoing radical change. Change management and organizational learning are part of HRO theory. This study and other studies on chaos theory might contribute a scientific authority to the management aspect of HRO.

Stacey, R., (2007). Strategic management and organisational dynamics: The challenge of complexity. (5th ed.) England: Pearson Education Limited.

The Essence of Management Decision

Published on by Jared Padgett

The authors described the concept of management decisions in a business environment . They identify the tendency of research to focus on the decision maker, or even the decision itself, without really understanding the bigger picture. This article distinguished daily operation decision making from big picture decision making. These are broken into “Category I” and “Category II” decisions, with Category II being the bigger picture .

A Category II decision is important in the context of the business itself. It takes into account external factors, including competitors, precedence, and applicable laws. These decisions cannot be delegated, as there is an element of uncertainty, and the stakes are high. Category I decisions, in contrast, can be delegated. These decisions can be duplicated at regular intervals, do not impact the organization as a whole, and have less uncertainty.

In business, it is important to know when to delegate, and when the decision must be made personally, for the good of the firm. This article speaks to this difference, and explains how to tell which decisions are the sole responsibilities of upper management. By allowing the upper management to make the firm-wide decisions, smaller, routine decisions can be delegated to middle and lower managers. This can free valuable time and resources for the critical decisions.

HRO seeks to mitigate risk in the face of uncertainty. This falls into the Category II decisions as described in the article. Understanding the importance of the decisions, and preparing in advance for these decisions is important for an organization. Defining decisions as management decisions helps, but does not address the importance of relying on individuals with knowledge of the situation.

Harrison, E. F., Pelletier, M. A., (2000). The essence of management decision. Management Decision 38(7), pp.462 – 470. doi: 10.1108/00251740010373476