...inside box canyons, or “small ravine or canyon with steep walls on three sides allowing access or egress only through the mouth of the canyon” (Wikipedia) and located on a major river. Gusting winds up the mouth of the canyon contributed to the fire blowing up and increase in size in just a matter of moments. On both fires, the practice of downhill fire line construction was used down steep mountain sides which hampered the fire crews in escaping uphill when the fire began to overrun them. In this paper, I plan on examining the organizational, executive, and regulatory failures that led to the demise of the fourteen firefighters on the South Canyon Fire and to address the major question, “Are wildfire fighting fatalities inevitable ‘normal accidents’?” South Canyon Fire Event In 1994, Colorado experienced a year of extreme drought and in the summer months, long periods of low humidity and record high temperatures. Between June 30th and July 2nd, dry lightning storms had ignited over forty fires in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Grand Junction District. One of those fires started was located seven miles west of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on a ridge which was paralleled by two deep canyons or drainages. On July 3rd, the fire was reported to the BLM...
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...Every living human being regardless of age, race or location is unpredictably vulnerable to various types, factions and fractions of creeping, slow-burn and sudden physical and non-physical crises. Crises are caused by many factors and the consequences are independent of any socio-geographical variables. A crisis is a crucial or decisive point or situation; an unstable condition as in political, social or economic affairs involving an impending abrupt or decisive change; a sudden change in the cause of a disease or fever toward either improvement or deterioration; an emotionally stressful event or traumatic change in a person’s life; a point in a story or drama when a conflict reaches its highest tension and must be resolved. Crises generally are about victims, perceived victims or people who are affected by what happened. When we are not sufficiently educated or informed about the new trends and best practices in Crisisology, there is predisposition that: 1. Faced with a crisis, we feel frightened, confused, angry and helpless; 2. Judgment may be affected, sometimes creating a tendency to consider ideas that would normally be dismissed; 3. Individual’s personality trait becomes exaggerated (for example, an anxious person becomes very anxious); 4. A siege mentality sets in with those in charge withdrawing, doing nothing, saying nothing and becoming inert; 5. The search begins for a scapegoat; 6. Instability sets in and decision makers may not adopt the latest...
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...COLLECTED VIEWS ON COMPLEXITY IN SYSTEMS JOSEPH M. SUSSMAN JR East Professor Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts April 30, 2002 The term “complexity” is used in many different ways in the systems domain. The different uses of this term may depend upon the kind of system being characterized, or perhaps the disciplinary perspective being brought to bear. The purpose of this paper is to gather and organize different views of complexity, as espoused by different authors. The purpose of the paper is not to make judgments among various complexity definitions, but rather to draw together the richness of various intellectual perspectives about this concept, in order to understand better how complexity relates to the concept of engineering systems. I have either quoted directly or done my best to properly paraphrase these ideas, apologizing for when I have done so incorrectly or in a misleading fashion. I hope that this paper will be useful as we begin to think through the field of engineering systems. The paper concludes with some “short takes” -- pungent observations on complexity by various scholars -- and some overarching questions for subsequent discussion. AUTHOR A THEORY OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS Edward O. Wilson Herbert Simon SOURCE Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge “The Architecture of Complexity”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 106, No. 6, December...
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...Canot, killing 47 passengers. Eight minutes earlier at 2:45 a.m., a towboat, pushing six barges and lost in a dense fog, unknowingly bumped into the Big Bayou Canot Bridge knocking the track out of alignment. The train, traveling at a speed of 72 mph in the dense fog, derailed as a result, burying the engine and four cars five stories deep in the mud and muck of Big Bayou Canot.4,7,8,10,12,13 Bruce Barrett, a locomotive engineer, has described what might have been occurring in the cab of Amtrak engine Number 819 prior to the wreck.2 This scenario is based upon my 17 years’ experience as a locomotive engineer on a major western railroad and upon the compilation of bits and pieces of data from public records and accounts of the accident. Engineer Michael Vincent was at the controls of the two-week-old General Electric “AMDCopyright © 1999 by the Case Research Journal, H. Richard Eisenbeis, Sue Hanks, and Bruce Barrett. All rights reserved. 103” locomotive. Engineer Billy Rex Hall was in the cab with...
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...Big Bayou Canot, killing 47 passengers. Eight minutes earlier at 2:45 a.m., a towboat, pushing six barges and lost in a dense fog, unknowingly bumped into the Big Bayou Canot Bridge knocking the track out of alignment. The train, traveling at a speed of 72 mph in the dense fog, derailed as a result, burying the engine and four cars five stories deep in the mud and muck of Big Bayou Canot.4,7,8,10,12,13 Bruce Barrett, a locomotive engineer, has described what might have been occurring in the cab of Amtrak engine Number 819 prior to the wreck.2 This scenario is based upon my 17 years’ experience as a locomotive engineer on a major western railroad and upon the compilation of bits and pieces of data from public records and accounts of the accident. Engineer Michael Vincent was at the controls of the two-week-old General Electric “AMDCopyright © 1999 by the Case Research Journal, H. Richard Eisenbeis, Sue Hanks, and Bruce Barrett. All rights reserved. 103” locomotive. Engineer Billy Rex Hall was in the cab with Vincent along with Ernest...
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...The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster Karl E. Weick . Reprinted from The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster by Karl E. Weick published in Administrative Science Quarterly Volume 38 (1993): 628652 by permission of Administrative Science Quarterly. © 1993 by Cornell University 00018392/93/3804-0628. This is a revised version of the Katz- Newcomb lecture presented at the University of Michigan, April 23-24, 1993. The 1993 lecture celebrated the life of Rensis Likert, the founding director of the Institute for Social Relations. All three people honored at the lecture-Dan Katz, Ted Newcomb, and Ren Likert-were born in 1903, which meant this lecture also celebrated their 90th birthdays. I am grateful to Lance Sandelands, Debra Meyerson, Robert Sutton, Doug Cowherd, and Karen Weick for their help in revising early drafts of this material. I also want to thank John Van Maanen, J. Richard Hackman, Linda Pike, and the anonymous ASQ reviewers for their he lp with later drafts. The death of 13 men in the Mann Gulch fire disaster, made famous in Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, is analyzed as the interactive disintegration of role structure and sensemaking in a minimal organization. Four potential sources of resilience that make groups less vulnerable to disruptions of sensemaking are proposed to forestall disintegration, including improvisation, virtual role systems, the attitude of wisdom, and norms of respectful interaction...
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...http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9728.html We ship printed books within 1 business day; personal PDFs are available immediately. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System Linda T. Kohn, Janet M. Corrigan, and Molla S. Donaldson, Editors; Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine ISBN: 0-309-51563-7, 312 pages, 6 x 9, (2000) This PDF is available from the National Academies Press at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9728.html Visit the National Academies Press online, the authoritative source for all books from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council: • Download hundreds of free books in PDF • Read thousands of books online for free • Explore our innovative research tools – try the “Research Dashboard” now! • Sign up to be notified when new books are published • Purchase printed books and selected PDF files Thank you for downloading this PDF. If you have comments, questions or just want more information about the books published by the National Academies Press, you may contact our customer service department tollfree at 888-624-8373, visit us online, or send an email to feedback@nap.edu. This book plus thousands more are available at http://www.nap.edu. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF File are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Distribution, posting, or copying...
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...Final Report on the Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Deepwater Horizon Study Group March 1, 2011 The Deepwater Horizon Study Group (DHSG) was formed by members of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management (CCRM) in May 2010 in response to the blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010. A fundamental premise in the DHSG work is: we look back to understand the why‘s and how‘s of this disaster so we can better understand how best to go forward. The goal of the DHSG work is defining how to best move forward – assessing what major steps are needed to develop our national oil and gas resources in a reliable, responsible, and accountable manner. Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster This Page Intentionally Left Blank Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster In Memoriam Jason Anderson Senior tool pusher Dewey Revette Driller Stephen Curtis Assistant driller Donald Clark Assistant driller Dale Burkeen Crane operator Karl Kleppinger Roughneck Adam Weise Roughneck Shane Roshto Roughneck Wyatt Kemp Derrick man Gordon Jones Mud engineer Blair Manuel Mud engineer 1 Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster In Memoriam The Environment 2 Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster Table of Contents In Memoriam....................................................................
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...Commonwealth Executive Masters in Business Administration / Public Administration CEMBA 553 Management in Organisations Copyright © Commonwealth of Learning, 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this course may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior permission in writing from: The Commonwealth of Learning 1285 West Broadway Suite 600 Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 CANADA e-mail: info@col.org Dean Institute of Distance Learning New Library Building Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kumasi, Ghana Phone: +233-51-60013 Fax: +233-51-60014 E-mail: idldean@kvcit.org Web: www.fdlknust.edu.gh i 553 - Management in Organisations Learning Objectives Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to: • • • • Explain the basic premises of management and public administration Compare different theories and approaches of organisation Distinguish behavioural patterns, advantages, disadvantages, and dysfunctions of bureaucracies Categorize the different management trends in the work environment. Topics • Introduction to Management and Organisational Behaviour • Individual and Group Behaviour in Organisations • Decision- making and Communications in Organisations • Leadership, Organisational Structure & Environment • Power and Politics • Organisational Culture • Organisational Change • Conflict and Negotiations ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction................................................................................
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...Outliers THE S T O R Y OF S U C C E S S MALCOLM G LAD W E L L # 1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink $27.99 $ 3 0 . 9 9 in C a n a d a Why d o s o m e p e o p l e succeed far more than others? T h e r e is a story that is usually told a b o u t extremely successful p e o p l e , a story that focuses o n intelligence a n d ambition. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell a r g u e s that the true story o f s u c c e s s is very different, a n d that if we want to u n d e r s t a n d h o w s o m e p e o p l e thrive, we s h o u l d s p e n d m o r e time l o o k i n g around them — at s u c h things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth d a t e . T h e story o f s u c c e s s is m o r e c o m p l e x — a n d a lot m o r e interesting — than it initially a p p e a r s . Outliers e x p l a i n s w h a t the B e a t l e s a n d Bill G a t e s have in c o m m o n , the e x t r a o r d i n a r y s u c c e s s o f A s i a n s at m a t h , the h i d d e n a d v a n t a g e s o f star athletes, why all t o p N e w York lawyers have the s a m e r é s u m é , a n d the r e a s o n y o u ' v e never h e a r d o f the w o r l d ' s s m a r t e s t m a n — all in terms o f g e n eration, family, c u l t u r e , a n d c l a s s . It matters w h a t year y o u were b o r n if y o u want to b e a S i l i c o n Valley billionaire, G l a d w e l l a r g u e s , a n d it matters w h e r e y o u w e r e b o r n if y o u want to b e a s u c cessful p i l o t . T...
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...Review of Marketing Research Review of Marketing Research VOLUME 1 Naresh K. Malhotra Editor M.E.Sharpe Armonk, New York London, England 4 AUTHOR Copyright © 2005 by M.E.Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, New York 10504. Library of Congress ISSN: 1548-6435 ISBN 0-7656-1304-2 (hardcover) Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1984. ~ MV (c) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CHAPTER TITLE 5 REVIEW OF MARKETING RESEARCH EDITOR: NARESH K. MALHOTRA, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Editorial Board Rick P. Bagozzi, Rice University Ruth Bolton, Arizona State University George Day, University of Pennsylvania Morris B. Holbrook, Columbia University Michael Houston, University of Minnesota Shelby Hunt, Texas Tech University Dawn Iacobucci, Northwestern University Arun K. Jain, University at Buffalo, State University of New York Barbara Kahn, University of Pennsylvania Wagner Kamakura, Duke University Donald Lehmann, Columbia University Robert F. Lusch, University of Arizona Kent B. Monroe, University of Illinois, Urbana A. Parasuraman, University of Miami William Perreault, University of North Carolina Robert A. Peterson, University...
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...Fourth Edition Reframing Organizations Artistry, Choice, and Leadership LEE G. BOLMAN TERRENCE E. DEAL B est- se l l i n g a u t h o rs of LEADING WITH SOUL FOURTH EDITION Reframing Organizations Artistry, Choice, and Leadership Lee G. Bolman • Terrence E. Deal Copyright © 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741—www.josseybass.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-6468600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-7486011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Credits are on page 528. Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is read. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer...
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...Social Change and Modernity Edited By Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford © 1992 The Regents of the University of California INTRODUCTION Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser Haferkamp is grateful to Angelika Schade for her fruitful comments and her helpful assistance in editing this volume and to Geoff Hunter for translating the first German version of parts of the Introduction; Smelser has profited from the research assistance and critical analyses given by Joppke. 1. Social Change and Modernity Those who organized the conference on which this volume is based—including the editors— decided to use the terms "social change" and "modernity" as the organizing concepts for this project. Because these terms enjoy wide usage in contemporary sociology and are general and inclusive, they seem preferable to more specific terms such as "evolution" "progress," "differentiation," or even "development," many of which evoke more specific mechanisms, processes, and directions of change. Likewise, we have excluded historically specific terms such as "late capitalism" and "industrial society" even though these concepts figure prominently in many of the contributions to this volume. The conference strategy called for a general statement of a metaframework for the study of social change within which a variety of more specific theories could be identified. 2. Theories of Social Change Change is such an evident feature of...
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...ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR MBA 1.2 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR SYLLABUS UNIT 1 Introduction to Organisational Behaviour, Meaning; Elements; Need; Approaches; Models; Global scenario. UNIT 2 Individual Behaviour; Personality; Learning; Attitudes; Perception; Motivation; Ability; Their relevant organizational behaviour. UNIT 3 Group dynamics; Group norms; Group cohesiveness; Group Behance to organizational behaviour. UNIT 4 Leadership Styles; Qualities; Organisational communication; Meaning importance, process, barriers; Methods to reduce barriers; Principle of effective communication. UNIT 5 Stress; Meaning; Types; Sources; Consequences; Management of stress. Power and Politics; Definition; Types of Powers; Sources; Characteristics; Effective use of Power. UNIT 6 Organisational Dynamics; Organisational design; Organisational effectiveness; Meaning, approaches; Organisational culture; Meaning, significance; Organisational Climate; Implications on organizational behaviour. Organisational Change; Meaning; Nature; Causes of change; Resistance of change; Management of change; Organisational development; Meaning; OD Interventions. REFERENCE BOOKS 1. Fred Luthans, Organisational Behaviour, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1995. 2. Stephen P. Bobbins, Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall, 1997. 3. Keith Davis, Human Behaviour at Wor/c,.-M.cGraw Hill Book Co., 1991. 4. Gregory Moorehead and R.S. Griffin, Organisational...
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.... Organization Theory Challenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of work that today qualify as constituting the subject of organisational theory. Whilst their writing is accessible and engaging, their approach is scholarly and serious. It is so easy for students (and indeed others who should know better) to trivialize this very problematic and challenging subject. This is not the case with the present book. This is a book that deserves to achieve a wide readership. Professor Stephen Ackroyd, Lancaster University, UK This new textbook usefully situates organization theory within the scholarly debates on modernism and postmodernism, and provides an advanced introduction to the heterogeneous study of organizations, including chapters on phenomenology, critical theory and psychoanalysis. Like all good textbooks, the book is accessible, well researched and readers are encouraged to view chapters as a starting point for getting to grips with the field of organization theory. Dr Martin Brigham, Lancaster University, UK McAuley et al. provide a highly readable account...
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