Abstract
This paper presents a discussion of determinants of the capacity of companies to deal with unexpected events and an approach to the creation of a company’s Early Warning System. Capacity determinants discussed include: lack of functional stupidity, paradigms, general trust and awareness of fragility indicators. The results of research based on an explorative questionnaire are presented for two small Swiss and German companies. The working hypothesis for the research is that flatter organizational structures possess higher capacity to create an Early Warning System than more hierarchical organizational structures. There is some weak evidence confirming this hypothesis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akerlof, G.A.: The market for “lemons”: quality, uncertainty and the market mechanism. Quart. J. Econ. 84, 488–500 (1970)
Alvesson, M., Spicer, A.: A stupidity-based theory or organizations. J. Manag. Stud. 49(7), 1186–1220 (2012)
Alvesson, M., Sköldberg, K.: Reflexive Methodology. Sage, London (2009)
Beck, H.: Irren ist nuetzlich. Carl Hausner Verlag, Muenchen (2017)
Bertoncel, T., Erenda, I., Pejić Bach, M., Roblek, V., Meško, M.: A managerial early warning system at a smart factory: an intuitive decision-making perspective. Syst. Res. Behav. Sci. 35, 406–416 (2018)
Boltanski, L., Thévenot, L.: On Justification. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2006)
Casti, J.L.: X-Events – Complexity Overload and the Collapse of Everything. Harper Collins Publishers, New York (2013)
Furubotn, E.G., Richter, R.: Institutions and Economic Theory - The Contributions of the New Institutional Economics. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor (1997)
Gladwin, T.N., Kennelly, J.J., Krause, T.-S.: Shifting paradigms for sustainable development: implementations for management theory and research. Acad. Manag. Rev. 20(4), 874–907 (1995)
Hamel, G.: The Future of Management. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston (2007)
Harford, T.: Adapt – Why Success Always Starts with Failure. Little, Brown, London (2011)
Mandelbrot, M., Hudson, R.L.: The (mis)behaviour of Markets. Profile Books, London (2008)
Meadows, D.: Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development. The Sustainability Institute, Hartland (1998)
Meadows, D.: Leverage Points – Places to Intervene in a System. The Sustainability Institute, Hartland (1999)
Nikander, I.O.: Early warnings: a phenomenon in project management. Doctoral dissertation. Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Espoo, Finland (2002). http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2002/isbn9512258889/isbn9512258889.pdf
Platje, J., Will, M., Van Dam, Y.: A fragility approach to sustainability – researching effects of education. vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print (2019). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-11-2018-0212
Posner, K.: Stalking the Black Swan: Research and Decision Making in a World of Extreme Volatility. Columbia Business School Publishing (2010)
Raiser, M.: Informal institutions, social capital and economic transition: reflections on a neglected dimension. EBRD Working paper 25, London (1997)
Raiser, M.: Trust in transition, EBRD Working paper 39, London (1999)
Sterman, J.D.: Business Dynamics: System Thinking and Modelling for a Complex World. Irwin/McGraw Hill, Boston (2000)
Taleb, N.N.: The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Penguin Books, London (2007)
Taleb, N.N.: Antifragile - Things that Gain from Disorder. Penguin Books, London (2012)
Taleb, N.N., Read, R., Douady, R., Norman, J., Bar-Yam, Y.: The Precautionary Principle: fragility and Black Swans from policy actions, Extreme risk initiative – NYU School of Engineering Working Paper Series (2014). https://arxiv.org/pdf/1410.5787.pdf
Trzeciak, S., Rivers, E.P.: Emergency department overcrowding in the United States: an emerging threat to patient safety and public health. Emerg. Med. J. 20(5), 402–405 (2003)
Williamson, O.E.: Transaction cost economics: how it works; where it is needed. De Economist 146(1), 23–58 (1998)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Platje, J.(. (2019). The Capacity of Companies to Create an Early Warning System for Unexpected Events – An Explorative Study. In: Nguyen, N., Kowalczyk, R., Mercik, J., Motylska-Kuźma, A. (eds) Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence XXXIV. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11890. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60555-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60555-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-60554-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-60555-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)