Preface vii

Acknowledgments xi

Chapter 1 Mismanaging the Unexpected 1

Chapter 2 The Infrastructure of Mindful Organizing 21

Chapter 3 Principle 1: Preoccupation with Failure 45

Chapter 4 Principle 2: Reluctance to Simplify 62

Chapter 5 Principle 3: Sensitivity to Operations 77

Chapter 6 Principle 4: Commitment to Resilience 94

Chapter 7 Principle 5: Deference to Expertise 112

Chapter 8 Organizational Culture and Reliability 129

Chapter 9 Sustaining Sustained Performance 148

Notes 163

About the Authors 195

Index 197

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.

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.